HuntingNet.com Forums - Traditions Pioneer .50 caliber

Today I looked at the rack and thought... lets shoot the worst shape rifle I own. I mean rusted and pitted, and just nasty. I have a couple of them. Well those honors go to my Traditions Pioneer .50 caliber percussion cap rifle.

It might not look bad in the photo but believe me the bore still throws a rust patch after a gentle lapp job, JB Bore paste, solvents, soaking in oil, and lots of TLC. But what the heck.. the rifle was free.

A friend of mine approached me one afternoon and showed me his rifle, a Traditions Pioneer. He said the stock was cracked, and the bore rusted (although he claimed through no fault of his... but I cleaned it finally) and it would not fire most the time. So he called it junk, and called it mine if I wanted it. Well I saw it had a Williams Peep sight on it, so of course I accepted his generosity.

I took the rifle home and worked on it for a long time with different things to get the bore in condition, but in all honesty, its pitted and for some reason will throw a slightly rusted patch from time to time. Even though, like now for instance, after I cleaned it today the patches showed nice and clean and no rust. Where the rust comes from I believe it is in the pits in the bore.

But I have got this thing to loan out to people should they need a short range muzzle loader. I replaced the nipple and with lots of cleaning it fires every time now. And the Williams Peep sight was custom mounted on the rifle and so it is easy to shoot and aim. Makes a good loaner.

But today I decided, lets see what it can do. So because of the repaired cracked stock and the pitted barrel it does not like a heavy load of powder. So 70 grains of Graf's and Sons black powder is a sweet load for the rifle.

I set the target up at 25 yards for starters. The range finder then corrected me and told me it was really 28 yards. But what the heck.

I started with patched roundball and moose milk. In the targets as we have seen are a turkey and a deer's head. I started on the turkey.

I shot five rounds and then checked the turkey... had that been a deer at that distance I think he'd been in trouble.

I also know this will shoot .44 caliber .430 diameter 240 grain XTPs. So I got out some Pyrodex P and decided to shoot 70 grains with that. I started loading and realized my first mistake. I forgot to swab the barrel after shooting roundball. I managed to get the XTP down it, but really had no hopes of anything.

The rifle surprised me and started filling the deer's head with holes. But I then was swabbing. In fact the last shot that hit high was on a very fouled barrel.

I then carried the target back to 50 yards to see how it would shoot back there. This is as far as I would trust this rifle I think.

The shots are numbered. I discovered if I swab.. they hit right under the bulls eye. If I don't swab they hit close. But over all this rifle is not a total loss. I would be a hunting rifle in my woods since most the shots encountered would be 50 or less and most likely 30 or less yards. So it would make a good loaner rifle.

I then used soft scrub to clean the bore, water bath run, solvent, cleaner, alcohol, finally dry patches and no more fouling or rust came out of the bore. So I put Breakfree CLP in the bore and put it away for another year or two.