• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Hawkens green mt barrel

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
973
Reaction score
370
Purchased a Green mountain barrel for my TC Hawken about two years ago. Just getting round to trying it out and have to say that I am a bit disappointed.

Now the 32 inch length is cool for sure. Looks rite. The replacement kit fit my rifle perfectly. TOW is a great resource for sure.

Took the 54 (my favorite cal.) Out couple weeks ago to smoke it up and see how good it would shoot. Having been shooting my flint smoothy, first thing that struck me was the tough loading after the first shot. This persisted using 80 grains Old E powder , .530 hornaday balls and .015 cotton patch lubed with my standby home brew lube.

Persistent hard loading was dismissed with the assumption that I been spoiled by the smoothy. Pretty good accuracy at 35 yards being around 2 inch groups ... imagined this as new barrel grinch's. Went out to 100 yds and missed the 11 by 16 inch target completely ... from a rest.

Took it home and gave it a thorough cleaning and oiled up. Bothered me tho, so yesterday took her back out to see what it would act like again. Trying several thickness patchs and 60 back up to 80 grains resulted in the same loading and accuracy.

Searching for patch's, I found a few and walla ... each one was tattered and torn about half the circumference.

ROUGH BARREL!

Cleaning it at home again with water n ballistol, resulted in a squeaky clean barrel. Taking my green bore lite and dropping it down the barrel to gaze at the insides, I found rough rifling more at the last 8 or so inch of the muzzle. FOUND IT!!!

KINDA DISAPPOINTED. I had thought that a green mountain barrel would be top notch. Not a patch tearing inaccurate barrel.

Guess some home lapping will be required with some TLC. Not sending it anywhere tho. After smoothing it up ... will take it back out for nother try.

Anybody else experience this?
 
I just put a GM barrel on an old Investarm Hawken. Bore is shiny, silky smooth. One of the best bores I've look down. Shot it Thursday. Went 10 rounds without any issues or difficulty loading, without any wiping between shots. Accuracy was outstanding. Got it from TOTW, as well. That "rough" area isn't right for any GM barrel. I would send it back & demand another. Should have looked down the bore before you fired it. :dunno:
 
A friend put a Green Mountain drop in barrel in his TC Hawken. He told me he “wasn’t happy” with the barrel. He didn’t elaborate, just not satisfied with that barrel. :dunno:
 
I put a GM replacement on my T\C about ten years ago. .50 cal and it's been a tac driver since day one.

When I built my Leman I put a GM .54 cal barrel on it. After shooting different loads using Hornady .535 RB and .015 pillow ticking with mink oil lube, I ended up with a charge of 110gr. GOEX FF as the most accurate load. At 100 yards The following groups. (Two separate groups....three shot group upper left, two shot groups lower right.)

I would send it back and request a new one.

kIF5Mp3h.jpg
 
My 50 caliber bullet shooting gm barrel is excellent but before I fired it once, I wrapped a cleaning patch with 0000 steel wool and scrubbed it maybe 100 strokes. cleaned up and began shooting it. Very nice barrel.
 
My 50 caliber bullet shooting gm barrel is excellent but before I fired it once, I wrapped a cleaning patch with 0000 steel wool and scrubbed it maybe 100 strokes. cleaned up and began shooting it. Very nice barrel.

I have done this on many barrels I usually finished with 3M scotch brite and a light coat 3 in 1 oil.
 
I put a GM barrel on my 50 caliber Renegade about 20 years ago. It never gave any trouble and was more accurate for me than the original barrel. It's been there ever since.

Jeff
 
Call Gm and request an exchange. Also ask for return postage. IF they let a bad barrel out of the shop they will make it right.
 
Shot a perfect score today with a TC Renegade 54 with a Green Mountain barrel and also scored a Green MountainTC Hawken 50 barrel, dressed, in 33 inch off the prize blanket.
Either shoot it smooth, steel wool it or send it back.
 
I found rough rifling more at the last 8 or so inch of the muzzle. FOUND IT!!!

Not sure exactly what you are seeing (do you have a borescope?), but I have found some (6 out of 6) Green Mountain barrels need some breaking in or polishing when new before they load and shoot easily, not to mention accurately. Different experience than with Rice barrels, which for me at least were accurate from the first shot. Currently own 3 each LRH and roundball GM barrels that were new when I got them. All improved dramatically as the bores were polished and shot. To speed things up I would suggest cleaning the bore with something like Scoth-Brite. It won’t hurt anything and stands a good chance of helping. Mike Bellevue (@duelist1954) has a good video out showing his version of the process. I have used a similar method for some time, but Mike explains his very well. I started doing it after speaking to Don Getz (Getz Barrel) years ago before he passed, and he recommended using the green (600 grit) Scotch-Brite for smoothing up barrels that were cutting patches. Said it wouldn’t hurt the barrel.
 
you got to break them in.USE cleaner powder ...and to zero ..new bbl clean it after each shot ..moose milk ..never oil,s and petroleum base.IT will perform but need to break it in..tight is right.
 
I put one in .45 caliber on a TC Hawken and added a Lyman peep sight on the rear. After I sighted it in, I have shot numerous 50's in matches and had no problem whatsoever. I use the .445 ball with a .015 patch and all fits just great. I shoot matches regularly and never have to clean it between shots ....in fact I don't clean it at all until I get home again. Great barrel !!
 
Purchased a Green mountain barrel for my TC Hawken about two years ago. Just getting round to trying it out and have to say that I am a bit disappointed.

Now the 32 inch length is cool for sure. Looks rite. The replacement kit fit my rifle perfectly. TOW is a great resource for sure.

Took the 54 (my favorite cal.) Out couple weeks ago to smoke it up and see how good it would shoot. Having been shooting my flint smoothy, first thing that struck me was the tough loading after the first shot. This persisted using 80 grains Old E powder , .530 hornaday balls and .015 cotton patch lubed with my standby home brew lube.

Persistent hard loading was dismissed with the assumption that I been spoiled by the smoothy. Pretty good accuracy at 35 yards being around 2 inch groups ... imagined this as new barrel grinch's. Went out to 100 yds and missed the 11 by 16 inch target completely ... from a rest.

Took it home and gave it a thorough cleaning and oiled up. Bothered me tho, so yesterday took her back out to see what it would act like again. Trying several thickness patchs and 60 back up to 80 grains resulted in the same loading and accuracy.

Searching for patch's, I found a few and walla ... each one was tattered and torn about half the circumference.

ROUGH BARREL!

Cleaning it at home again with water n ballistol, resulted in a squeaky clean barrel. Taking my green bore lite and dropping it down the barrel to gaze at the insides, I found rough rifling more at the last 8 or so inch of the muzzle. FOUND IT!!!

KINDA DISAPPOINTED. I had thought that a green mountain barrel would be top notch. Not a patch tearing inaccurate barrel.

Guess some home lapping will be required with some TLC. Not sending it anywhere tho. After smoothing it up ... will take it back out for nother try.

Anybody else experience this?
I had the same trouble with one of my Green mtn barrels, the trouble with mine was the very sharp rifling corners. Smooth but very sharp and defined. It shot fine after a hundred rounds or so and all of mine have been excellent, I won't use anything else on any of my muzzle loaders and black powder cartridge rifles as well.
 
I put one on my 50 TC about 20 years ago. It took about 50 shots before patch was no longer getting cut. About 100 total and it settled into a tack driver consistently hitting a 2" gong at 100 yards. Mine wasn't rough but rather sharp edges
 
Purchased a Green mountain barrel for my TC Hawken about two years ago. Just getting round to trying it out and have to say that I am a bit disappointed.

Now the 32 inch length is cool for sure. Looks rite. The replacement kit fit my rifle perfectly. TOW is a great resource for sure.

Took the 54 (my favorite cal.) Out couple weeks ago to smoke it up and see how good it would shoot. Having been shooting my flint smoothy, first thing that struck me was the tough loading after the first shot. This persisted using 80 grains Old E powder , .530 hornaday balls and .015 cotton patch lubed with my standby home brew lube.

Persistent hard loading was dismissed with the assumption that I been spoiled by the smoothy. Pretty good accuracy at 35 yards being around 2 inch groups ... imagined this as new barrel grinch's. Went out to 100 yds and missed the 11 by 16 inch target completely ... from a rest.

Took it home and gave it a thorough cleaning and oiled up. Bothered me tho, so yesterday took her back out to see what it would act like again. Trying several thickness patchs and 60 back up to 80 grains resulted in the same loading and accuracy.

Searching for patch's, I found a few and walla ... each one was tattered and torn about half the circumference.

ROUGH BARREL!

Cleaning it at home again with water n ballistol, resulted in a squeaky clean barrel. Taking my green bore lite and dropping it down the barrel to gaze at the insides, I found rough rifling more at the last 8 or so inch of the muzzle. FOUND IT!!!

KINDA DISAPPOINTED. I had thought that a green mountain barrel would be top notch. Not a patch tearing inaccurate barrel.

Guess some home lapping will be required with some TLC. Not sending it anywhere tho. After smoothing it up ... will take it back out for nother try.

Anybody else experience this?
A couple of things I observe in your post.

1. Your Green Mountain barrel is new. I would expect it to have sharp corners on the lands and some machining marks on the surface of the lands. This is confirmed by the cut up patches that you found after shooting. You didn't say whether the cuts were at the lands or a circular cut caused by a sharp crown. In any event, your plan for some home lapping of the bore is certainly in order as well as some crown smoothing. It is so common for a new barrel to have some roughness and sharp edges. With the high cost of labor to smooth out a barrel's lands and grooves, the lapping of a new barrel is almost an expected part of load development.

2. Persistent hard loading is also consistent with that roughness capturing fouling. I am speculating that you don't wipe the barrel between shots. With the rough bore it is to be expected that subsequent shots will be hard to load unless you are using a very wet patch to soften the fouling and shooting quickly after loading so the powder doesn't get wet. At first, at least, wipe the bore between shots with a damp patch even after your initial lapping of the barrel.

Most of the "Moose Milk" formulas do contain some petroleum oils as well as soaps and water. Your Olde Eynsford powder should be one of the cleaner burning black powders available. I experience crud rings even when I wipe between shots, but I do use a fairly loose patch and jag to try to pull fouling out, not push fouling into the touch hole. If you are experiencing the crusty ring, use one damp loose patch to pull out most of the fouling to be followed by another damp patch then a dry patch. That seems to remove the crust from the breech. I use rubbing alcohol, but your home brewed formula should work too.

You should have a better experience on your next trip to the range. I suggest that you concentrate on group development before you start filing on sights.
 
Slow twist barrels usually shoot better with higher powder loads. That barrel should be a 1-70 twist. I'd try more powder.
 
I have a green mountain barrel in 54 cal. I am using 80 grains Old E 2f powder , .530 round balls and .020 cotton patch lubed with Mr. Flintlock patch lube. When I went to a tighter patch / ball combo and wet patch I realized I have to very seldom swab barrel between shots. Just my 2 cents.
 
Purchased a Green mountain barrel for my TC Hawken about two years ago. Just getting round to trying it out and have to say that I am a bit disappointed.

Now the 32 inch length is cool for sure. Looks rite. The replacement kit fit my rifle perfectly. TOW is a great resource for sure.

Took the 54 (my favorite cal.) Out couple weeks ago to smoke it up and see how good it would shoot. Having been shooting my flint smoothy, first thing that struck me was the tough loading after the first shot. This persisted using 80 grains Old E powder , .530 hornaday balls and .015 cotton patch lubed with my standby home brew lube.

Persistent hard loading was dismissed with the assumption that I been spoiled by the smoothy. Pretty good accuracy at 35 yards being around 2 inch groups ... imagined this as new barrel grinch's. Went out to 100 yds and missed the 11 by 16 inch target completely ... from a rest.

Took it home and gave it a thorough cleaning and oiled up. Bothered me tho, so yesterday took her back out to see what it would act like again. Trying several thickness patchs and 60 back up to 80 grains resulted in the same loading and accuracy.

Searching for patch's, I found a few and walla ... each one was tattered and torn about half the circumference.

ROUGH BARREL!

Cleaning it at home again with water n ballistol, resulted in a squeaky clean barrel. Taking my green bore lite and dropping it down the barrel to gaze at the insides, I found rough rifling more at the last 8 or so inch of the muzzle. FOUND IT!!!

KINDA DISAPPOINTED. I had thought that a green mountain barrel would be top notch. Not a patch tearing inaccurate barrel.

Guess some home lapping will be required with some TLC. Not sending it anywhere tho. After smoothing it up ... will take it back out for nother try.

Anybody else experience this?
Take a pic through your bore scope, send it to them and request an exchange. Don't mess with it at all; it should require no polishing or any other kind of treatment. I dropped one of those into my TC about 20 years ago. It is the smoothest loading barrel I have ever had the pleasure of shooting, right out of the box. Still is, although I passed it along to my son years ago when I re- entered the Stone Age.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top