As some are aware, I purchased a Lyman Great Plains Hunter in .50 caliber with the 1-32 twist. Someone told me that the one they have shoots anything thing they shove down it. Well that has definitely not been the case with my rifle.
While the rifle being a flintlock fires almost flawless, it is giving me fits about what it will shoot. Now granted, the original agate in the jaws has lasted well over 70 shots and is still going, I have tried more projectiles in this thing then I care to mention.
At first I wrote off the strange behavior of the rifle as it being new, and just shot a lot of roundball out of it to make it smooth out. It actually shoots round ball pretty good.
Then I went to sabots and tried a number of different brands, sabots, etc and really... not one of them impressed me all that much. I had also tried some bull shop conicals and again, it shot them pretty good, but did not impress me.
The other day I was cleaning my bullet closet and came across three packs of unopened 350 grain Hornady FPB conicals. And a light came on. Lyman told me that their rifle shoots powerbelts real well with 80 grains of powder. Well if they shoot powerbelts, why not FPB's.
Today was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the wind somewhat calm, and it was not cold and raining. We actually got quite warm today, and hit 72šs. It felt good to be outside, even if the bugs wanted to drag you into the woods for dinner. A can of 40% deet bug juice applied liberally, seemed to do the trick and kept them at buzzing only distance.
I started this out with Goex 3f. I swabbed the bore clean with an alcohol patch and let it dry. Since Lyman claims 80 grains the magic number, I started out with 80 grains.
Shot #1 on a clean barrel was a real disappointment. The FPB loaded real well, once you got it started. Lymans do not have a QLA so you have to balance the FPB straight on top of the barrel and then smack it to start it. Once started they are easy to load. Shots 2-5 were a pretty good group. But I noticed when loading #5 there was a lot of fouling in the barrel. So I decided to clean the barrel real well. I used Simple Green and cleaned the barrel, then alcohol treated the barrel clean and swabbed it dry.
I then decided to up the powder charge to 100 grains of Goex 3f. This is because many of you have told me that the FPB is a powder pig because of the design. After all it looks like a Shockwave on steroids.
Shot #6 was at first accepted. Then 7-10 were real good. I swabbed quickly with alcohol and shot #11. Again, as soon as the barrel is somewhat clean, the hit goes crazy. But still I accepted the 100 grain charge and their group. After all this was 50 yards, open sights, and a flintlock.
Now, not wanting to waste the rest of the expensive FPB's and having run out of powder... I returned to the house and got my Graf's and Sons 3f black powder. I put the FPB's up and then took a large box (that I found also) of 370 grain Lyman Maxiballs and some home made lube out to the bench.
Maxiball shoot best in most my guns with a low charge, so I loaded 70 grains of the Graf's. Shots 12-14 I found. Shot #15 I could not locate on the target with absolute certainty. I think it is in that group at the bottom of the X but since I could not find it I did not claim it.
Over all I like these FPB's and with a 100 grain charge of 3f they should have a lot of knock down. So maybe I am on to something and I well finally tame this rifle.