Heat effect on traditional rifles.

[cayuga]

I wanted to shoot bad today, but the knee was acting up. So I decided I better shoot anyway. I set the target at 35 yards which is about my average shot around here. I then looked over the gun rack and wanted to find a rifle that would be used this season. I bought a 21 inch barrel (for the White Mountain Carbine but also fits a Hawkins) 1-28 twist Green Mountain Barrel for my T/C Hawkins flintlock with the idea that the short barrel would be a good easy to carry walking around rifle.

Then I had to decide what to shoot. Well I grabbed a box of Bull Shop Conicals. It said they were 460 grain and .504 diameter. That had me worried. I also grabbed some 250 grain Hornady .452 XTPs and Harvester Crushed Rib sabots. For powder, it was easy.. Goex 3f for this little barrel.

In the back yard I decided to start with the conicals. What a mistake that was. The .504 were .. lets just say a challenge to get into the muzzle, and then on the way down, if that barrel was not swabbed, you had made a mistake.

I decided 70 grains of powder would be good. Shots 1-2 I had to swab the bore to make loading easy. Then being the way I am, I loaded #3 with out swabbing. It might have been the pounding I had to do to get it seated that threw it off. So I swabbed and shot #4. Again not bad. So to test my theory, I did not swab and loaded #5. WOW that was tuff to get seated. The black powder was causing a lot of fouling I noticed. I then swabbed and shot #6. So, as long as I was willing to swab with pure alcohol it did pretty good. I needed a short starter to load, and a good strong ramrod to seat it. This was not pleasing to me. So I swabbed the barrel clean.

I then shot two of the 250 gr .452 Hornady XTP in Harvester Crushed Rib sabots. I also kicked the powder charge up to 90 grains of 3f Goex. I was swabbing between shots. And thinking way too much about them conicals.

So I swabbed the rifle clean, and took my box of conicals to the shop. I bought a special re sizer in .501 for my knight rifles, and my White Bison. So since GMB is technically a Knight, I sized what was left in the box down.

Back to the range, the rifle had cooled down, it was swabbed, and I wanted to shoot. So I threw in a powder charge. The .501 could be pushed under the muzzle with thumb pressure, no short starter needed, and easy to load.

I decided to see if I could shoot and reload fast, and whether I had to swab. This would tell me what heat would do to the rifle. So I just went at it. Why #4 did what it did, I have no idea. Could have been me, or the bullet. I am guessing me. Also I forgot to tune the measure back down to 70 grains, so I was shooting 90 grains of 3f. With that little barrel it was an attention getting to say the least. Lots of fun. Also with a slight sight adjustment, I think I just found my stalking, walking around load. That should put about anything in the woods down. I shot off all my sized conicals..

After I swabbed the barrel I could not decided what to shoot. I walked in the house for a cold soda, and grabbed some 10mm Hornady XTPs and blue MMP sabots. I stuck with the 90 grains and swabbed between shots.

After shooting 1&2 I was impressed. So I changed my POA and shot the next two.

Then being just stupid, I was looking for something else to shoot. There in the back yard was a wood pile. Holding up part of that wood pile was a support stick. Being dumb, I loaded another 10mm XTP , took a bead on that support stick, shot, hit the stick and sent it flying, and the bullet then hit the wood pile. Of course a part of the wood pile with no support now and suddenly shocked, did what all wood piles do.. it fell over. It will be brought in this weekend into the house and stacked properly..

Over all this is a fun little flintlock to shoot. It is nice to carry. And that T/C Agate is still shooting perfect, with no misfires.

 

[k]

i think if you get a shot at a deer your going to be eating backstrap and onions fer dinner ....great post....karl

 

[WLW]

I'm brand spanking new to any form of a sidelock, so this is great info. I bought a GMB 1/28" drop-in replacement barrel for my T/C Hawken I had bought used (with a bad barrel). Am interested in shooting conicals in it this deer season.

 

[cayuga]

I buy my conicals from Bullshop Conicals. He will custom size them to what you need and his prices are more then fair. I like a 460 grain and the 495 grain conicals. I also cast some at my house in a custom made mold that are a 450 grain and they also shoot real well. These are a slip fit conical and so they tend to go down easy and then come out real accurate.

Just one place to look. There are also Thor Conicals, Hornady makes a nice conical, even powerbelts. Although I never shot a lot of powerbelts from a GMB.