Thread: Muzzleloader Hunting

Nice work mate, very nice muzzleloader

Shit thats cool!
congrats mate

i will never show my wife this link!
her history's from cherokee down arkansas way.
my safe is full (and not tall enough) but bloody hell i want to try it !







































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Originally Posted by gonetropo

i will never show my wife this link!
her history's from cherokee down arkansas way.
my safe is full (and not tall enough) but bloody hell i want to try it !







































0

You are pretty handy to me mate
Come over some time and have a go
It will certainly put a smile on your dial

berg243...you CAN do that...there have been BP substitutes around for years that make life much less messy....

Originally Posted by berg243

it brings the skill of stalking into focus when you don't use a rifle to shoot them from 500m . nice looking setup now if you could use a smokeless powder that didn't require all that cleaning of blackpowder I would definitely get one.

Well I'm going to try Triple 7 soon with my 400 grain projectiles for when I get away tahr hunting and I want it to be a little easier to clean

SOOOO Cool! I love the rifle and scope set up.

Well done on the hunting. Nice wee head on the stag and lovely fat piggy. Some good chewing there.

Top work ,awesome skills.

Well in the pursuit of field hunting ability
I have done some extended range work using Triple 7 instead of Black Powder
Its a lot cleaner and will be easier to look after in the field for extended trips.
Black Powder is fine at home when you can boil the kettle and do it in the luxury of your kitchen
Its a different story in a tent in the rain and at altitude etc

I also have moved up to using my 395 Grain Lyman Plains cast bullets.
They don't seem to go "off aim" the same as the 320 Grain Lee Real bullets as the barrel fouls.
I'm keeping the range sessions to only a few rounds each time to replicate field hunting conditions
2 or 3 shots at game animals in a day would be a lot of shots.

The best way to work out a range chart was to just keep shifting the target back

50m range and adjusted to be 25mm high
75m range is 25mm low
100m range is 100mm low
Will have to have a session to look at the 125m and 150m drops ( for just in case ).
Actually the drop is way better than I was expecting !

So elevation is locked down and I have given it a little tweak to the left because the 395s have been a little right of the previous 320s point of impact.



So now I still have to get some spare parts sorted and fine tune the contents of my "Possibles bag" which holds all the things you use when hunting.
Get together a camp kit bag for more major servicing and hot water cleaning.

And go chase a bull tahr and chamois

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Well in the pursuit of field hunting ability
I have done some extended range work using Triple 7 instead of Black Powder
Its a lot cleaner and will be easier to look after in the field for extended trips.
Black Powder is fine at home when you can boil the kettle and do it in the luxury of your kitchen
Its a different story in a tent in the rain and at altitude etc

I also have moved up to using my 395 Grain Lyman Plains cast bullets.
They don't seem to go "off aim" the same as the 320 Grain Lee Real bullets as the barrel fouls.
I'm keeping the range sessions to only a few rounds each time to replicate field hunting conditions
2 or 3 shots at game animals in a day would be a lot of shots.

The best way to work out a range chart was to just keep shifting the target back

50m range and adjusted to be 25mm high
75m range is 25mm low
100m range is 100mm low
Will have to have a session to look at the 125m and 150m drops ( for just in case ).
Actually the drop is way better than I was expecting !

So elevation is locked down and I have given it a little tweak to the left because the 395s have been a little right of the previous 320s point of impact.

Attachment 106631

So now I still have to get some spare parts sorted and fine tune the contents of my "Possibles bag" which holds all the things you use when hunting.
Get together a camp kit bag for more major servicing and hot water cleaning.

And go chase a bull tahr and chamois

Usual problem with me and my images !
It's a wonder I can dress myself !!

That's a great looking setup! I love shooting and hunting period correct muzzleloaders. Way more challenging/frustrating than with a modern inline, but the reward is so much better.

Originally Posted by akaroa1

320 grain projectiles are cast pure lead conicals
balls for a 50 cal are about 180 grain but my rifles twist is to fast for balls and it rips the patches to pieces
I would like to have been able to use the balls for practice on hares and rabbits but I'm very happy with how the bigger projectiles are shooting.

The conicals are very accurate with the telescope set up and grouping around 30mm at 50m

I also have a mold for 400 grain projectiles and will start trying them for if in the future I go after a bull tahr.

I'm using 80 grains of Holy Smoke FFFG because the barrel is only 25" long
I run the faster FFFG and am getting around 1500 fps with the 320 grainer

You should be able to shoot round ball if you back the powder off and use a tight patch. Also cleaning while away hunting I just wipe the bore with a spit patch then run a lube patch through the barrel. Deer was shot with .495 round ball and 80gr homemade black powder.

Cheers @Tasbay that was a good solution to the practice shooting and small game load.

40 grains Triple 7 FFFG and the 175 grain round balls are basically in the same location at 50m as my 395 grain conical's
Grouping nicely and man its gentle on the shoulder
I'm sure a rabbit or hare won't have a clue how much slower its going when it hits them !
Well greased patches were almost intact and the lesser greased ones were still fairly ripped, but it didn't seem to affect where they landed.

Half the lead, half the powder a fraction of the recoil !!

Nice

What type of patch material are you using? (try ticking from a draper). What lube are you using on your patches? (try olive oil). Also 777 burns hotter than Black and could be part of your problem, I`d go back to BP for round ball and 777 for Conical. Using Black powder I always wipe the barrel between shots with a spit patch then a dry patch. After loading I now wipe the bore once more with a dry patch down to the ball, I do this to get the gun shooting from as clean a barrel as possible every time. Muzzleloaders are known for throwing the first shot or two. Now we just have to get you making your own powder!!!

@Tasbay
0.014 cotton patch with wet wax lube.
I still have plenty of black powder and yes will continue to use it around the farm on hares and rabbits and practice.

I between shots spit patch it to avoid any lurking sparks and get that shot to shot consistency

777 with the 395s for field use as its very easy to clean up at the end of the day.

I'm just happy that they are arriving at the same general location and that the grouping is very good
Now a gong needs to go up in a handy tree and the balls will hopefully be ringing that from standing field positions