Shooting The Lowly Lyman Great Plains

[Semisane]

A year or so ago I really had the hots for a custom flinter. Even sold off a few guns to build up some cash for a TVM order.

Then I got to asking myself - Why? My .54 Great Plains flinter shoots as well as I can shoot. It fits me perfectly. It could not be more reliable and, though I appreciate a finely crafted gun, I don't care all that much if the gun I'm shooting is a "looker" or not.

I had a nice range session Friday afternoon with my good old Great Plains.

Here's a report of how it went.

My GP has a Lyman 57 peep on the tang with the factory Lyman wide square patridge sight up front.

Knowing it shoots a .535 ball at just under 1600 fps pretty well with 95 grains of GOEX FFFg, I set a target out at 50 yards and took five shots from the bench using a 6 o'clock hold on the bull.

Here's what I got.

Now that just made me smile. :grin:

I didn't know why the group was so high on the target because I was pretty sure the gun was sighted in to hit about three inches above point of aim at 50 yards.

Well anyway, I've always wanted to try conicals in this 1:60" twist just for kicks. I've never in my life bought any of those plastic skirted conicals that are verboten to discuss on this forum. But I had a pack of of them in .54/295 grain configuration that I acquired along with a used TC Renegade years ago. I gave them a try. Suffice it to say they did not do well.

Next, I dug some .54 300 grain Lee REALs out of the bullet bag. I'd bought them from Black Jack Hill a few years back and never used them. So I lubed them with Crisco and loaded them over the same charge along with a 1/8" lubed felt wad.

Here's that target.

Those Lees were poorly cast and very inconsistent in size. The first one I loaded was so small that the top driving band did not cut the rifling. It didn't even hit the target. The .54/300 grain REAL is pretty short. I suspect they would shoot quite well if they were slightly larger in diameter and consistent in size.

Going back to the original patched ball load, I started to adjust the sight to bring the group on target and realized that I had not seated the sight fully against its stop the last time I played with it. I pushed it down to where it should have been and took five more shots and got another nice group about where it should have been.

That .018 pillow tick patch takes a pretty good thump on the short starter to seat. So I tried an easier loading .016 patch. Here's that five-shot target.

Well I guess I can live with thumping the short starter and will stick with the pillow tick patches. Lets adjust the sight a smidgen to the right and shoot another 50 yard group with the pillow tick.

Yep! Any game within 50 yards of this Great Plains is in for a world of hurt. But what about 100 yards?

The light was fading. But I had time to put a target out on the 100 yard frame and take five more shots.

Man, that 3" bull is mighty small with iron sights at 100 yards, and my eyes just ain't that good. But I'm pretty sure I could put every shot in a deer's boiler room.

That TMV order still isn't placed. I think I'll just hang on to the cash and maybe order another case of GOEX.

 

[Billnpatti]

Yep, you've got a shooter. It's nice to have several muzzleloaders but if you have only one and it is a good one.....well, like they say "Beware of the man with only one gun because he probably knows how to shoot it."

The GPR is a great gun. I know, I have one and I love it.

 

[Honkey]

If you ever want to sell that rifle give me a PM :wink:

 

[BrownBear]

Boy, you have my attention. I've been shooting a .530 with ticking over 90 grains of 3f from mine, basically getting the same groups as you are with the thinner patching. Might be time to fire up the .535 mold and pull out my Big Head short starter!

 

[Semisane]

When I started that session the flint in the cock was left in there from the last range session.

I just checked my target file. It had at least 28 shots on it, possibly more. I shot 37 times with it Friday. I had no (zero, zip, nada) flashes in the pan during that session. But I had two klatches on the last target that required a second strike. The poor thing was so stubby it had no right to be sparking at all.

I changed it out when I cleaned the gun. Here's the one with at least 65 shots, and the one I replaced it with.

How could I not love this gun.


.

 

[Semisane]

Well Billnpatti, I'm not a one gun kind of guy. (Who could live like that anyway? :wink: )

I have another flinter, a .32 Pedersoli Frontier, and half a dozen caplocks. The caplocks all have TC Hawken or Renegade stocks with Green Mountain barrels.

But I have to say the GP feels better at the shoulder than any of the others.

 

[Semisane]

Here's the calculated trajectory for that load when sighted in three inches high at 75 yards (dead on at 115 yards). I've verified it on the range at 50, 75 and 100 yards, but haven't checked it yet at the longer distances.

 

[Darkgael]

"lowly Great Plains"
What lowly?
That rifle may just be the best bang for the buck in firearms.
Mine is a .50 cal., bought used and over 90 grains of FFg and using a .490 ball and a thin patch (0.010"), it has given me groups slightly larger than a quarter at 100 yards. I was amazed the first time that that happened and then understood what a good rifle the GPR is.
Pete

 

[Semisane]

"lowly Great Plains" What lowly? That rifle may just be the best bang for the buck in firearms.

:thumbsup: I agree Pete. Maybe I should change it to "lovely Great Plains". :wink:

 

[mingo]

Fine presentation.
I appreciate the 100 yd effort.
Looks like you could keep meat on the table.

 

[Rifleman1776]

:idunno:

 

[reddog]

Fine presentation.
I appreciate the 100 yd effort.
Looks like you could keep meat on the table.

I must be delirious or sumthin'...

 

[jamesthomas]

Did I miss something?

 

[longcruise]

Think he meant to "reply" but accidently started a new topic.

 

[Randall Slemp]

What a great post Semisane. When researching on this forum for a first (and maybe only) Flintlock to buy, considering style, historical looks, experience of other owner/shooters and (very importantly) a modest price, I chose the GPR Flint in .54 as well and bought it sight unseen from my friends at Grafs. When it arrived about 3-4 days after placing the order, I was really impressed when I opened the box and found what appeared to be a great value for the money. I had a few reliability problems at first, but with the help of the good fellows here on the forum those were solved within a couple or three range sessions, and in reality were no big deal since I knew there would be break in issues for the rifle (and myself). I don't have near the mileage you have on yours, and still have more fine tuning to do, but that's half the fun! I think it's a great rifle - looks great and shoots great and is historically representative enough to suit me. Plus the whole idea of a traditional style firearm has opened an entirely new world of research and interest which is very fulfilling.
Thanks for your great post. :thumbsup: :hatsoff:

 

[Bob Riegl]

My opinions are the same---I have TVM's .32, .40 and .62, a Jacob Dickert .50, etc. My first Gun the GPR is still my favorite go to rifle---made lot's of meat and I just changed the barrel over to a .54 this past September and made more meat this year. No complaints, and I would sell others before my baby. :hatsoff: "Doc"

 

[paulvallandigham]

First : The poster wanted people's opinions about the GPR by Lyman.

Second I have never have read or heard of any legitimate complaint about any Lyman/InvestArms BARREL being inaccurate. The only complaint is that new barrels come with a factory sealant in it that require a serious solvent to remove, AND, that there is a break-in time, needed to remove fine burrs in the barrel before the barrels give their best accuracy.

Referring to the Lyman GPR in the title as a straw-man fallacy of Argument. If you want to show off the great shooting you do, the loads and your results in trying to get the best loads for the gun, That is fine. But, you don't need to label the gun as " Lowly" as if there is something wrong with it, when there isn't any thing wrong with the guns!

Are they low in cost, compared to other guns of similar caliber? Yes. Are there some aftermarket items that owners might want to consider buying to enhance the guns? Yes.

Are any of them truly necessary? Probably not. The Davis Trigger seems to be a top notch replacement trigger system for the factory version. And, buying a T/C flintlock hammer to replace the factory hammer on flintlocks helps to elevate the flint to the proper height to get more reliable ignition using flint, particularly when the bevel is positioned on the top.

But, Ernie Biggs has posted plenty of pictures here showing his use of a thicker piece of leather under his flint to achieve the same elevation increase. As to the triggers, the Lyman trigger can be adjusted to make it work better: It just that some owners don't have the patience to do this themselves, or are not willing to try. They have to have everything PURCHASED just so.

On a rare occasion, we read where someone has a gun that they claim has the trigger mortise cut too deep. It seems doubtful that this could be the case with one or a few guns, and not with all the guns sold by Lyman. They are mass-produced, after all. But someone shims up the plate on the trigger, and all is well.

I don't see the point in bad-mouthing a gun when there is nothing wrong with it. :shocked2: :idunno: :hatsoff: :grin:

I only wish the company had made a LH flint version of the gun 20 years sooner! :grin: :v

 

[Semisane]

I don't see the point in bad-mouthing a gun when there is nothing wrong with it

Shucks Paul, I sure had no intention of bad-mouthing the Lyman. Quite the opposite really. The thread title was a tongue-in-cheek poke at those fellas` who seem to hold factory guns in low regard.

 

[Blake]

Where did you that chart is there some place I can get from?

 

[Semisane]

CA Bowhunter, that's the free on-line ballistic calculactor at Handloads.com. It's very simple and has proven quite accurate when I've compared predicted trajectory against my real world results. See it here: http://www.handloads.com/calc/index.html

When you run the calculator you can print the document. Or you can do as I do and (using the Snipping Tool in Windows) capture a picture of that part of the screen that you want and save it to your computer as a picture file.

The text you see in red is not part of the calculator. I added that to the captured picture file using Paint.

What I like about this calculator is everything is done on-line. You don't have to save any software to your computer.