A beautiful day here in Northern Wisconsin, 48 degrees, sunny, a little wind.. nice no jacket required weather. I decided to shoot a flintlock today, so I picked the Lyman Trade Rifle in .54 caliber. I have not shot it for a while and had purchased some 250 grain XTP sabots (sabots included) on sale at a store. I tried some of them in my CVA .54 with no luck, and I have had the Lyman shoot sabots pretty good in the past, so I decided to try that rifle.

I started out with 90 grains of Goex 2f, 4f primer powder, a cut agate flint, and .530 roundball and moose milk combination.





As usual, the rifle threw the first shot. But the next five were good and tight. A little off the bull but at 30 yards I am not going to get too excited at this point. The rifle's ignition time was flawless.

I then swabbed the bore and loaded 90 grains of powder and this time the 250 sabots. I was too lazy to change targets, so I shot five rounds at the same target.



I was too lazy to swab. If I had swabbed, I might have got a tighter group. As the barrel fouled, it started to move them to the right a little. BUT it was a lot of fun.

I then swabbed the barrel clean and noticed that some of the grapefruit that had become science experiments in the refrigerator and discarded this winter were now showing their evil heads in my melting snow.

I then hammered them with a 250 grain XTP's. You can really make a frozen grapefruit fly when you hit them. A LOT of fun there.

Nice shooting Cayugad. Even the strays look like they are in the kill zone. Looks like you found what the ole gal likes.

It's a darn good thing you were using a substantial caliber like the .54 on those grapefruit. You really want to put them down quick. A wounded grapefruit can be a nasty thing.

(And 48 degrees is just barely getting into shooting weather.)

cayugad

Darn Dave! i really really need to do that... I have this really nice TC Hawkin flinter and have not really shot it that much. For me there is a learning curve that goes along with it and I just have not had time to go shoot it. But it is a good looking ML.

So one of these days....

Flintlocks are not hard to learn. The worst part is learning to Knapp the flint. You start shooting them and you will really find out what it means to be hooked.

Nice Dave - Now you have to get that rifle off the bench and do some shooting from hunting positions. I've found that separates the men from the boys when shooting a flinter.
I just got back from FL last night to find all the snow gone. Now I can get out and punch some paper. I can't wait.

When I was shooting grapefruits in the snow, I was free hand shooting and am happy to say I never missed a grapefruit. That was fun to watch them explode.

See I knew it. YOU'RE DA MAN............ Anyone who can hit a charging grapefruit in the snow with a flinter is OK in my book.

It was the glare in their little grapefruit eyes that made me keep a steady hand... and that 250 grain XTP knocked the pulp out of them.

Actually, that Trade Rifle is heavy but it is balanced. I liked the balance in it better then the other Lyman Rifles. And with that agate on it, wow that has a fast lock.

NEWS FLASH !!!

............. Local Man Twarts Citrus Attack .............

Cayuga, WI/16 March 2010: In a cool headed display of skill and courage, local resident Dave "Cayugad" Anderson fought off an attack of enraged grapefruit near his home in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest today. Anderson was peacefully enjoying a target shooting session with a flintlock rifle when the pack of the bitter rinded yellow terrors appeared from a snowbank. "It was a chilling sight" Anderson said, "I was quite surprised". Relying on his knowledge of citrus anatomy and on the ability of his antiquated firearm, Anderson was able to dispatch every member of the pack that exposed itself. "There may be more hidden in those snowbanks" he said, "but I'll be ready for them". Officials are considering whether local schools should be closed until until the degree of threat posed by frozen grapefruit can be assessed. However, most residents feel that measure is unnecessary.