ORIGINAL: cayugad
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...
Wow, that is excellent out of the box 50 yards withno adjustments! Excellent. Now what are you going to do add another row to your gun rack?I like the all black of the rifle, looks very good. Best wishes shoot 'er in. Chap