Being a beautiful day, I of course decided to shoot. I took the Tradition's Woodsman Hawkins Flintlock out today. This .50 caliber has a 1:48 twist and one of the fastest lock times I have seen.

I wanted to do a few things. Since it is still not tuned to a load I wanted to continue with that course of action, but I also wanted to try some of the duplex loads I have been reading about with Frontier Gander.

I set the target at 50 yards, and off a bench rest shooting 80 grains of Graf's 3f powder and a home casted, home made moosemilk lube, and hand cut patches at the muzzle took some shots. The first shot low only because I was unsure of the sight picture and was aiming low. After that it really started to lay the round ball in rather well. The group was real good actually until I shot some 245 grain ball-et at the + and they hit to the right.

I then swabbed the barrel clean. I moved up range with out the bench rest, just a lawn chair and my shooting sticks. I then loaded 10 grains of Goex 4f into the barrel and leveled the load. I then (not thinking) dumped 75 grains of Triple Se7en 2f on top of that. I loaded a patch and roundball and aimed for the white area of the target on the upper right corner. The one shot marked in the corner of that white area was a ball-et and not a roundball that was duplex. I loaded 3 grains of Goex 4f in the pan. Ignition with the duplexed load was instant and there seemed to be plenty of power in that load. It also shot a rather good load off the shooting sticks, but again, this was only 25 yards. After five shots of the 75 grains I decided to reduce the charge to 50 grains.

I swabbed the barrel again, and loaded 10 grains of Goex 4f and then duplexed the 50 grains of Triple Se7en 2f. Loaded the patched ball and shot six times at the upper left white corner. Again, the load shot well, and the ignition was instant.

Using the same load and proceedure I then shot some 245 grain ball-ets at the lower left white corner. Again, at that range off the sticks the accuracy was acceptable.

Then for fun I shot some roundball just free hand. I only fired three times and that was enough to let me know that I perhaps need more practice in that area.

Overall when I duplexed the Triple Se7en and used Goex 4f as the pan primer I had excellent ignition and real good power. I did try one shot the way Frontier Gander said, by loading the pan horn off the vent liner, but got a fuse effect. So at least I know that substitute powders can be made to behave with a little Goex 4f and a good pan powder...