My wife got me a .50 cal Lyman Deerstalker flintlock rifle for Christmas.
I am going to sight it in tommorow for hunting this week in PA.


I have 2 basic questions.
1)DoI have to use a .490 roundball and cloth patch or canI use a cylindrical .50 calmuzzleloading bullet.

2)she bought me a can of Goex FFg Black rifle powder.Should Iuse this (how many grains for a 365 Gr muzzleloading "bullet")or can I alsouse pyrodex tablets(# of grains?)?
Thanks
Tom

First off.. no pyrodex pellets. The rifle is not made to shoot them. Also since it is a flintlock, I would suggest using only black powder.

Your Lyman Deerstalker has a 1-48 twist. That means it can shoot roundball with a patch or conicals. How well it shoots the conicals, only a trip to the range will tell you. I would start any big conical out with only about 70 grains of 2f (since that is what you have)under it and work up from there.

I have actually gotten 2f to fire the pan, but you would be better off with 3f or 4f as your primers powder. If worse comes to worse and your having problems using the 2f as a pan primer, put a small amount in a plastic cap (away from everyone else and other powders) and with a wooden spoon or stick,crush the granules into a finer grain and use that in the pan.

Also good luck with your rifle. Keep us posted. And your wife is a keeper since she buys rifles..

A very good conical for that gun would be the Buffalo ball-et
in 270 grains. I shoot them out of my 1:48 barrel and get very
good groups. They are very cheap too. I would try about 70 gr.
of powder to start. If you get good groups you can increase the
charge some, to about 80 gr. I wouldn't go much more than that
as it is unnecessary IMO. I plink sometimes with 40 gr. or less and
the accuracy is astounding with these bullets. Good luck and keep that bore clean. With Goex you will be swabbing alot between shots. Scrub that bore good when you get home too as Goex contains alot of sulphur and will rust your gun's bore real bad if not taken care of properly. Use a
protectant such as Birchwood Casey Sheath (my favorite) inside the bore when storing it.
Good luck and ask us members lots of questions cuz we live for that.

[quote]ORIGINAL: deleted

You can shoot round balls, and a .490 PRB with 90 to 120 grains of FFg black powder is plenty to kill a deer out to 100 yards, but you can also shoot Power Belts in it. I use the 295-grain .50 Power Belts with 90 grains of FFg in my .50 cal. percussion sidelock. this bullet would be just as good shot from a flintlock. Unfortunately, the only flinter I own right now is a .58.....

"Scrub that bore good when you get home too as Goex contains alot of sulphur and will rust your gun's bore real bad if not taken care of properly."

ALL black powder contains sulphur - 75% potassium nitrate, 15% charcoal, and 10% sulphur - the ancient formula for black powder! Potassium nitrate and sulphur deposits both cause rusting. Do the bore cleaning with hot water. It is the best solvent for rust-causing salt deposits.

AFISHN,
I also have a deer stalker, I started with 2f black powder and then moved to 3f black powder, for better ignition , and use 4f in the flash pan. I have a fifty cal. I use fifty grains of 3f in the barrel for 25 and 50 yard target shooting and 70 grains for target shooting beyond 50 yards and for hunting.and only fill the flash pan half full of 4f for fast ignition. my rifle is about 13 or 14 years old and I haven't looked at the new ones, but I had a local gunsmith tune my lock, = reshape and reharden my frissen for good spark, make sure all components work smoothlyand replace my touchhole liner with an uncle mikes brand liner, which really increased the speed of ignition. good luck and hope this helps

one thing I forgot to say is that my rifle works best with .495 hornady round balls and .015 patch

hey guys let me know how the deerstalker shoots. I'm looking into getting one. any recommendations?