Black powder burning hillbilly here. Lol

[Bowweasel]

Trying to work up the most accurate load for my TC Hawken 50 cal. So far most accurate load 40 gr. 2ff Swedish powder. .10 patch and .490 round ball. Would this b an effective hunting load. Thank uall for your input

 

[nit wit]

Welcome from Maine. Yes it would at 50 yards or closer.
Nit Wit

 

[Bowweasel]

Welcome from Maine. Yes it would at 50 yards or closer.
Nit Wit

Thank you. In your experience. What would be a good charge to start at with 2ff and approximately what would the max charge be

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Trying to work up the most accurate load for my TC Hawken 50 cal. So far most accurate load 40 gr. 2ff Swedish powder. .10 patch and .490 round ball. Would this b an effective hunting load. Thank uall for your input

You might want to check your local regulations. For example next door here in Maryland, 40 grains of powder would not be legal for deer. 60 grains is the minimum in a rifle.

The old school rule is to start with grains equal to your caliber. So in your case that would be 50 grains. AND you can use 3Fg if you want, without worry.
Then you test your load in 10 grain increments, so shoot 60 grains, 70 grains, etc looking for a very accurate loading.

Nothing wrong with 40 grains either, so long as it's legal, and so long as you're close enough that the bullet does its job.

I started with 60 grains of 3Fg simply because I can't use 50 grains for deer in my state. I found that 70 grains was very accurate, and that I got no advantage out as far as 100 yards by going heavier, when using a patched, round ball. When I switched over from a .50 to a .54..., I had similar results so continued to use that as my main charge.

Barrels differ in what works so you will find folks who do better with 80 grains and even with 90 grains. To each their own. The deer don't know the difference, unless the load is inaccurate. I'd say for now, there's no reason to stress out your shoulder nor your stock by going over 90 grains..., even if you have a powder measure that will go as high as 120 grains.

Change calibers or change projectiles, and the powder load will likely change. Some of the folks use .62 rifles, or even larger smoothbores, and so use larger powder loads too.

LD

 

[Hammond79]

I have read, on here and other places that some rifles have 2x sweet spot accuracy loads. Usually a fairly low one and another roughly double that. With that in mind, you might try 80 grains. That would be a more common hunting load.

 

[user 31232]

Hello from Indiana!

 

[longcruise]

I guess I've killed more animals with a 50 tc than any other firearm. For me the most practical and reliable load was 70 grains powder and .018 patch. 3f or 2f both good. Early on, always a 490 ball but later and now a 495 ball, 70 grains 2f or 3f and a JoAnnes fabric #40 drill patch.

I think your .010 patch is on the thin side. Often a too thin patch shoots fine up close but the accuracy can degrade at longer distance and way out of proportion to the expected or computed MOA.

 

[Colonial Boy]

Welcome from New England.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Welcome from Upstate NY.