When I picked up my guns, I had my best friend for 20+ years was with me. I pointed out an tc hawken setting on the rack for $125. he decided to get. The guns I bought and that one all came from the same collection. the own before him painted the brass on it. no problem there, some type of paint thinner and brasso, good shiny brass again. he went to pay for it. something I missed on the back of the tag, "Gun loaded, Free". my jaw dropped, thought to my self, if I knew that I would of never pointed out to him. the guys at the gun shop said to just shoot it out. shocker to me. he buys some musket caps.

We leave, when we get to the truck I tell him "If I knew the gun was loaded I would have never showed it to him". then he asked me way I don't use musket caps. I don't have any problems igniting powders with #11 mag caps.

We head to his sisters farm, I go over the best case (it does not go off and we will have to try something else) and the worst case, I have to tell his family what happen.

we get out, he checks to how much of the ramrod is sticking out, almost 2in. I started doing the math in my head. 100grs of powder and PRB, nope too tall, conical with 80grs to 100grs of powder.

he puts an cap on the nipple, I tell him I will stay in the truck, well I was out of the truck but standing on opposite side near the front of the truck, he was at the tail gate about 3 feet away from the truck. holds the gun like he was holding an pistol, boom, about 20yards away there was an 12in x 6in x 3in hole in the ground.


finally got the gun back to his house, I showed him how to break it down and clean it. open up the patch box, an BALL PULLER.

after we had it cleaned and oiled, I started massing with the adjustment screw to get the set trigger back in the set up. I am uses to CVA adjustment, 3 screws. I was shocked when it was only one. started turning to figure out which way to get it set up right. by the time I was done. set trigger I say about 3 to 4lbs, front trigger. 1 1/2 to 2 lbs. i was scared to bring it out anymore, I did not know how much was left of the screw.