Black Powder?

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I have a Lyman Great Plains rifle in .54 caliber. Put Williams peep sights on it. When I lived in Colorado I used it for elk hunting. I don't shoot it very often anymore, but now and then...

Don't have any pictures of my gun, so here's a stock photo.

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I have a Thompson Center .50 caliber carbine and two reproductions revolvers - 1862 .36 caliber Police and 1851 .44 Caliber Navy Yank.
I have deer hunted with the rifle. They are fun to shoot.
My buddy is big into it with Ruger Old Army’s and rifles including a .70 caliber Double Rifle.
I haven’t tried it yet but he says that Dawn power spray dish detergent is great for cleaning.
 

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I've been shooting black powder guns since the early 70's. The first gun I bought with my own money was a flintlock pistol which I still have and still shoot. Being a history geek the old time stuff fascinated me. I have owned and shot a lot of replica and original guns. Muzzle loaders and black powder cartridge guns are still some of my favorites.

Never found the cleanup to be all that much trouble, a little soap and water gets the crud out then dry and oil and good to go. They are fun and a link to the past.
 
I still have a couple I've built, Flint Locks.
One a 40cal slender Southern Mtn style rifle
The other an English .775cal Queen Ann style Musket
A few others I've sold.

A recent restoration is a Remington Keene Rifle in 43 Spanish caliber.
The rifle restoration is completed.
I'm making up a few rounds of ammo now from 7mm Rem mag brass.
That will be BP loaded.
We will see how that goes.
 
I don't shoot it myself. But my father left me a ton. Revolvers, pistols, shotguns, and rifles of all kinds. After my brother passed, being in the garage building another gun was how he coped. He built a Jaeger, a NW Trade gun, Southern Mountain guns, a smooth rifle with a swamped barrel, a Pennsylvania rifle and more. And every gun he built, he made a bag for, a horn or 2, and usually a knife. I have all kinds of supplies and equipment for the building, shooting and cleaning for muzzleloading guns. I've got about 200 pounds of lead, bullet casting equipment, including about 20 different molds. I have tomahawks, knives, wool blanket capotes and a beaver fur hat. Not to mention a ton of books on building and shooting them. One of these days I need to go through it all and decide what I want to keep and sell the rest somewhere.
For the last 20 years he hunted, he used muzzleloaders exclusively. The last 10 years he only used guns he built himself. Hunting with a flintlock in the PNW ain't always easy.
Anyway, keep your powder dry and shoot sharp.
 
I shoot a fair amount of black powder but not muzzle loaders. I use it in cartridge arms like the Sharps (50-90, 45-70 and 40-70 Necked), 1873 (44-40 and 32-20) and some 1886 Winchesters and Colt SAA's such as the Colt 45 and 44-40 Win. Lemme tell you, the Colt 45 with a case full of 2F black and a 250 gr. bullet is nothing to sneeze at - considerably more powerful than a modern factory load. They're actually a bit more trouble to clean than the muzzle loaders as you have to clean the brass as well as the firearm itself. I have some cap and ball revolvers but I really prefer the cartridge arms.
 
My dad and I used to shoot together in North-South Skirmish Association matches. Later on we used to hunt deer together during the designated flintlock season in PA and the later established general muzzleloader deer season. With a lot of practice I got to the point where I could shoot the flintlock rifle with patched round balls and consistently shoot groups at 100 yards offhand that would hit the lid of a gallon paint can. But Pop has now passed on and due to medical issues and decrepitude I don't hunt anymore.
 
I have a Thompson-Center Renegade in 50 cal, and a Cabela's 1860 .44. Like to shoot them both, used to deer hunt with the T/C. Big fun, but you can't be in a hurry! I'd like to find a flintlock one of these days, just 'cause.
 
I have a couple of front loaders around. A .50 Hawken I've owned for 40 years, another Hawken in .45 I inherited, and a .58 caliber Zouave rifled musket that is a lot more fun to shoot and much more effective for hunting. \

But most of my black powder shooting is done with a 1859 Sharps "Berdan" paper cartridge infantry rifle, and an 1873 Sharps in .45-70.

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Been shooting black since I put together my Hopkins and Allen Minuteman flintlock back in H.S. It's been carried a lot over the years and I've taken a few deer with it. Had restocked and the lock replaced so the only original part is the barrel. It's the middle rifle in the rack.

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The top flintlock is J. Turpin made beauty that I swapped an old Winchester 94 for a few years ago. Both rifles are 45 caliber and I shoot a .440" diameter RB with .010" patch in both. The longer barreled H&A uses 90 gr FFG, the Turpin, 60.
Here's a couple closeups of the Turpin.
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The old H&A weighs in at around 11 pounds. The Turpin is under 7. And boy, does that make a difference when out hunting.
The percussion rifle is a 45 caliber TC Hawken, and shoots the same ball and patch combo as the other two.
They are fun shooting and I don't find it a bother cleaning them up.

John
 
One of my shooting buddies and myself shoot every week and at least one fourth of the time it is black powder. It if the most relaxing kind of shooting for me. Attached is a Pietta 1860 Army I got on sale at Cabela"s ~20 years ago along with a roll your own paper cartridge and 5 shots at 10 paces.
 

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I shoot mostly black powder. A jack Garner flintlock Virginia rifle is my favorite. For local bench rest shoots I use a T/C Hawken 54 caliber with a 1-66" round ball twist. I never found cleaning black powder guns difficult unless we're talking cap and ball revolvers. Getting copper out of a modern high power rifle barrel is much more of a chore than swabbing a long rifle.1000001604.jpg1000000269.jpg
 
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