New here, first post.
Santa brought me a nice .50 cal. Traditions Kentucky pistol this year. It was on closeout at a local farm supply place for $180.00. I tactfully suggested to the missus about a week before Christmas that it would sure make a nice present. Lo and behold, it showed up for the big day.
I have owned a few muzzleloaders over the years. I have had a Ruger Old Army in stainless since the early 80s, used to shoot it a lot, but kind of got away from black powder over the years. This pistol has rekindled my interest.
The pistol is surprisingly high quality for the price. The metal to wood fit is very good. It does have a few little glitches. The angle of the nipple is slightly off and the hammer doesn't hit it square, but it doesn't seem to affect the way it shoots. The muzzle crown is rough in one spot, kind of ragged.
The pistol is made in Spain. The stock appears to be European Beech, nicely stained, and it fits my hand well. When I first got it the trigger was extremely hard with lots of creep. I have now shot about 70 or 80 shots with it and between that and dry firing it (catching the hammer with my thumb) the trigger has cleaned up nicely. The creep is completely gone and it is crisp and releases cleanly. It is still a little harder than I would like, but it is good enough to shoot accurately and more shooting should improve it even more.
The sights are actually pretty nice, or would be if the front blade was a bit higher. It shoots a foot or so high at 25 paces, and is probably on at around 80 or a hundred paces. I won't say yards, because I'm not sure how much actual distance a 57 year old geezer covers wading through a foot or so of snow. It also shoots a bit to the left. I have a couple of taller sights on order from TOTW and will dial it in when they get here. I have no doubt that I could hit a silhouette sized target at 100 yards with this pistol, most of the time anyway.
I wasn't able to get any black powder locally so I bought a bottle of Triple 7. It seems to do OK, I think it works as well as Pyrodex or better. I had a little trouble with slow ignition at first but have learned to turn the pistol with the drum pointed down and tap the side a time or two before capping and have had no more problems. I have been mostly shooting with 25 grains (by volume) although I have tried it with up to 35 grains. I am shooting .490 round balls with TC pre-lubed pillow ticking patches. Most of my shooting was just at tree stumps or rocks. I did fire one decent group at 25 paces that put 7 shots in a nice cluster of about 2 inches or so, I didn't measure it, just guessing, and randomly scattered the other three shots as flyers. I suspect this might be a result of the damaged crown. I let the ol' woman take a turn with it and after a couple shots to figure out where it was hitting she started shooting limbs off of a piece of manzanita brush about 15 yards away. The third one in a row she got a big smirk on her face and I decided that was enough shooting for that day. Durned woman, I'll leave her at home in the kitchen next time!
Over all, I really like this pistol. Sure, it won't shoot with my scoped TC Contender (very little does), but it shoots at least as well if not better than several modern revolvers and pistols I have with open sights. Now I just need to score some real black powder, this triple 7 stuff smells funny...
Santa brought me a nice .50 cal. Traditions Kentucky pistol this year. It was on closeout at a local farm supply place for $180.00. I tactfully suggested to the missus about a week before Christmas that it would sure make a nice present. Lo and behold, it showed up for the big day.
I have owned a few muzzleloaders over the years. I have had a Ruger Old Army in stainless since the early 80s, used to shoot it a lot, but kind of got away from black powder over the years. This pistol has rekindled my interest.
The pistol is surprisingly high quality for the price. The metal to wood fit is very good. It does have a few little glitches. The angle of the nipple is slightly off and the hammer doesn't hit it square, but it doesn't seem to affect the way it shoots. The muzzle crown is rough in one spot, kind of ragged.
The pistol is made in Spain. The stock appears to be European Beech, nicely stained, and it fits my hand well. When I first got it the trigger was extremely hard with lots of creep. I have now shot about 70 or 80 shots with it and between that and dry firing it (catching the hammer with my thumb) the trigger has cleaned up nicely. The creep is completely gone and it is crisp and releases cleanly. It is still a little harder than I would like, but it is good enough to shoot accurately and more shooting should improve it even more.
The sights are actually pretty nice, or would be if the front blade was a bit higher. It shoots a foot or so high at 25 paces, and is probably on at around 80 or a hundred paces. I won't say yards, because I'm not sure how much actual distance a 57 year old geezer covers wading through a foot or so of snow. It also shoots a bit to the left. I have a couple of taller sights on order from TOTW and will dial it in when they get here. I have no doubt that I could hit a silhouette sized target at 100 yards with this pistol, most of the time anyway.
I wasn't able to get any black powder locally so I bought a bottle of Triple 7. It seems to do OK, I think it works as well as Pyrodex or better. I had a little trouble with slow ignition at first but have learned to turn the pistol with the drum pointed down and tap the side a time or two before capping and have had no more problems. I have been mostly shooting with 25 grains (by volume) although I have tried it with up to 35 grains. I am shooting .490 round balls with TC pre-lubed pillow ticking patches. Most of my shooting was just at tree stumps or rocks. I did fire one decent group at 25 paces that put 7 shots in a nice cluster of about 2 inches or so, I didn't measure it, just guessing, and randomly scattered the other three shots as flyers. I suspect this might be a result of the damaged crown. I let the ol' woman take a turn with it and after a couple shots to figure out where it was hitting she started shooting limbs off of a piece of manzanita brush about 15 yards away. The third one in a row she got a big smirk on her face and I decided that was enough shooting for that day. Durned woman, I'll leave her at home in the kitchen next time!
Over all, I really like this pistol. Sure, it won't shoot with my scoped TC Contender (very little does), but it shoots at least as well if not better than several modern revolvers and pistols I have with open sights. Now I just need to score some real black powder, this triple 7 stuff smells funny...
