Another day with the T/C Hawkin and some roundball

[cayuga]

I shot yesterday at 30 yards. I was impressed with the rifle. But Sabotloader asked me how well this rifle would hold out to say... 75 yards.

The rifle of course was still my Thompson Center Hawkin .50 caliber percussion. I was shooting RWS 1075 caps. Powder was 100 grains of Graf's & Sons 2f. And I was using a wet moosemilk patch with the cast .490 roundball I purchased from Gander Mountian.

Well that haunted me all night. So today I put another three inch Birchwood Casey Red Dot Bulls eye on the target, duct taped up all the old bullet holes so as not to confuse me.. Pulled up stakes at the 30 yard and marched it back to 75 yards. Well I discovered at 75 yards the snow was frozen too hard to drive the PVC legs into the snow. But I was able to find a spot at 72 yards where I could get it to stick with some bracing. So that's the best I could do Sabotloader.. 72 yards. Man that three inch orange dot is small back there. I actually got readings of 70,72, and 77 yards, but I got 72 yards more often through my Bushnell Sports Pro range finder.

This was holding that orange bull in a six o'clock hold making a 8 out of the front bead and the bull. The first shot on a clean barrel surprised me. The next two over joyed me.

I kept on shooting the ball without swabbing until it was time for shot #6. So I swabbed the barrel clean using Simple Green Cleaner, then dried it with alcohol, patched it dry, and popped a cap. Loaded and shot #6. I was not pleased with #6 but that's the way it goes.

At the end of the day the target looked like this... I stopped walking up there to check as it was a walk on ice packed snow. Where that one came from, I have no idea.

But to answer Sabotloader's question of how well would it shoot at 75 (72) yards.. Not to bad at all.

 

[pwbrasky]

cayuga, That's impressive! I don't think my friend's custom built flintlocks could do any better. Is that an original 1:48 twist T/C bbl. or Green Mtn. 1:66 drop in?

 

[cayuga]

That is an original T/C Hawkin 1-48 twist barrel. Needless to say, this rifle impressed me today. I just hope it will do that every day.

 

[younghunter_86]

cayuga-

That is some great shooting with open sights for 72 yards. I doubt it would look that good at 75 though. :lol: 8) :lol: I just don't use open sights as much as I should, not to mention I don't have a clue what I'm doing with these sidelocks. Someday you're going to have to publish a guide book for people like me. I was planning on going to the range and practicing again today but it is fairly windy here as well, so I decided to be lazy.

 

[sabotloader]

Cayugad

This was holding that orange bull in a six o'clock hold making a 8 out of the front bead and the bull. The first shot on a clean barrel surprised me. The next two over joyed me.

OK so the feeling is - that this target is what a mear mortal might be striving for @ 75+/- yards...

It looks super to me and that is where I want to get...

 

[kevinbrian]

Excellent shooting Cayuga! And great report on the Hawkins!

 

[cayuga]

Since I have had others ask me how I load a roundball with out a pre cut patch, this might explain my method to everyone who really wants to know.

Here is an easy way to apply the liquid moose milk. Put a generous amount on the moosemilk on the strip of cloth, like in the picture. I have an old OFF Bug juice pump spray bottle that I spritz the cloth with. Then fold that patch material over and kind of roll it up on itself. It will spread that liquid around and it will push that lube into the strip of cloth.

After you unroll the cloth you will note that the material is not really as wet as you might think. But then I just lay that over the muzzle and put a ball on it.

With my short starter small nose, I then drive that under the muzzle.

Then I pinch the cloth in my fingers, while the ball in the barrel holds it nice and tight. Then with a scissors or pocket knife I cut that strip away from the muzzle. I normally cut half way between the actual rifle muzzle and my fingers. Then with the long nose of the short starter I drive that perfect centered patched ball down the barrel. And of course finish it off with the ramrod. It slides down real easy actually.

With the patch material wet/damp like it is, it swabs the bore for me, slides easy, and since I am going to shoot it off right away, there is little harm in it contaminating the powder charge. I actually like the damp patch on the target range. And because of the alcohol it will not freeze up in our Wisconsin winters on the range. I have shot as many as 20 rounds shooting black powder, without having to swab.

 

[frontier gander]

the left over scraps of Pillow ticking make great char cloth if theres no lube on the cloth.

 

[cayuga]

I like cotton muslin when I make char cloth. Its thinner and holds a spark better and will flash burn when you blow on it.

 

[papines]

demo

I logged on to night and was going to pose this exact question and ask for pictures. As usual you a head of the game cayuga!! Thank you.

 

[cayuga]

I am glad it helped... I've been cutting patches so long, I forget that people even use pre cut.

 

[sproulman]

good info

great pics on how to use a dry patch.

i did not cut mine as wide as yours, mine are about 1 and 1/4 wide on blue pillowtick .018.

should i be wider, yours looks like about 2 inchs.

i use razor blade,those plastic ones for about buck or so to cut the pt,go to watch i dont cut myself.

i may go to real sharp scizzors :lol:

i read test on the T/C HAWKINS 1-48 vrs 1-66.

there was no diffference in groups with rb out to 100 yds.

there the 1-66 twist was SLIGHTLY better.but only if you were shooting competition.

comments were, GET THE 1-48 TWIST AS YOU GOT BEST OF BOTH WORLDS,CONICAL/RB WILL SHOOT GREAT. :wink:

 

[cayuga]

The only reason I tear the strips that wide is, then I have plenty to grab, and beside I might be shooting anything up to a .62 caliber so some of the small thin ones are hard to handle.