cayugad

Today they are talking thunderstorms this afternoon, so I knew if I wanted to shoot I was going to be limited in time. So I hurried and weeded all three gardens this morning and then broke out my..

Traditions Woodsman Hawkins Flintlock 50 caliber. 1-48 twist.
Powder: Graf's and Sons 3f black powder. 4f for prime
Distance: 46 yards range finder told me
Shooting from a bench rest with open primitive sights.
Bullet is a .44 caliber .430 240 grain Hornady XTP
Sabot was a green EZ load Harvester (nothing easy about loading either).

I cleaned the barrel with alcohol and let it rest to dry. Shot #1 was a surprise to me. I'd forgot how light that set trigger was and knew as soon as the rifle went off, I was not on target. Also the ignition today was exceptionally fast. You'd of thought it was an inline. No tick Boom.. click boom, nothing. Just BOOM! I was using a german agate as my flint.



towards the end of my shooting, shots 6-9 I had the sight picture finally down pat. Holding just under the center of the bull to the left a hair. And it just kept laying them in that nice hole then. I know this Traditions has a fast lock time, but today with that new German Agate.. WOW!! I might have to buy a few more of these agates.

I was swabbing between shots with alcohol and then a dry patch. For some reason, maybe the humidity in the air, the rifle was filthy today. I've never taken so long as today to clean a traditional rifle. It just did not seem to want to come clean. Water bath, then alcohol, finally I broke out the Birchwood Casey #77 solvent and scrubbed with that. Three patches later I finally got a clean patch out of it.

This sure is a sweet little rifle. And 80 grains of 3f Graf's powder and that little XTP would be a good deer load. I would have shot longer but as I was loading for the last time a great big drop of rain hit the pan of the rifle. I wiped it out, re primed, shot and headed for the house.

pluckit

That's what I'm talking about! Somebody else shooting sabots out of a 1 in 48 inch twist barrel. Good shooting too. Too bad you didn't stretch it out to 100 yards.

cayugad

In all honesty, past 75 yards I am getting a harder time then normal with the sight picture. But out to 50 yards, I feel very comfortable shooting open sights.

bronko22000

Cayugad, that will do nicely. Those flinters are fun when they are working right. But they can get really onery sometimes. Glad you had a good outing.

sabotloader

Dave

I sent you those storm clouds... they were here early last night and moving east... did not know you were planning to shoot today.

Looks like shot good as usual...

I got the front sight on the Lightning and hope to get out with it later this week...

Oh.. do any of your White 504's have a Wilson barrel on it? Next question... do you have a .451 White?

cayugad

Yes my Bison has a Wilson Barrel and is .503 diameter. The Ultra Mag is .5045 diameter. I also have a Model 97 White model Whitetail Hunter with a 22 inch barrel in .451 caliber. Great rifle.

sabotloader

Great - I will get a package coming your way.

Do you feel that the .451 has a little larger bore bore than a standard 45 cal?

sqezer

Dave and Sabotloader, send some of that RAIN to use, it's been so dry here the ANTS are farting dust.