RE: T/C New Englander .54 caliber with everything
 

That is a bit surprising about the powerbelts. Have never shot them but know many who have & all got good accuracy. Of course most are with fast twist barrrels.

Seems that the 300-grainers should be more inclined to keyhole than the 250's, since longer bullets generally require more stabilization. I guess since the sabots are the same length that wouldn't matter though. So many things are counter-intuitive with these black powder rifles. I'm sure there's always a physics-based reason for what happens but sometimes it would probably take some mighty sophisticated equipment & testing logic to find it. More fun to just shoot it a bunch & let the targets decide what works

RE: T/C New Englander .54 caliber with everything
 

Hey Dave, I have been having a lot offun shooting my Hawkens Carbine in .54 cal. I have tried manydifferent saboted and conical bullets in it. It has a 1 in 24" twist and loves both. Here are jus some results I got:



This was the conical:



I have found that I have been having a some problems with the RS and have just switched over to Goex 2F. Now no more problems. I also switch my nipple over toa musket cap. Lately I have been working with a real bullet. So far it is showing some good results.

RE: T/C New Englander .54 caliber with everything
 

Well I was shooting a different traditional rifle today, and I think I figured out the hangfire problem. It was the caps. I thought I was shooting RWS caps. It was an old Ted Cash capper that I had laying around and it was full of caps. So why not use them right..:eek: Well today when I was using the same capper I noticed some of the guts were green which are RWS or Remington 40% hotter caps, and others were copper colored. That means it was them rotten CCI standard caps that I thought I had shot all off. I must have loaded that old capper with the CCI because they were junk caps. So today I had no hang fires with the green gut caps, but did have a hangfire with the copper gut caps. So I am almost 100% sure it was the caps.

That is some good shooting. My rifle has 1-48, but that little carbine of yours is sure a good shooter. Nice groups there. I'd hunt with that rifle any day.

RE: T/C New Englander .54 caliber with everything
 

cayugadwhen i went out to the range to move my target from 35 to 50 yards,i noticed a sabot stuck in the board, looked alot like your target.Maybe thats whatcould be what happened to you.

RE: T/C New Englander .54 caliber with everything
 

hunting junkie you might be on to something. There were sabots laying on the snow in front of the target. I had sabots today go over 30 yards down range. Other times its lucky if they make it 20 feet.

RE: T/C New Englander .54 caliber with everything
 

I was gonna get a pic. but forgot i'll try tomorrow.