A Farewell Shoot With The New Englander
04-26-2010, 07:42 PM
#1
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
A Farewell Shoot With The New Englander
A couple of months ago I began to get an itch for a custom made flint longrifle - something in the Southern Mountain Rifle style.
That dang itch has been getting pretty bad so I've started (trying) to save my pennies. It's pretty slow going because I've had no choice but to make a few "unavoidable" purchases (like the .58 barrel and tang peep sight for the Renegade).
Having reached the conclusion that I'm going to have to sell a few of my current toys to speed things along, I began considering which ones I shoot the least. A couple of modern revolvers won't cause much pain, but muzzleloaders are hard to say good bye to.
I haven't shot the .50 New Englander in over a year. When I bought it a dozen or so years ago it carried a red dot sight, which I soon found was not very useful for my purpose. Three years ago I mounted a 2X pistol scope in a forward mounted "scout" position. That worked like a charm. Its only drawback is that you have to wipe off the rear lens after every couple of shots when shooting on the range in humid conditions - like almost always in my neck of the woods.
Here's the gun.
I never could get this one to shoot patched balls well, and never tried maxiballs. It shot Lee REALs "OK", but not great. My hunting load with it was 75 grains of GOEX FFg under the (now discontinued) 410 grain Lyman Great Plains conical, which it shot well. It was good for three or four-inch 100 yard groups with that load, and I killed a quite a few deer with it over the years - mostly at around 50 to 70 yards.
Anyway, I decided to have a farewell shoot with the lady Saturday morning before I put her up for sale. Having no GP bullets on hand, I figured I would see what a sabot load would do. I've never tried them in it before, figuring the 1:48 twist wouldn't do the job very well.
Boy, was I surprised.
I loaded up some 250 grain XTPs in Harvester sabots over 80 grains of T7 and got this.
Then I loaded some 300 grain XTPs and got this.
I should have tried sabot loads in this sucker years ago. Breaking up is hard to do and it's going to be awfully hard to say good bye.
That dang itch has been getting pretty bad so I've started (trying) to save my pennies. It's pretty slow going because I've had no choice but to make a few "unavoidable" purchases (like the .58 barrel and tang peep sight for the Renegade).
Having reached the conclusion that I'm going to have to sell a few of my current toys to speed things along, I began considering which ones I shoot the least. A couple of modern revolvers won't cause much pain, but muzzleloaders are hard to say good bye to.
I haven't shot the .50 New Englander in over a year. When I bought it a dozen or so years ago it carried a red dot sight, which I soon found was not very useful for my purpose. Three years ago I mounted a 2X pistol scope in a forward mounted "scout" position. That worked like a charm. Its only drawback is that you have to wipe off the rear lens after every couple of shots when shooting on the range in humid conditions - like almost always in my neck of the woods.
Here's the gun.
I never could get this one to shoot patched balls well, and never tried maxiballs. It shot Lee REALs "OK", but not great. My hunting load with it was 75 grains of GOEX FFg under the (now discontinued) 410 grain Lyman Great Plains conical, which it shot well. It was good for three or four-inch 100 yard groups with that load, and I killed a quite a few deer with it over the years - mostly at around 50 to 70 yards.
Anyway, I decided to have a farewell shoot with the lady Saturday morning before I put her up for sale. Having no GP bullets on hand, I figured I would see what a sabot load would do. I've never tried them in it before, figuring the 1:48 twist wouldn't do the job very well.
Boy, was I surprised.
I loaded up some 250 grain XTPs in Harvester sabots over 80 grains of T7 and got this.
Then I loaded some 300 grain XTPs and got this.
I should have tried sabot loads in this sucker years ago. Breaking up is hard to do and it's going to be awfully hard to say good bye.
04-26-2010, 08:01 PM
#2
Typical Buck
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: NE Louisiana
Posts: 697
Nice shootin Semi. Nice lookin rifle too. The New Englander with a wooden stock is getting harder and harder to find.Yours and one more are the only ones I have ever seen.It won't
take you long to get rid of it.
take you long to get rid of it.
04-27-2010, 05:27 AM
#5
Typical Buck
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Montana
Posts: 581
Really? A New Englander is hard to find with a wooden stock? ****! I was at a gunshow last week and they had one for 150 dollars. Almost new, and I found another one for 250. I KNEW that I should have pick up that one at the gun show.
04-27-2010, 01:28 PM
#7
Typical Buck
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: NE Louisiana
Posts: 697
It also depends on what part of the country you might be in at the time.
04-27-2010, 02:34 PM
#8
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
It also depends on what part of the country you might be in at the time.
04-28-2010, 05:36 AM
#9
Typical Buck
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Montana
Posts: 581
Well since I live in Montana with no Muzzleloader season. If you can find any they are usually dirt cheap cause there is no market. Usually I have to buy alot of things online. Well my TC Bone Collector I bought that on GunBroker from a shop in Ohio.
