Deer902

Thanks for the info guys. I am still trying to research as much as possible online. I am making a trip to Sportsman Supply to hopefully look at some guns and get their opinion as well. I am leaning towards either the Lyman Deerstalker or a PA Pellet. Both have the 1 in 48 twist and both are less $ than the Hawken. I am still learning about the conicle bullet and how it compares to a sabot. I also see that Lyman has a book on flintlock, that has a bunch of load and bullet comparisons. Does anyone have any experience with this book?
Thanks for your help and any more info would be appreciated.

RobertSubnet

For this reason I always wear some sort of eye protection. Nothing major, usually just a pair of sunglasses. There has never been a problem, but with your eyes, why risk it?

Some other things:

When firing, make sure no one is standing too close to the lock. I've heard that when the gun goes off a blast of hot gas comes out the vent hole and could burn someone if they are too close. Again, I've never had this problem, but it is what I have heard.

Shooting at night: close your eyes. At night your pupils are (obviously) dialated. When that pan charge goes off it can blind you. It is only temporary but it sure scares the heck ofyou.

If the funds allow, pick-up a range rod and let that take the loading abuse while at the range.

The cheapest thing I have found to clean fouling is a 50/50 mix of isopropil alcohol and windshield washer fluid. Get a small, air tight,wide mouth jar/container and put some patches in it. Pour in enough iso/windshield mix to saturate the patches with a little left over to account for evaporation. Now you will have presoaked cleaning patches all ready to go when you need them.

Ugh, my teething daughter is crying again...got to go.

Hope this helps.
~Robert

Tiogaflinter

I have had the Deer Stalker and PA Pellet, theres no comparioson between the rifles. You will see that when you look at them. Everything about the Deerstalker is better, lock, wood fit etc.

gleason.chapman

I have the Lyman ML book. Sam Fadala wrote it, has updated info, but I would say it is "old school" meaning it does not have a lot of info on newest bullets for ML, but it has all the info on round ball and "old school" conicals like the Maxi and the Ballet. Now if you wanna shoot them, that is the book for you. It was only $13 at Midsouth or Midway, so I bought it. Chap Gleason