Range Report Toolslingers .54

T

toolslinger

New member
Some may remember my adventures with this Cabelas Sporterized Hawken. It is in reality an Investarms Italy ,basically the same thing as a Lyman Trade Rifle cept it has nifty checkering and a rubber butt pad.
Well after I made the barrel actually fit the stock(since Cabellas no longer accepts returns on black powder guns) I also made a nifty leather cover for the recoil pad ,chucked the cheesy rear sight and installed a Lyman 57 peep sight.
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Well today I finally got to get her real dirty:cool: Sorta sighted in and tested with 60 grains Goex, both .530 and .535 Hornady RB and 3 different style patches.
1st 3 rounds: sight set on all zeros , .530 round balls, .10 moosemilk prelubed patches.
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Oh I forgot by this time I had moved to 25 yards.
50 feet, the tape is 1 inch and this is also my first rifle rounds in about 4 years... dang I can't see anymore.
5 hours or so later, swabbed after every shot with Windex with vinegar, the last 6 shots
60 grains holy black, .535 round ball ,storebought prelubed, precut patch
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One of the black rifle shooters was kind enough to give me a target since I forgot mine.
 
Well shoot the customization is just a butt cover and the peep sight. She shoots pretty good for an OOB muzzleloader with only like 30-40 rounds out the barrel.
The ball/ patches and cleaning patches went down really smooth and she cleaned up really nice.
I can see machining marks on the lands and grooves so I was expecting a lot worse.
I bet she shoots in really well.
 
Nice looking Howken. I like to see them when folks take care of them. Hope you have a life time of enjoyment out of it. :)












Dell
 
Thanks Dell. I must be doing something wrong though. Even though I was firing real black powder I was unable to obtain any of the dreaded hard fouling and even though I put around 30 shots through her it only took about 10 minutes of swabbing with hot soapy water (cause I did it twice) to get the bore clean.
She also refuses to rust for some reason.
I am beginning to suspect that all the horror stories I have been reading on the intrawebs might be somewhat inaccurate...
just saying:D
 
Not sure what hard fouling you're referring to reading about. Certainly some skepticism is in order when reading most any internet posts, but it also helps to pay close attention to the circumstances described in many of the posts. The stories you've been reading may actually be quite accurate but incomplete as to circumstances, or you may not have recognized the role those circumstances play.

The 'hard fouling' problem that's most common occurs when low distillate petroleum products (for example, gun oil) are left in the combustion chamber area when the gun is fired. (Key words here are 'low distillate petroleum products' and 'combustion chamber area'.) The temperatures reached in black powder combustion are not hot enough to fully burn the low distillate petroleum products; the incomplete combustion results in that famous substance tar, which can be a real pain to remove.

Having this problem in a rifle like yours can be quite serious because it's very difficult to see or feel the tar buildup in the combustion chamber area until it gets fairly thick; at that point you're in for some serious cleaning duty.

Another point to be aware of is the 'low distillate' adjective; the more refined, or high distillate, oils are either fully consumed in the black powder combustion or ejected without becoming tar. In general, mineral oil based cleaners and lubricants fall in this category.

Finally, the tar problem can be avoided even if gun oil is used by swabbing with bore with an oil solvent such as alcohol (Windex will also work) and then drying it just before shooting.

As for rust, well, it's a whole lot simpler. Clean the gun after using (there are a thousand different ways) and apply a rust preventative = no rust. End of story.
 
Yeah I was just funnin Mykeal:D She gets swabbed before the first load and between each shot with a patch soaked in Windex with vinegar and only lubed with either moosemilk or bore butter for the patches.
My homemade patches were moosemilk and my storebought were prelubed with what looked like borebutter.
Danged if it didn't seem to like the storebought precut patches better than my homemades cut at the muzzle:confused:
She cleaned up like nothin with just hot water ,a bit o Dawn and some patches. I dried her off with towels and compressed air . I check her visually every day as she sets about 4' away from the computer. 3 days after cleaning I ran some clean white ,tight patches with windex down the bore and they came out pristine.
I very much doubt I will have problem 1 with her.
Of course next range trip I will be retesting all my components with larger powder charges at longer range:D
I love load development:)
 
There are a million lube recipes, and each one works for somebody. Here's mine: Ballistol mixed with water at 1:6, soaked into 1 1/2" wide strips of pillow 0.018" pillow ticking, then dried horizontally and cut at the muzzle. Got it from Dutch Schoultz: Black Powder Rifle Accuracy System, the best $20 I ever spent on gun stuff.
 
Mine is similar... but different:D I live in the boonies (40 miles to the nearest Wally world) and the dang Walmart has not had the proper pillow ticking. I did buy some nice linen but it is only .010 and I tried a t shirt .015 but the only .018 I could find were storebought (Bass pro) prelubed.
I have not mail ordered Ballistol (yet) so the moosemilk is 2 oz. Napa oil (I needed it to drill and tap for the Lyman 57) 2 oz. Murphys oil soap and 14 oz water.
At some point I will try out different recipies;) Like I said I looooove load development:D
 
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