First Day out with New Lyman Deerstalker
 

Was able to put a few rounds downrange with my new .54 percussion Lyman deerstalker this morning. I was looking for a elk and deer hunting rifle that is easier handling than my GPR, but I didn't want to go to an inline. I put a Lyman 57SML aperture sight on it.

Sighting in went pretty quick, 2 shots with patched round ball at about 20 yards were overlapping, and elevation was good at that range. Moved out to 50 yards and took a couple more shots with round balls (60g of T7), elevation was still good with about a 2" ctc group. Had to adjust windage a bit.

My pillow tick patches with .530 round ball were tough to load without significant cleaning between shots, so I switched to much easier loading 430g Maxi-balls, my most likely hunting projectile. Point of impact dropped about 5" at the 50 yard range, even after ramping up the charge to 87g of T7. Adjusted the elevation and then shot a decent 3 shot group of 2" ctc.

The rifle seems to shoot nice and consistent if I do my part. The rubber recoil pad is nice, but the heavier load with the Maxi-ball let my cheek know it was heading downrange. Trigger is pretty good, just a tiny bit of creep. Fit and finish is good but nothing out of the ordinary, but for a hunting rifle it fit's the bill.

So far so good. Will get out and fine tune things some more and see how we do at the 75-80 yard range.

I have one in 50 caliber, flintlock ignition. I like mine. It shoots heavy conicals very well. I think they are a good mix of traditional style MZ's. With good emphasis on being a hunting gun. I like the butt pad, and stock design. I also have the same peep sight on mine. However mine is left handed. I hope a few years from now you are as satisfied with yours as I am with mine. Tom.

That ought to be a good set-up greatplains. Lots of THUMP (both ends) with those big Maxis and T7.

Does your Deerstalker have the fiber optic front sight? I'd never cared for FO sights until I combined a rear peep with the front FO on my .50 GM/LRH TC Hawken. It works great for me using a 6 o'clock hold.

It does have an orange/red fiber front sight. I thought about trying a few shots with the standard rear sight before I put on the peep, but in the end decided just to mount the peep, my eyes and shooting work a whole bunch better with a peep sight.

The glow of the front fiber sight in direct sun creates a little halo, seems to make the sight look a little bigger, not ideal for pinpoint shooting, but they sure are nice under low light conditions.

glad to see the rifle is tuning up so fast. It will only get better with age. I shoot the Trade Rifle in flintlock, and love the thing. Very accurate and hard hitting as well.

I have two Deerstalkers one flint one percussion . I use the 444 powerbelt shoots well. I also shoot a 50 cat 350 gr remington Hp.
That is very accurate with good knock down fairly inexpensive to shoot.