Favorite .54 GPR Loads?

[bowbender68]

I just bought a new .54 Lyman GPR and would like to get some thoughts on your favorite whitetail roundball hunting loads. I plan to use Goex fffg, but all of the load data in the manual are for ffg loads. What is your favorite load for deer?

One other question.....when I hook the barrel into the breech plug, it did not want to seat all the way down into the fore grip, until I loosened up the screw on top of the tang quite a bit. Now the tang is not flush with the top of the stock. Is this typical, or does it need some additional inletting? Thanks for any help. As you can tell, this is my first blackpowder rifle!

 

[tx50cal]

My 54 likes 100 gr FFg which is about 85 gr FFFg. As for the fit problem, take the barrel out and then remove the tang. Make sure that there are not any wood shavings or other crud under the tang. You might have to resort to filing on the square in the tang or on the top of the hook. Check out everything before you break out the file. Also look at the wood in the tang area closely, make sure that the hook is not contacting anywhere under the tang. Hope this helps.
Rob

 

[BrownBear]

You'll probably discover that many of us here on the site use very similar loads. My choice happens to be 90 grains of 3f Goex or the same volume of Pyrodex P. I don't particularly like the extra fouling with either Goex 2f or Pyrodex RS, but with either I'm using 100 grains when I use it.

You didn't ask, but it's a very good idea to remove the nipple from your GPR and huck it very far out into a very deep lake. They stink. Switch to a hotshot from TC or other sources or a standard such as those from Butler Creek, and you'll never experience the misfires or slow fires that seem typically to happen after half a dozen shots or so with Lyman's standard nipples.

On the tang issue, you've already received a good suggestion. For more guidance I'd go to the Lyman site and ferret out the instructions for their kits. In there you'll find good descriptions and illustrations. If it's not on the site, call Lyman and ask for a copy of the kit instro's, (that is unless they'd like to see the rifle.) I suspect they'd much rather send you a pamphlet than play round trip with a rifle.

 

[bajabuc]

Seems like I must shoot light loads. I been using 70g fff. I'm not trying to reach out and touch someone. I'd rather be close and place my shot. 70g works fine for taking out the second or third vertabra, and the animal is going nowhere. The last time I went with a group and one of the other guys handed me the vertabra with a hole clean through it. It was laying on the ground about 20 feet away.

 

[cowpoke1955]

I think mrfishnhunt gave you some good info about your barrel. BrownBear also gave some good advise about finding the instructions for the GPR kit. I also agree with the replacement nipple. That's the only thing I replaced on my .54 GPR percussion in 28 years. This rifle was so good, my wife bought me a .54 GPR flint kit a few years ago for Christmas. My favorite load is a .530 ball, patch made from pillow ticking from Wal-Mart, lube made from 1 part Ballistol and 4 parts water, and 80 grains of FFg. Puts me right on at 50 yards. 90 grains of FFg puts me on target at 100 yards. So many recommendations for FFFg, I'm going to have to try it. You have a great rifle in an excellent caliber. Take care of it and it will serve you a lifetime. Good luck :thumbsup: .

 

[BrownBear]

Seems like I must shoot light loads. I been using 70g fff. I'm not trying to reach out and touch someone. I'd rather be close and place my shot. 70g works fine for taking out the second or third vertabra, and the animal is going nowhere. The last time I went with a group and one of the other guys handed me the vertabra with a hole clean through it. It was laying on the ground about 20 feet away.

I think you're right on the money with grains, Hairy- It's plenty. When I originally started with mine I worked all the way up to the max of 120 grains of 2f or 100 grains of 3f, just to see what was going on. I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to shoot out to 100 yards.

I settled back down to the 90 grain 3f charge because it shot just as well and was more comfortable. But since I was working with the primitive sights, I went ahead and sighted in at 75 yards with that charge.

Time and use showed me that I wasn't going to use the 100 yard capability (missed the only long shot I tried), but the sights were already filed for the 90 grain charge. I still need to see where it's shooting with a little less powder, then adjust the sights (i.e., replace the front sight and file it to sight in again) if needed.

I certainly don't need so much powder for my hunting, but so far I've been kinda lazy about changing.

Hey Bowbender- I don't know if it's legal there in Ohio, but up here I use a reduced charge (35 grains) of 3f for a small game and plinking load. It's right on the money at 25 and 50 yards, and it really smacks snoeshoe hare heads. Using your new rifle for head shooting small game will get you in the field with the rifle lots, teaching you the things you need to know about field use rather than range use. And doing it a whole lot faster than you'll manage with a few days of big game hunting per year.

 

[longcruise]

One other question.....when I hook the barrel into the breech plug, it did not want to seat all the way down into the fore grip, until I loosened up the screw on top of the tang quite a bit. Now the tang is not flush with the top of the stock. Is this typical, or does it need some additional inletting?

First, remove the tang and the barrel and try the metal to metal fit of the barrel and tang. If the barrel and tang slike together without obstruction and the surfaces of barrel top and tang top are even, then the problem is not likely the metal to metal fit. The fact that it fits when the tang bolt is lossened might indicate that the barrel channel beneath the point where the two join together is a bit too shallow. But, it could also be that the tang inlet is a bit too deep near the joint or that the tang is slightly bent down. Try assembling the tang and barrel together and then placing them in the inlet as one piece and see if that gives up any clues.

Your description gives a clue to a simple fix; put a shim between the tang and the inlet. Keep increasing the thickness of the shim until the barrel will fit correctly. This is how I solved the same problem on a TC hawken after I got a new stock from TC. Long term solution is to glass bed under the tang to get it into the right position but the shim actually suits me so it's left that way.

Stop, Look & Listen before you cross this street. Applying the wrong fix before thinking it through could create a new problem!

70 to 120 grains all work good for me once the barrel is broken in.

You might consider posting this question in the gun building section.

 

[Many Klatch]

Bowbender, before you do anything to the rifle try this. When you reassemble the rifle next time; when the barrel is as tight as it is going to get and still needs to go just that hair more. Tap the butt on the floor gently a couple of times to see if it won't just snug in there on it's own.

Many Klatch