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07-06-2007 | 01:35 PM

#1

cayugad

Dominant Buck

Joined: Feb 2003

Posts: 21,193

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From: Wisconsin

.54 cal New Englander

I was out at my range shooting my Lyman .54 caliber Flintlock Rifle when the United States Postal Service mail carrier showed up at the house. He had a new rifle for me. It was of course my .54 caliber Thompson Center New Englander. How the seller got the USPS to ship that rifle is still a mystery to me. I was told flat out, they do not ship them. PERIOD!!

The rifle has a 26" barrel, ryanite black composite stock, some excellent sights on it, and looks like it had never been fired. I got out my Birchwood Casey #77 and ran a patch through the barrel. It came out covered in filthy looking black/brown substance. I ran three more patches and finally the rifle came out clean. So I dropped a bore light down the barrel and it looked real good. Since I had .54caliber rods, starters, projectiles, etc out on the shooting bench, I broke out a new target and got ready to try out the new rifle.

I decided to start with Pyrodex RS. I set the powder measure at 75 grains and loaded a Speer roundball. I fired five shots to see where it was hitting. It appeared the rifle was shooting about three inches high or more. So I made an adjustment to the sights. I then fired five more shots with the adjusted sights, and ran out of roundball in that box. I decided to call it a day and clean the rifle.

The rifle is well balanced, an excellent single stage trigger, nice sights, and seems to have some potential. I will be shooting this a lot more in the near future.

The Lyman Trade Rifle flintlock shot perfect as usual. It still liked 90 grains of 2f black powder and a patched roundball. I was finally forced to change out the flint on that rifle. It was the flint I put in during last years deer season, and have since then shot the rifle numerous times. It really was a good flint...

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