cayugad

Beautiful day, 48 degrees no jacket needed weather. Sunny and no wind. I heard the range call to me. So I looked over the rifles and realized I have been avoiding my Lyman Trade Rifle in both the .50 caliber model and the .54 caliber flintlock model. Well I like big projectiles so I picked the 54 caliber.

Schuetzen black powder in 2f is the best black powder I have shot out if this rifle. Checking my notes it said 85 to 100 grains of powder. So I had a powder measure already set a 85 grains and called it good.

Swabbed the rifle barrel real careful with isopropyl alcohol to remove any oil and was pleased to see the barrel was clean as the day I put it up on the shelf from the last range time. Then I spotted a box of .535 roundball. Semisane had made for me to try and there was still twenty or so in the box. Notes also said it loaded them fine. So out to the range we headed.



There my beauty is. Along with the new shooting table that I really have grown to like.



Look how worn that Lyman brand Agate is. There is about 60 shots on it. And it worked perfect today. No hang fires, and really nice sparks. I wish I had purchased a few more of them. I have them on a number of flintlocks.

I had a small snow bank to shoot through in front of the target back stop. The range finder said 32 yards. And so I got all set up. 85 grains of Schuetzen 2f, Semisane round ball, pillow tick, and moose milk with 4f Goex primer in the pan.



With a six o'clock hold covering the bulls eye the first three shots hit right above the bull, touching. So I gave a little more meat to the sight and the bull to see if they would go down. Be it known, I was swabbing between shots with isopropyl alcohol Wet swab both sides and dry patch both sides. The .535 balls fit tight, but once started slid right down the barrel nice.

The next two shots with a little more meat under the bull hit to the left of the bulls eyes touching. Tried a couple more and they too hit right in that group. So I cut the hold a little, splitting the difference. And then it hit right between the two groups.

After somewhere around 12 shots, I was getting a little sore in the knees from walking back and fourth and knowing i had to put all this stuff away so I debate and decided I had enough fun today. Maybe tomorrow I will bring out the .50 caliber Lyman Trade Rifle and try that.

For a change I cleaned the Lyman Trade Rifle first off like it was a pinned rifle barrel. Tooth pick in the flash hole, etc. Dishwater poured down the barrel, etc. It cleaned up real nice. But I decided I wanted to take the touch hole out so I broke the rifle down at the end. Took out the touch hole and cleaned that real good. Then pushed Q tips through the vent hole into the cone of the rifle. I was surprised I got a small trace of fouling. So I did about five Q tips and finally they were clean. Then range a few more alcohol patched through it and they came out clean. Barricaded the barrel with a good wet patch and wiped it down before I re-greased the threads on the vent liner with Slick 50 one grease. And wiped the rifle down, so I can wait for another turn on the range.

bronko22000

Nice shooting Cayugad. Glad to see a report. How is the single trigger on that rifle?

cayugad

That has to have one of the best single triggers on any of my rifles. The T/C Black Mountain Magnum would be a real close match.

cayugad

Re-reading my posts and I noticed, the picture I posted earlier was just that, an early picture and not the final picture with this fancy phone camera. The last one shows the adjustments with the sight. What is so funny is most my shots are at or closer then this distance out of a tree stand with a rest in it. If you want a nice flintlock rifle, the Lyman (or Cabelas Hawkens) is a nice rifle for the money.

Blackpowdersmoke

Yes they are a nice rifle for the $$. Wish I had bought one while they still offered them left handed. Anyone ever notice just how closely their lock resembles that of a TC?

BPS