cabela's traditional hawken percussion rifle

Minies would load easiest. I used Lee Reals, Maxi balls and Buffalo Bullets in mine with good results. I tried sabots but they all tumbled.
 
i have used powerbelts.. they work well in that rifle.. but the best ones i have ever used as far as acuracy have been the CVA deerslayers. 300 grain.. i am not sure if they make them anymore though.. i will need to do some recerch. its been a few years since i have used the 50 for hunting. and have only used it for target shootingand competitionshooting and most of that is done with round ball.


looks like some places still sell them. by far the best acuracy for a conocal from my cabelas hawken

http://www.impactguns.com/store/043125115914.html
 
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sabots

i have tried sabots. didnt like how they loaded, or how they shot, and in colorado you can not use them for hunting anyway.. so no worries. LOL
 
lol, i was secretly hoping someone would chime in with LEE R.E.A.L. minie :D

i've got a few tools, i can't wait for the weather to break so i can start casting my own. i think my next purchase is the .50cal LEE minie mold - but what grain weight would work best?

(yes, i did see the movie 'the patriot')
casting_tools.jpg
 
Heres my first 3 shots today with my nephews .45cal sporterized hawken carbine. 225gn Powerbelt Aerotip, 70gn Pyrodex RS, 50 yards with poor lighting and off of my shooting sticks. This rifle has thick chunky sights on it, i may upgrade to the firestorm sights.
Picture530.jpg


This is the best group i have ever shot with this rifle and conicals. It can only get better on a solid rest and good light!
 
70gr_018p.jpg


31ºF, overcast, no wind, 50yds, .50cal hornady prb, 10 shots

few changes:
2 swabs of spit patch between shots -> 2 swabs dry patch between shots
60gr pyrodex rs -> 70gr pyrodex
.015 t/c pre-lubed patch -> .018 t/c pre-lubed patch

the 3 shots down in the 3rd quadrant (thats about 8 o'clock for you non-geometry types) - were the original routine before the changes, after the changes the groups tightened up.

the 10th shot (2nd quadrant, 11 o'clock) was because the 1st trigger was not setting the hair trigger. i heard it click twice but had to pull harder on the hair trigger making me miss the bull - that's when i quit (i didn't have a small enough screwdriver to adjust the set screw).

oh yeah, happened again - i forgot the powder charge! i'm getting good at popping it out with the 'powdered nipple' trick.
 
IMG_0088.jpg


62ºF, no wind, 50yds, .50cal hornady prb, 9 shots
2 swabs dry patch between shots
70gr pyrodex
.018 t/c pre-lubed patch
#11 cci magnum caps (instead of the regular caps)

i think i found the right combination :)

btw - no stuck ball this go-round, i remembered to load the charge 1st!
 
As to the Knight Redhot nipples being the wrong thread pitch....Glad Im not the only one to see it.
I had a couple Green Mountain TC drop in barrels come in a couple months ago with metric Knight Red Hot nipples forced into the 1/4-28 bolsters....tight as all get out too.
I called Green Mountain and told them about it and they said they had not seen that issue before,but would report it to knight and offered to have the barrels picked up for inspection.I got lucky and there was no thread damage to my bolsters.So I installed a couple standard TC cones as I prefer the profile and moved on.
So the Knight Red hot nipples must have had a couple batches mixed up in the packaging process.
You should call knight and let them know they have an issue as well...They need to let the distributors know to check thier inventory or recall the parts.
 
ah ha! so there is more to this...wad under the patch...

i did notice wads of what looked like cardboard or maybe felt on the ground along with patches.

the experiments continue!
 
As to the Knight Redhot nipples being the wrong thread pitch....Glad Im not the only one to see it.
I had a couple Green Mountain TC drop in barrels come in a couple months ago with metric Knight Red Hot nipples forced into the 1/4-28 bolsters....tight as all get out too.
I called Green Mountain and told them about it and they said they had not seen that issue before,but would report it to knight and offered to have the barrels picked up for inspection.
Click to expand...

Green Mountain actually issued a recall a little while ago when a large number of people started getting barrels with wrong thread nipples installed. They found the problem in house also, and attempted to correct the barrels that had damaged thread with Heli-coils. The recall was initiated after several customers complained about receiving repaired barrels that they had paid new prices for. It was not Green Mountain's finest hour.
 
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