Hawkens and 32" 50 cal

[jbuck9]

I have been off for some time due too a neck injury, infact sold some of my flinters, well this morning I found a 50 cal hawkens in excellant condition with a new green mountain barrell which is 32", which I believe is a 1:70 twist, should be a great roud ball shooter and maybe some pa.
conicals, the gun balances great, any thoughts on a good hunting load and ball size 490-495, I strictly shoot goex powder,
this is my first green mountain barrel so Ill have too play alittle,
The gun came with a tang peep and the front sight has the brass bead on the sight, also have the factory sight,
come on now Dave I know you have a load fo this puppy, thanks all for my long post Iam just so glad too be back in action. God Bless

 

[mossie]

I have a TC 32" 1/66 twist PA Hunter that doesn't care how much powder it shoots. It shoots good with any load from 50 to 110 grains Goex 2f. My normal hunting load was 90 grains Goex 2f.

Recently I went to a different patch and I can get Goex 3f to shoot real good out of this barrel where I could not before. It's much faster than the old Goex 2f load. I shot it a couple of days ago with 60 grains of Goex 3f and the new patching and it drilled the bullseye out for 3 shots @ 30 paces. Current hunting load is 100 grains of Goex 3f with a .490 Hornady ball that groups under 3" @ 100 yards. My little 21" carbine with the new patching is shooting real well with 3f as well. Hard to believe one little component change and bingo. The old patching and 2f still does it's thing too.

GM barrels are really good barrels; I have some of the 1/28 twist barrels in flint from them. They consume the vast majority of my hunting/target shooting now. I am running 100 grains of Goex 3f and 100 grains of Swiss 2f. They shoot darn near anything with a snug fit unbelieveably well. For your barrel; I would start at say 60 grains of Goex 3f and go up from there in 10 grain increments to a top end of 110 grains. I would use a .490 ball and patch up to as tight a load as you are comfortable with. I swab every shot in my rifles as I am looking for maximum accuracy. Sometimes when just plinking at things I will go a few shots before swabbing but use a thinner patch. My barrels came with a book that say's top loads of 130 grains 2f and 120 grains of 3f. I don't know max. for your barrel though. I have seen some posts on your barrel and from what I gather you will need to get upwards of 500 ball through it before she really starts shooting it's best. It should do under 4" @ 100 and get better from there.

Your 32" barrel will burn 100 grains IF you use a good tight load. The tighter the load the more velocity and consistant accuracy you will get from each charge level. The standard deviation will be lower from shot to shot. If you have a cronograph; test it for yourself.

 

[cayuga]

Mine is a .54 caliber or .58. Both of them are powder pigs. They can handle a real strong load. I normally shoot 100 grains of 2f in the .54 and 110 grains in the .58. Like said, I use a .530 ball or .570 ball but a fat patch. I use a moose milk lube and they will really shoot. And with that kind of powder charge behind them, something is going down.