Lyman Plains Pistol

[Blake]

My wife said she going to get my Lyman Plains Pistol in 54 Cal for my Birthday just wanted to know what loads you all like to shoot in a 54 Cal and can you shoot Conical in the Lyman Plains Pistol. Thank You

 

[hellerodsyahoo.com]

My wife bought me the same pistol, but in kit form, your wife must love you more or my wife wants to see less of me ( my shop is downstairs )!!! I haven't started on the kit yet, so I can't answer your question about the load, just looking :shake: for a little sympathy. Leebone

 

[jethro224]

Mine likes 30g 3F, .015 patch and a .530 ball. .018 patch shoots good too but is harder to load.
Never tried a conical.
Have fun with it. :thumbsup:


ps. I had to buy my own. :surrender:

 

[wattlebuster]

Mine like Jethro's likes 30 grs of fffg with a 530 ball wrapped with a 015 patch. I cant say about conicals cause I've never shot em :thumbsup:

 

[buttonbuck]

I tried the REAL and maxi ball, with 35 3f, in my 54. It hurt. I would not do that again. I figure the 45grains of 3f with the 530 PRB that it takes to hunt in Illinois is enough. The PRB load feels about like my Smith and Wesson 629 with a hunting load. The conicals were in the realm of stupid hurt. I too find that 30 grains of 3f Goex is darn accurate. I have not tried any 2 f loads, but if I am accurate for as much as I shoot this pistol. ONe day I will explore the depths of this gun further unless my son takes possession of it since we put it together.

 

[matt denison]

25 gr. FFg Goex, .530 ball, .015 spit patch = one hole group @ 25 yards. It is a very accurate and consistent gun.

I bedded the barrel, soldered the barrel to the hooked breech. It is SOLID. I also did some clean up and slickering on the trigger. No more creep, breaks clean as glass.

 

[M. De Land]

Here's a picture of a similar type pistol made from spare parts, both rifle and pistol probably 25 years ago.

Been a while since I shot it but it worked well with 50 grains of 2F and either a .530 or .535 round ball patch accordingly for a snug fit.
I used it at a kids orientation day and they all shot it repeatedly without problem.
Interestingly, this is 1 in 60 twist section of rifle barrel, (very slow for a hand gun), and is accurate to 50 yards, the farthest I have tested it.I've never shot a conical in it so cannot say how accurate it would be but would expect dismal results from the slow twist.
I milled the side flats to 1 inch width , the rest of the barrel 1 1/8 diameter, to make it a bit narrower in width.
Rear sight has an aperture soldered in and front sight was milled from bar stock. MD

 

[Mattole]

25 gr. FFg Goex, .530 ball, .015 spit patch = one hole group @ 25 yards. It is a very accurate and consistent gun.

I bedded the barrel, soldered the barrel to the hooked breech. It is SOLID. I also did some clean up and slickering on the trigger. No more creep, breaks clean as glass.

laffindog, what did you do to get rid of the creep in the trigger? I have shortened the return spring on the sear plunger and polished up the sear. The trigger is now about as light as I want it but there is a great deal of creep.

 

[M. De Land]

I'm new here and haven't been around long enough to build trust but I can give you the information and you can check it out to see if it is accurate or not.
Two things make creep in these type locks and trigger interfaces.
1. Sear bar contact with trigger lever. All slack i.e. space between them should be removed in cocked position.
2. Sear engagement with full cock notch.
You don't want to reduce the notch height so the sear can clear the half cock and/or fly. What I do is build up the full cock notch so the sear contact is reduced.
There are several ways to accomplish this, I like using a carbide drill bit, drill a small hole in the bottom of the full cock notch and heat shrink or soft solder or loc-tite a piece of drill rod into it and dress it down until the sear contact holds the hammer safely with as little engagement as possible to accomplish this.
Make sure the sear engagement is square with the full cock notch.
I also dress these with a white ceramic stone and chamfer, very slightly, both edges.
3. Very often the main spring can be reduce significantly with coil or flat V springs to further reduce trigger pull weight. This needs to be done judiciously.
On a coil spring clip half coils and try it. The hammer should not be blown back off a new nipple with the heaviest charge that will be used.If caps are being blown off on a new proper sized nipple correctly fitted to the hammer face than the hammer spring is to light.
With a flat V spring grinding and dressing should be done on the long levers of the spring and not in the turns. All cross hatching from file, stone or heat cracking should be dress out working parallel with spring length. Any scratches, tempering cracks or imperfections should also be removed in the same manor. Any sharp edges should be radius particularly in the bends.
Springs so conditioned will last many time longer.
Trial and patients with both types of spring reduction is necessary to accomplish the balance between reliability, accuracy and safety.
Hope it helps and it cost you nothing but a bit of time to read MD

 

[Zonie]

A word of caution about removing all of the clearance between the trigger and the sear when the gun is at full cock or half cock.

As we are speaking of two separate items here, the trigger and the sear arm on the lock and neither of these are visible when the gun is assembled it is impossible to know how far the sear arms nose has entered the half cock or the full cock notch by just looking.

If the trigger has no movement when the gun is cocked, the sear could be just hanging on to the full cock notch by just a hair.

On the other hand, if the gun is at full cock and the trigger has a very slight amount of looseness one can rest assured that the sear is fully engaged with the full cock notch.

I am not saying that a great deal of looseness is needed but in my opinion, the trigger should never be "tight" when the gun is at full cock or half cock.

 

[Mattole]

Thanks MD and Zonie. I don't want to hijack this thread, so I will ask my next question regarding trigger adjustment in another thread.

 

[M. De Land]

Good point I should have addressed! I put a bit of molding clay on the sear arm and if careful it will give you an impression against the trigger lever that can be measured so one can accurately set the no gap interface between the two with precision.
I often solder( high force 44 solder is the best I have found ) a piece of low carbon steel on top the trigger lever and file it to a light contact fit .This simple fix will eliminate all slack between the sear bar and the trigger lever without moving the sear engagement in the hammer full cock notch.
Some locks, on occasion make a bit of slack between the sear bar and trigger lever necessary to clear the fly and half cock but that can usually be adjusted as well by lowering the half cock notch height just a tad as it should not be higher than the full cock in most cases.
It should be noted and is probably obvious to most that the sear/full cock adjustment should be made first and then the trigger lever sear bar gap addressed. MD

 

[pab1]

I built one a couple years ago and have been very happy with it. I use two loads that are very accurate in the gun. With 20 gr of Goex 3F, a .530 ball and .018 pillow ticking I get 655 fps. Its also accurate out to 100 yards by using the Elmer Keith method of keeping the front sight on target and lowering the rear sight to adjust for elevation. With the ball moving that slow there is plenty of time to see where its impacting. Its a lot of fun breaking clays with it at 100 yards. Here are a couple grouse taken this fall with the 20 gr load.

The other load my gun likes is 45 gr of Goex 3F with the same ball/patch combo. I chronied this load at 890 fps. It impacts about 3" to the right of the 20 gr load at 50 yards but gives decent groups.