Unless someone talks me out of it, I am going to purchase a Lyman Trade Rifle 54 CAL Percussion with 28" barrel and 1 in 48" twist.

I plan to shoot patch and ball.

I am new to muzzleloading, so any comments or suggestions would be appreciated, like which loose powder to choose.

I do have a very good friend who has done this for a long time and he has promised to teach me everything he knows, but he has never owned a Lyman.

Yes the Lyman Trade rifle is a very good rifle. It is made for Lyman by Investarms of Italy, who also make the Cabela's Hawken rifles. .54cal is a good choice for a ball shooter to be used for hunting. Some consider it to be the best all around hunting caliber for round balls. The 1:48 twist will generally shoot round balls very well with moderate-high powder charge. If you desire a load with more energy, 1:48 twist barrels will generally shoot solid lead conicals like maxi balls and Lee's REALs pretty well. If you want a seriously accurate ball shooter, then you might want to consider the Lyman Great Plains rifle with it's longer, 1:60 twist barrel. I have one in .54cal and it will shoot round balls, with heavy powder loads, extremely well.

What sab said. If you are going to shoot round ball get a ML designed for it... 1:48 is a compromise twist that can do both, but not always well...

Basically & in most cases, the 1-48" twist will shoot a roundball well 50-75 yards while bores with 1-60 to 1-70 twist shoot them well at 100 yards & beyond.

What do you consider a heavy load to be? >90 grains blackpowder?

I have a new Lyman Great Plains Rifle in .54 cal flint and I plan to do some paper punching this weekend! (Now that I finally have a supply of black powder).[:@]

Kenneth

I have shot mine with up to 110 grains of Swiss Ffg and it shot very well. I plan to only use 100 grns for hunting since it still packs plenty of power and is easier on the shoulder. Switching to Goex Ffg or Swiss 1.5 Fg would also take out some of the recoil but still provide adequate velocity for hunting. For punching paper, I have been shooting 70 grains of Goex Ffg.

ekyle

Without hestitation i would suggest to you a Trade Rifle is a good gun. I have had a .54 for several years now and it is a preformer.

There has been a lot of good advice about a slower twist if you are set on shooting PRB's only. The 1-48 is a compromise to shoot conicals and RB's. But, I will also tell it will shoot sabots and bullets really, really well...

I can not give you any first hand knowledge about RB's because I shoot the sabot thing...