Questions from a new black powder hunter

I just bought my very first black powder gun, a Traditions side hammer muzzle loader. Here is my quandry: I don't know anyone who hunts muzzle loader, and was wondering if I could peer into this untapped resource of

actual hunting experience that this group seems to possess. I would like

to know anything and everything about muzzle loader hunting that you can

offer. Tips, tricks, hints, cheats, I want them all. You can reply to the group, or directly to this email, whichever you are most comfortable

with.

Some info about myself: I have hunted for approximately 17 years now, in

Ontario, and Alberta. I currently live in East central Alberta, only 2 hours away from the monster buck taken this year in the Edmonton Bow zone. I have hunted the past 3 years exclusively with my bow, and decided to give this smoke pole deal a try.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

I am a fellow Albertan and newer Black Powder hunter.

One of the best general guides I have found is the Lyman Black Powder Handbook.

What I have found is practice.

Spring Bear season is on starting Monday, I will be enjoying my Lyman Flintlock this year seeking Black Bear.

I carried by flintlock many miles last fall, but wasn't able to harvest any deer with it.

Enjoy!

Shooter

I hope you have better luck out of your Traditions side hammer than I did. I could not get mine to shoot well. My friends however shot good. First, Take a 1/16 drill bit and drill out your nipple. You will get better ignition and less snapped caps from fouling blocking up the hole. Second, select a bullet that you like that your twist 1:44? is going to like, Ball, Full bore conical, CVA power belt, etc. Third, start with sixty grain and shoot five shots. Clean you rifle and go up 5 grains. What ever the gun shoots most accurately, that is what you need to hunt with. It does not matter if a gun can shoot 150 grains if it can not be counted upon to place the shot accurately. I hunt with a older cve mountaineer with a round ball pushed by 70 grains. It is deadly! I also have a Knight Bighorn Magnum that shoots a sabot on top of 100 grains. Both guns can handle more powder, but not accurately.

Scott

Bob, I've hunted a couple seasons now with my Lyman GPR flintlock .54 caliber roundball rifle. Haven't bagged anything with it yet, but it's nice to be in the woods during the quiet and uncrowded late season. I hope to finish my Fusil de Chasse .62 caliber smoothbore this summer and hunt it this coming November, but it has been a exquisite project so far, if you take my meaing. I've found Sam Fadala's books on the topic very helpful; search for him by name at amazon.com Other sources include http://members.aye.net/~bspen/index.html and http://members.primary.net/~dr5x/index.html and http://www.98.net/ibha/flint1.htm (this last article is devoted to the flintlock, but you almost there...) Good hunting! Michael

I agree with most of what was said, though I have no trouble so far with caps fouling the nipple on my Traditions Lightning Side Fire. The load is , however, very important. My gun fires within a 2 inch circle at 50 yds (open sights) with patched round balls pushed by 80 mgrains of Pyrodex. More powder or different projectiles lead to less accuracy.

I've had good luck so far Scott. I was out on Saturday, and through trial and error came up with a pretty good group. I started at 80 grains, with a Hornady round ball and got a fair group (8 inches at 100 yards). I went up to 90 grains with the same ball, and was grouping about 5-6 inches at 100 yards. Is that good for this type of gun? Am I shooting farther than I should be?

I guess a good question is what is my maximum range with this type of equipment?

Are you shooting iron sights? That is a good group for Irons. I would like to see 3 inches, but 5-6 inches is acceptable for a carbine 1:44 round ball. The balls you are using are probably .490. You might want to try .495 or a thicker patch on the .490 ball. You should not have to hammer the ball down the tube, but the tighter the ball and patch the better group you will end up with. I had a short carbine that would not shoot with 2f powder. I had to go to 3f. It was a tack driver. I gave it to a friend.

Because there are so many variables, it is hard to know where to start. Here is how I would go about working up a load.

Pick a bullet (patch if applies) work up the powder until I know what volume of powder I need. Try different powders to see if I can get a better group.

Go to tighter ball/patch combo repeat the powder work up

Take the most accurate loads and vary the lube for the patch. You will begin to find that the rifle likes a certain range of powder charge for all bullets.

As for the range, I feel a little different than some on this issue. If you feel comfortable, and are able to put a hole in the vitals then distance doesn't matter. I have one blackpowder rifle that I will not shoot a deer over 140-50 yds. It is just not capable of putting the bullet where I want it. I have two others that I have no fear of dropping the hammer on 200+ yds. Both are scoped, one shoots a 425 gr slug and the other shoot a 240 sabot.

Scott