Black Powder firearms discussion

[jdoxs]

I'm new to muzzle loading. Will I get laughed off of the site for having a savage smokless inline?

Naw, not on this site,... but people might tell you to be careful,...!!!

 

[jdoxs]

Welcome to the rendezvous jdoxs, we be tryin to git the monitors to give us our own place to talk charcoal burnin so all we can git posted will help.
Bill

"Well,... thank you for your greeting of kindness and makin' me feel at home"!
I'm a gray beard and have been just that for what seems like forever. I've have more camp fires behind me than I have left in front of me. I've been to rendezvous from Indiana to the "Rockies" and back again. I've taken many deer and other critters with my flint lock (.54 Cal.), as well as trapped a few for fur in my younger days.
On my days off (which is all the time now), I play at being retired. So I use that time working with kids, teaching them firearms safety with groups like 4-H and Boy Scouts. I am also an N.R.A. and an "Indiana Hunter Safety Instructor", both include the area(s) of muzzle loading.
I just hope that I may be of some help from time to time. So lets talk muzzle loading guns and have some fun. Besides being retired gets boring when there ain't no one to talk to, so I've got a lot of talk saved up,...lol!

 

[old man Bill]

Have you done any ball casting? I had one year where I built the gun, cast the balls, made my own lube, shot a deer, tanned the hide, butcherd and froze the meat and ate it all cause the wife won't. Real rewarding. I have the hide on teh wall of the cave along with the gun and the deer head. I have moulds and pure lead I'll sell if'n yur interstead.
Bill

 

[Hookeye]

Found a decent stock on a beater TC Renegade in a shop. It has nothing but minor little surface marring in the wood, read: a strip light sand and refinish and it'll be a beauty.
Bbl might be crap, dunno. Outside has some little pits here and there, as does the buttplate.

My idea- get it cheap, redo stock, satin, take all metal and bead blast and cerakote matte black. Put my TC peep on the tang and try it out. If it sucks, get a new bbl.

A matte finish old school MZ. Musket cap conversion of course.

This way I get a stock that fits me better (my Hawken Silver Elite beats the sheite out of my cheek), a rig wouthout that %$#@ QLA and it'll be pretty too. The Hawken would be retired. Too pretty ro risk any more wear.

I have yet to redo my 1100 SP receiver, refinish the stock on my kids .22 rifle, and am looking at yet another project.

 

[cotter999]

How many in here hunt with black powder? I have been toying with the idea, but dont know much about it. How much does it cost to purchase everything you need to shot (outside of the rifle)? How accurate are they? I have been hunting with shotgun and bow all my life.

 

[Smokepole]

How many in here hunt with black powder? I have been toying with the idea, but dont know much about it. How much does it cost to purchase everything you need to shot (outside of the rifle)? How accurate are they? I have been hunting with shotgun and bow all my life.

I pretty much hunt exclusively w/BP for deer & larger game. As w/most anything else it is as accurate as you are. I shoot traditional and I'm pretty tight out to 100 yds. I know other guys that are good to 200 off-hand w/rifled barrels. Just gotta practice and know your weapon.

As far as cost sans rifle, it all depends on if you shoot modern or traditional, how much gear you are comfortable hunting with and what type of game you are hunting. Traditional will be a bit more expensive than modern because need more gear, but not by too much.

 

[Hookeye]

No to the shop find Renegade project.
Got a .54 like new Renegade coming this week
Put my peep on it, and retire my Hawken.

 

[schoolmaster]

Been building my collection. Picked up a Navy Arms Buffalo Hunter 58 cal. (sporterized Rem 1863) Can't wait to shoot it.

 

[Cerberus]

Didn't read all the post. Does anyone else build traditional MLs? Currently slogging thru a couple of builds, making plenty of mistakes and loving the learning experience.

 

[UncleNorby]

No to the shop find Renegade project.
Got a .54 like new Renegade coming this week
Put my peep on it, and retire my Hawken.

I have shot a pile of deer with my 54 Renegade, with a T/C peep. I enlarged the aperture to about 1/8". I always used 100 gr loose Pyrodex RS and home-cast 435 gr Maxiballs. It simply wilts deer.

One thing though, I installed a musket cap nipple and gave them a try. Got hangfires more than normal ignition. Can't explain it, the caps were firing but the gun was not. Switched back to the #11 nipple and perfect ignition every time.

 

[maximumair]

Here in Louisiana we now have Primitive season. No more black powder and tell you what I love it. But its really not primitive. lol

 

[Hookeye]

Got it yesterday, .54 cal.
Decent wood (other side better)

 

[Wannabe Alchemist]

A BP forum is a great idea. I bought a rifle about in 1994 that I loved shooting until my ignorance took over. I left it loaded overnight and the powder absorbed moister. I had no idea that was possible or I would have taken action. Now, almost 20 years later, I still don't know how to get the stuck bullet out. I tried several caps and re-firing at the time. It's been in the closet ever since. Suggestions?

 

[Delmar]

A BP forum is a great idea. I bought a rifle about in 1994 that I loved shooting until my ignorance took over. I left it loaded overnight and the powder absorbed moister. I had no idea that was possible or I would have taken action. Now, almost 20 years later, I still don't know how to get the stuck bullet out. I tried several caps and re-firing at the time. It's been in the closet ever since. Suggestions?

If it's a cap lock rifle, take the nipple out and take it to the hardware store. Find a grease fitting with the same threads.
Screw the grease fitting into the where the nipple goes. Then all you have to do is take a grease gun and fill the chamber with grease forcing the ball out.

 

[Pitmaster]

A BP forum is a great idea. I bought a rifle about in 1994 that I loved shooting until my ignorance took over. I left it loaded overnight and the powder absorbed moister. I had no idea that was possible or I would have taken action. Now, almost 20 years later, I still don't know how to get the stuck bullet out. I tried several caps and re-firing at the time. It's been in the closet ever since. Suggestions?

Track off the Wolf, Dixie Gun Works, and other places sell a screw that threads on the end of a cleaning or ram rod that you can screw into the bullet and pull it out. A little oil or lubricant around the bullet can help.

 

[Wannabe Alchemist]

If it's a cap lock rifle, take the nipple out and take it to the hardware store. Find a grease fitting with the same threads.
Screw the grease fitting into the where the nipple goes. Then all you have to do is take a grease gun and fill the chamber with grease forcing the ball out.

Interesting idea! Gonna try this for sure.

Track off the Wolf, Dixie Gun Works, and other places sell a screw that threads on the end of a cleaning or ram rod that you can screw into the bullet and pull it out. A little oil or lubricant around the bullet can help.

This was my first thought and I asked about it at the LGS of the time. I ran out of nerve though, thinking I might cause the powder to ignite pushing/twisting against the sabot? Have you done this?
I assume it's safe or they probably wouldn't sell the attachment, but it's spooky...lol.

 

[old man Bill]

I had one stuck once. I took off the nipple, picked out some of the hardnd powder and worked in as much 3F as I could then put the nipple back and touched her off. Ifn you do that be sure you can confirm the ball came out. If it gits stuck half way down it can be a bigger problem that can blow up the barrel. I've also used a air compressor to blow it out. Last resort is remove the breech plug and push it through. Better have it checked good fore you use it, there is some powerful corrosion going on in there.
Bill

 

[Hookeye]

I worked in a shop and pulled sabot, conical and round balls from people's MZ's way too often (one guy two times in 2 days, but on the 2nd day he had "charge & ball, charge & ball, charge & ball.............yeah). Screw in the end of a ramrod works fine. But some ramroads are kinda wimpy. Better to use a "range rod" a beefier item much more up to the task (singularly or repeatedly).

And sometimes the range rod after the screw bites into bullet, may need clamped in a beefy vise to help with pulling.

Used to do it free for customers who flubbed it on the range or elsewhere, but folks really took advantage of the service. Same for breech plug removal. Damaged a lot of tools, burned a lot of time, usually saving somebody's cheap POS MZ that was neglected so bad it wasn't worth the trouble.

Shop had to start charging due to lost manpower/time/materials.

 

[Delmar]

Track off the Wolf, Dixie Gun Works, and other places sell a screw that threads on the end of a cleaning or ram rod that you can screw into the bullet and pull it out. A little oil or lubricant around the bullet can help.

I guess I assumed he had already tried this. It is the easiest and least messy first step.

 

[jrudd]

https://www.facebook.com/GunsAcrossAmericaIndiana

Guns Across America – Peaceful Protest at State Capitols Saturday, January 19th at Noon | Guns Save Lives

I posted a couple links for the Guns Across America - Indiana. I am sure many have already heard about it but I thought I would post anyways.