Muzzleloader

leaningright

leaningright

conservative democrat
Staff member
I’m working up a load for a muzzleloader I have acquired. It’s a Traditions Buckskinner in 50 caliber, manufactured in the early 2000’s. This gun was given to me and I’m planning to squirrel hunt with it. If it is accurate enough, I’ll deer hunt with it when the season rolls around.

“50 cal is a little overkill,” you say? Well, you’d be right. But I’m at that point in my life where I hunt more for fun and nostalgia more than for food, although I do enjoy the food. I enjoy taking my dogs to woods the most. And think about it, not many of our ancestors had different caliber weapons for different game. They loaded and shot accordingly.

I shot some bullets from a mold I have had for several years out of the gun today with 30 grains of Triple 7. It was pretty good from 30 yards, but not good enough. I have ordered a round ball mold in the proper caliber and am hoping that a patched round ball gets me to squirrel head sized groups.

I’ll post a picture of the little gun in the comments.
 
leaningright said:
I’m working up a load for a muzzleloader I have acquired. It’s a Traditions Buckskinner in 50 caliber, manufactured in the early 2000’s. This gun was given to me and I’m planning to squirrel hunt with it. If it is accurate enough, I’ll deer hunt with it when the season rolls around.

“50 cal is a little overkill,” you say? Well, you’d be right. But I’m at that point in my life where I hunt more for fun and nostalgia more than for food, although I do enjoy the food. I enjoy taking my dogs to woods the most. And think about it, not many of our ancestors had different caliber weapons for different game. They loaded and shot accordingly.

I shot some bullets from a mold I have had for several years out of the gun today with 30 grains of Triple 7. It was pretty good from 30 yards, but not good enough. I have ordered a round ball mold in the proper caliber and am hoping that a patched round ball gets me to squirrel head sized groups.

I’ll post a picture of the little gun in the comments.
Click to expand...

If hunting rabbits and squirrels, I'd agree .50 is too big, but it's a good size for hunting deer, pigs and other large game.
 
leaningright said:
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Great looking rifle!

This is my CVA Wolf .50 and a Walker Colt .44. Sadly, I haven't fired either one yet. The smaller pistol is also a .44 and that one has been part of several holiday celebrations (no bullets LOL)....the number of chambers loaded had an inverse correlation to how much alcohol was in the shooter.

I have a scope for the Wolf but won't mount it until I take it to the range.

yUBL7aJ.jpg
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Great looking rifle!

This is my CVA Wolf .50 and a Walker Colt .44. Sadly, I haven't fired either one yet. The smaller pistol is also a .44 and that one has been part of several holiday celebrations (no bullets LOL)....the number of chambers loaded had an inverse correlation to how much alcohol was in the shooter.

I have a scope for the Wolf but won't mount it until I take it to the range.

yUBL7aJ.jpg
Click to expand...

Great looking guns. I had a couple of black powder pistols years ago when I shot more recreationally. Lots of fun.

Percussion caps are hard to come by here. I’ve bought a kit to make them from a pop can. Just have to borrow some of the wife’s fingernail polish remover.

Counting this one I now have 5 black powder rifles. Two of them use the 209 shotgun primers and three use no. 11 percussion caps. I have a conversion kit for one of the guns to allow it to take the 209 primers but I haven’t put in on yet.
 
leaningright said:
I’m working up a load for a muzzleloader I have acquired. It’s a Traditions Buckskinner in 50 caliber, manufactured in the early 2000’s. This gun was given to me and I’m planning to squirrel hunt with it. If it is accurate enough, I’ll deer hunt with it when the season rolls around.

“50 cal is a little overkill,” you say? Well, you’d be right. But I’m at that point in my life where I hunt more for fun and nostalgia more than for food, although I do enjoy the food. I enjoy taking my dogs to woods the most. And think about it, not many of our ancestors had different caliber weapons for different game. They loaded and shot accordingly.

I shot some bullets from a mold I have had for several years out of the gun today with 30 grains of Triple 7. It was pretty good from 30 yards, but not good enough. I have ordered a round ball mold in the proper caliber and am hoping that a patched round ball gets me to squirrel head sized groups.

I’ll post a picture of the little gun in the comments.
Click to expand...
I pity the squirrel that gets hit with a 50 cal :laugh:
 
leaningright said:
Great looking guns. I had a couple of black powder pistols years ago when I shot more recreationally. Lots of fun.

Percussion caps are hard to come by here. I’ve bought a kit to make them from a pop can. Just have to borrow some of the wife’s fingernail polish remover.

Counting this one I now have 5 black powder rifles. Two of them use the 209 shotgun primers and three use no. 11 percussion caps. I have a conversion kit for one of the guns to allow it to take the 209 primers but I haven’t put in on yet.
Click to expand...

Wow. I looked at mail-order and the prices are outrageous. Obviously there's a shortage. https://www.midwayusa.com/percussion-caps-and-primers/br?cid=23215

I priced my CVA Wolf too and it's almost doubled in price.

I haven't heard about making the percussion caps but will look it up. I have a couple of tins of caps in storage.
 
If I ever bought either a cap & ball pistol or rifle, I would buy a relic, flintlock and powder horn and all!

I've always wanted one of those Hawken rifles used in the movies Jeremiah Johnson and Mountain Men.

This is a percussion replica model, and I would settle for it, as I doubt now I could ever afford an original as they are collected now and expensive.

690374.jpg


These are all original.

Rifles-in-The-Hawken-Shop-1981_1.jpg
 
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Geeko Sportivo said:
If I ever bought either a cap & ball pistol or rifle, I would buy a relic, flintlock and powder horn and all!

I've always wanted one of those Hawken rifles used in the movies Jeremiah Johnson and Mountain Men.

This is a percussion replica model, and I would settle for it, as I doubt now I could ever afford an original as they are collected now and expensive.

690374.jpg


These are all original.

Rifles-in-The-Hawken-Shop-1981_1.jpg
Click to expand...

That’s a good hunting rifle. My best friend’s brother had one in 54 cal. Here’s mine. I’ve killed at least a dozen deer with it. It was my dad’s. He’s still living but doesn’t deer hunt anymore.

 


NOT taken with a 50 cal muzzleloader, just a 410 with #5 shot. Swamp rabbit…about 1/3 larger than cottontails with a different diet. Great eating. That little beagle is the only one left from the pack I had. The other three got killed by a hog about 3 years ago. I haven’t really hunted rabbits since but decided to take her out today. She doesn’t move a track too well by herself and will give up after about 20 minutes but she moved this one long enough for me to get it.

But I predict that next year I’ll be using the 50 caliber with patched round balls and a greatly reduced powder load to take some small game.
 
leaningright said:
That’s a good hunting rifle. My best friend’s brother had one in 54 cal. Here’s mine. I’ve killed at least a dozen deer with it. It was my dad’s. He’s still living but doesn’t deer hunt anymore.

Click to expand...

That is a mighty fine thing to hang over the fireplace!

And use for hunting, of course.

Looks like a relic!

I don't deer hunt anymore, although I still go and usually end up the camp cook by default.

I usually take pictures of deer that come within distance of the camp, when my friends that go out to the blinds, sometimes say they didn't even see a deer! :laugh:

This week would have been a great week to deer hunt! In this ice storm, those deer were up and moving around to stay warm and having to look for food.
 
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leaningright said:
I’m working up a load for a muzzleloader I have acquired. It’s a Traditions Buckskinner in 50 caliber, manufactured in the early 2000’s. This gun was given to me and I’m planning to squirrel hunt with it. If it is accurate enough, I’ll deer hunt with it when the season rolls around.

“50 cal is a little overkill,” you say? Well, you’d be right. But I’m at that point in my life where I hunt more for fun and nostalgia more than for food, although I do enjoy the food. I enjoy taking my dogs to woods the most. And think about it, not many of our ancestors had different caliber weapons for different game. They loaded and shot accordingly.

I shot some bullets from a mold I have had for several years out of the gun today with 30 grains of Triple 7. It was pretty good from 30 yards, but not good enough. I have ordered a round ball mold in the proper caliber and am hoping that a patched round ball gets me to squirrel head sized groups.

I’ll post a picture of the little gun in the comments.
Click to expand...

Smoothbore or rifled?
 
If it's rifled, use a Minie ball. I'd suggest a three grease groove with a semi-spitzer ogive. For 50 cal, go with about a 450 to 475 grain round. Don't bother with patch and ball. Use a paper hardboard patch with it and go with about 60 grains of FF.
 
leaningright said:
I’m working up a load for a muzzleloader I have acquired. It’s a Traditions Buckskinner in 50 caliber, manufactured in the early 2000’s. This gun was given to me and I’m planning to squirrel hunt with it. If it is accurate enough, I’ll deer hunt with it when the season rolls around.

“50 cal is a little overkill,” you say? Well, you’d be right. But I’m at that point in my life where I hunt more for fun and nostalgia more than for food, although I do enjoy the food. I enjoy taking my dogs to woods the most. And think about it, not many of our ancestors had different caliber weapons for different game. They loaded and shot accordingly.

I shot some bullets from a mold I have had for several years out of the gun today with 30 grains of Triple 7. It was pretty good from 30 yards, but not good enough. I have ordered a round ball mold in the proper caliber and am hoping that a patched round ball gets me to squirrel head sized groups.

I’ll post a picture of the little gun in the comments.
Click to expand...

Nothing more fun than murdering animals because you're bored
 
RB 60 said:
Those should be rifled. Not sure of the twist rate though, I think it varies by model and barrel length. Lots of literature and forums on the internet to give good recommendations for starting loads.
Click to expand...

1/20”
 
leaningright said:
Rifled…1/20”
Click to expand...

Then using Minie balls is the way to go. Far greater accuracy than patched ball ammo.

There are plenty of sellers and you can easily get a mold to make your own. Here's one at random off the internet.

https://www.octobercountry.com/minie-balls/

Dixie is a well-known company for these products.

https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index...d/336/name/Balls,+Bullets+and+Blanks?view_all

A good Minie ball design is far more stable and accurate than any round ball will ever be. Oh, I don't recommend any lube that is wax based to use with them. Fat based ones are far superior.
 
So after molding some conical bullets and some round balls, I decided the gun probably won’t shoot good enough at 30 yards. I will keep tweaking the patching to see if I can improve accuracy but I need to be able to hit a squirrel in the head every shot. After working with the gun this evening and shooting about 20 rounds through it I was confident enough to walk a short circle behind my house. Found a cottontail and the gun performed well for that shot. Plus I got supper.

 
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