Black Powder .50 Cal Lesson

Love the Kit Carson testimonial on the Evans, "At 20 Paces I shot the eyebrows off my wife" She must have hated it when he said, come Hon, I got another show lined up for tonight better get dolled up to go. The Evans Repeating Rifle

 

I use the British cleaning routine. Plug the flash hole with a stick, pour boiling water down the bore until full, dump out in designated area, repeat. With the metal still HOT, it's easy to get the remaining water out after a quick swabbing. This'll do between battles.

 

These Colts have a multi leaf rear sight, most marked at 100/300 and 400/600! Amd the front blade can be driven left or right a little, mostly for zero! The really savy shooter would file his front blade down and could expect close to 700 yards with a proper charge and minie ball!

 

Yes I usually use the hot water, but was out in my shop which has no HW so just used solvent cuz I was wanting to get to the bottom of my problem.

 

Yes I recall a family shoot, when I was a teenager, my Dad was still alive then. We were up on the mountain at my brothers. It was basically an all day guy event. Shoot then a BQ and a few drinks. My brother brought old Betsy with all the gear. And of course I wanted a go at the Holy Black stuff. We were shooting clay pigeons at 50 75 yds. and I had been doing ok. All I was doing was plowing dirt with the muzzle loader. And older brother was having a good laugh. My Dad sidled up, and explained about the right quantities of powder and range etc. Things improved greatly. When I asked my older brother how much powder to use he decided to have some fun so I was just putting in enough to get the lead out and could not figure it out. But he taught me the lesson.

 

Right...so where to begin...
First I have been shooting and collecting muzzleloaders for over 20 odd years now and I have a modest collection of both original and re-worked or home built replicas.

It is always smart to run your ramrod or cleaning rod down the bore of a "new to you" gun to see if it was left loaded...be sure to check for priming or if it was left capped first however.
During hunting season , I have at times , left my muzzleloader , loaded...If I do so , I'll thread a piece of red cloth between the ramrod and barrel , near the muzzle to serve as a reminder that gun is loaded.
( Never store a gun primed or capped )

If you need to take the breechplug off , which I have done and you can do at home...Kroil is you friend.
Well Kroil and the breechplug wrench sold by Dixie's Gun Works for $15-$20 odd dollars...LOL

Rates of fire :
When in a good "shooting groove" and not engaging in gabbing at the shooting line or giving a loading and firing demonstration , I get about 3 shots per minute.
Please note that I try to shoot like Daniel Boone or Kit Carson...so
I shoot from the bag...
Use a loose patch and ball combo...
Prime from my main horn...
I try my best not to have use a "short starter" and I do no use a bullet or ball board.
In my research I have not found much evidence of those items being commonly used on the frontier , by most folks.
This is not to say that you can not find references to either in the 19th century , but , those are mostly in relation to target shooter , back east in the late 1840's -1890's period of muzzleloading.

To load faster if you have a military gun , use a paper cartridge.
Again please note that this was common among the military , but not so much with civilian shooters of the time period.

Or you can load without a patch...this will greatly speed up your loading , but with a loss of accuracy.

Speaking of accuracy....
Back in the day , most folks used a much looser patch and ball combo...which still works and is quicker to load , but not quite "Friendship Indiana" match grade accuracy.
That said it is more than accurate for casual matches and hunting.

Just where the musket got its reputation for bad accuracy is really quite simple.
The military wanted lead in the air...lots of lead...So paper cartridge , no patch and a very undersized round ball.
This along with combat shooting in general and a lack of training or practice , led to not so accurate shooting.
With a proper size round ball and patch....100 yard hits are easily done ( with practice )

Regarding sights ...
Most originals that I have ( 30 odd ) , have low a front sight , like shotgun bead low , and a low "V" or "U" notch rear sight or perhaps a "Buckhorn" sight...again set low.
Now not everyone can be a Timothy Murphy , but he did some fine shooting with sights like the above.
I , myself have shot at and hit many a target at 200 yards....with practice one can hit , hunt and do remarkably well with such "primitive" sights.
Andy

 

I never had any experience with blackpowder firearms when I started work at a gunshop. We had several cheap BP percussion cap rifles that needed cleaning and the first was turning out to be a real pain. It was rusty and was loaded. I tried and tried to get a bullet puller to work, but I couldn't get it to catch on the bullet. So I came up with a brilliant idea to just shoot the loaded bullet out. I started very carefully and with some nervousness with the first #11 cap and nothing. I kept going, loading cap after cap, losing my nervousness until cap number 11. I was in the small room with the test fire tunnel while doing this. Cap number 11 successfully set it off, and it was more like a bomb going off than a rifle. It turns out that it was triple loaded and as I stumbled out of the room covered in soot and smoke, I was amazed I had all my body parts intact.

 

That's my standard proof load on a new BP shotgun barrel. 3x standard powder charge and 3x shot charge. I only do double proof on BP rifle barrels and original BP shotguns. I fire them while safely behind concrete walls with the breech plug backed up against railroad ties or the barrel on a sled. After firing I measure the barrel with a micrometer to see if there has been any diameter change.

You didn't say for certain in the barrel was intact after this incident.

??

 

No, not stacked. That wasn't exactly clear in the OP's report either.

The stacked load thing does make me curious about how an unseated stacked load or two would react. I have the space to test this. Hmmmmm? Really gives new meaning to "safe space." Camera could be shielded, and I could stay in the tower. Fifty years with BP and I'm just not that curious.

 

What happened to using a sheet metal screw welded to a steel rod with a T handle on the end .?

 

Like this?

I learned how important it was to use a centering guide on the screw end of the rod.... and got really lucky.

 

I tried the worm/screw several times did not work. It did not work because it was the end of a broken of brass brush wedged into the breech plug blocking the touch hole. Luckily for me.

 

How did the rifle turn out?