i was just given a hawken 50 cal. 1983,28 inch barrel,not sure of the twist. was given a box of .490 ball,and.15 pre lubed patches,2 cans of FFg powder. is this good ? or i'm i dealing with somethig nobody would use?i'm a great shooter but can't get a small group at 50 yards with this. i've tried 65 to 95 grain of powder with out any consistency.are balls correct? if not any help would be great... thanks oh what type of yardage do i exspect?

With a set up like you have there, the best I can do at 50 yards from my Italian made .50 cal Hawken flintlock using 80gr 2F is having the shots hit within one inch of each other. But this is done after swabbing with a wet patch/dry patch between each shot. With muzzleloading, the key word is consistency. As for yardage? When I hunt with the flintlock, I like to keep shots under 75 yards, only because of limitations of the open sights.

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I had terrible accuracy with my Lyman flintlock until I changed to .018" patches that were so lightly lubed that I couldn't tell for sure if they were lubed without reading the packaging. I think they were sold by TC. The .015" patches I used before were gooped with Borebutter and were a sticky mess, and also caused ny bore to fould up badly after only 2 shots. now it will shoot 4-5" groups at 100 yards which is a longer range than I plant to hunt with it.

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms... who's bringing the chips?

Xcellerator I went to Wal Mart and bought a yard of 100% cotton pillow tick. From what I measure it is .015 thickness. I cut that into 2" strips, and use Crisco or spit to lube it. Just keep playing with it. Swab between shots. Take your time loading, and try to get everything the same each time. My .50 cal Traditions Hawkins loves 65 grains, a patch and a .490 ball, but even at 50 yards, I am not cutting one hole. Friends of mine who started BP hunting asked me about distance to shoot also, and I advised them to think of bow hunting more then rifle hunting. Let the animals get in close. (I prefer 80 yards or under, and my standard shots are 35 to 50 yards.) Some people claim their black powder rifle needed a break in period. They had to shoot about 50 rounds or more until is smoothed out. I was lucky, that was not my case. If you have a set trigger on the rifle, that will help too. As many will tell you, keep shooting, and practice. As you say, your a good shot, so I am sure this will all come to you once you figure out the sweet load for the rifle....

I'm no expert but i think the first thing you need to find out is the rate of twist in your gun!!!! Patch and ball guns are usually 1 in 60 0r 1 in 66. If your gun has a 1 in 48 twist then it won't shot anything very well past 50 yards.

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Didn't see this when I posted my questions

Kirk

Well i had 3 muzzleloaders and all 3 had a 1 in 48 and my brother had a T/C with a 1 in 48 and we both spent over a $200.00 in patchs balls sabots and conicals and powders. These guns shot like !@#$.. I went out and bought a Knight with a 1 in 28 twist and my gun will shot 1.5in groups at 100 yards. I then went out and bought a Lyman great plains rifle with a 1 in 60 twist and at 75 yards it will put a patched round ball in a 2in cirlce every shot. Like i said i'm know expert but i have read a book or two on muzzleloaders. If your happy with paper plate size groups at 40 yards then i highly recomend a T/C with a 1 in 48...

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