cayugad

Long ago I had a LEE .535 mold that did me no good. Every ball I cast from it would not fit down the muzzle of my Renegade, T/C Hawkens, or New Englander rifle. So I sold it. The person who purchased it was kind enough to send me some ball he cast out of it when I got my Lyman rifles. Thanks Semisane.

The other day I was ordering molds and was going to get a .495 and .575 for my rifles. Green Mountain barrels run big in general and will take the same thing a Knight or Lyman will take. Well I used my notebook when I placed the order and my fat fingers must have clicked the wrong box. So I ended up getting a .535 instead of the .575 mold. Not a problem.

So today I spent the morning and cast a couple boxes of the .535 for my Trade Rifle in .54 caliber.



And not to blow my own horn, but they turned out really good.

So once they cooled, I just had to shoot them. I was about to get some dishwater for patch lube when I saw a bottle of olive oil in the cupboard. I remembered Semisane always shot olive oil .. this is extra virgin to boot.
So I took some of that instead. The new cast ball, the flintlock 54 caliber trade rifle, some pillow tick, and made up a target.

I set the target at what I thought was 35 yards. After all this is what I sight my rifles in for. Where I hunt, that is a long shot. I ran the rangefinder and discovered three readings of 33 yards. Ok.. close enough.

So I parked myself and shot a five shot group for starters.. now remember this is only 33 yards.. not all that far, and I could see the target perfect today because of the position of the sun and clouds. I know this rifle likes 90 grains of 2f black powder. And I started shooting Schuetzen but after 5 shots ran out and had to switch to Graf's and sons.




My thoughts turned to the pure olive oil I was using as a lube. Because the patches looked excellent and I sure could not argue the accuracy. So I used spit and swabbed the bore after five shots and shot five more times.



What did ole Jerry Reed sing.. buddy when your hot, your hot. That just blew my mind. So I swabbed the barrel again. On the target I use, in the lower corner is a turkey and if you look real close at the picture of the turkey you can see his white head. So after letting the rifle cool, and myself calm down, I decided to have a turkey shoot.



At 33 yards I could just see that white speck in the center of the dark turkey color so I fired off a shot. Missed the head but came pretty close...



So I tried a few more rounds at that white speck. Granted I might not have hit that white head, but I scared that bird about to death I figured.

I then spit patched the rifle again and was going to call it quits but like I said.. when your hot, your hot. So I picked the green square box above the turkey and decided to shoot for the center of the box.



I came close again.. but not dead center. So I buckled down and really concentrated on sight picture, trigger squeeze and follow through, as the rifle's ignition time was getting slow due to the dull flint.



That made me feel a little better. So this olive oil needs more testing for sure. And the cast ball are working great. The Trade Rifle has taken deer, so it shouldn't get a chance but if it keep this up, it might.



That is some of the olive oil patches. I put olive oil in a bug spray bottle and that spurts out a small squirt of it. I then rub that around the patch area, set the ball and cut the patch at the muzzle. Seems to work good.



I have gotten over 60 shots off that flint and only knapped it once so far... not too bad.

pluckit

Aw, take the old Trade Rifle huntin' with ya. From the looks of that target, she's not gonna let you down!

lonewolf5348

Dave: excellent

edmehlig

Keep shooting like that Dave and you might no longer want your White .451?? I know a few boys who would beat your door down if ya ever decided to sell it. GRIN

cayugad

That's too good of a squirrel rifle Ed. I still remember when they kidded you about that. I never forgot that, and still call my .451 my squirrel rifle. You took that .451 hog hunting as I remember and it did a good job too.

That Trade Rifle is a strange rifle. It shoots roundball excellent, 405 grain Powerbelts like an inline and even sabots. Although I have not tested a lot of them and now realize I was going to do that today too, and forgot them. But that 90 grains of Black Powder and a roundball.. When I shot a doe with that Trade Rifle a few years back, she was 52 yards away. I was on the clear cut border line where my property meets the Federal Forest System and they clear cut that strip. That way all the trespassers knew when they leave the federal and enter private property. So all the grass came in there. And deer would congregate there.

It was December, COLD, and snowing and I was going to walk back to the house on the border line as it is easy to walk and I often see deer there. Sure enough, I get there and watch a doe walk out and face me. So I rest the rifle against a tree and when she drops her head to eat, I shoot for her neck. I figured, hit the neck she drops, miss the spine and the ball will enter the chest cavity and should hit the heart or lungs.

I pulled that trigger and the snow is blowing like mad but, that rifle went off perfect. The ball hit her neck, went through that, entered the brisket, clipped the heart, exited the lower stomach, and then hit a back leg and broke that.. the ball disappeared into the woods. She dropped in her tracks. But I was amazed at the penetration that roundball got and how well it dropped that deer.

bronko22000

That is really nice shooting Dave. I took Semi's advice too and used olive oil as a lube. It does work. I tried .535s in my GPR flinter and they were way too tight. I shoot .530s with .018" pillow tick patching. My lube is either olive oil or bore butter. Both seem to work equally well.

Semisane

Now that's some mighty fine round ball shooting pard! Ya gotta love a Lyman.

I've never even held a Trade Rifle. But my Great Plains fits me like a glove and is a joy to shoot.

How did the .535s load?

cayugad

They loaded just fine with .018 pillow tick patch and olive oil. A good pop to get them in the bore, but once in they slid right down the bore.

screamin

Note to self. Must try olive oil in my Deerstalker. If it works as well as the 8:1 ballistol mix, life just got a little easier.

cayugad

screamin the nice thing is... olive oil is easy to get. Its in the cupboard and on grocery store shelves. I was kind of leery about trying olive oil to be honest. But seeing the results that Semisane and others get with it, I figured I have nothing to loose. Now I have a lot of testing to try in other rifles with it. I have used ballistol and the one thing about it that I hated was the smell !!! That stuff stinks.