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Favorite caliber to shoot

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musketman

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.75 Brown Bess is #1 in my book...I also like the mighty .54 caliber muzzleloader followed closely by the heavy .58 caliber civil war muskets.My least favotite is the .45 caliber...
I like my Kentucky long rifles in .40 caliber or smaller.
The CVA Poor Boy in .38 caliber flintlock is an awsome weapon on critters and varmits.
 
Hey Musketman. Very soon I am gonna get a bess. Have some questions about load, patches, etc. Out here on the Oregon coast I belong to a Mountain Man Club and they sell BP for cost, but only get 3f. I doing some limited research, I figure that using about 60-65 grains of 3f should do the trick. One guy has a bess and uses 1f and his smoker fouls up real, real fast. I plan on using square cut pillow ticking patches cut to about 1 1/4", and puttin' that with a .715 round ball down on top of a lubed 12 guage overpowder shotgun wad. I alos intend on trying to make some cartridges with the same load and ball without the shotgun wad just for fun. I also plan on priming with 3f. I am looking at Long Land pattern or India pattern from Middlesex Village Trading Company. I, due to some crummy physical limitations won't be doing a lot of shooting, so getting a higher end unit isn't too important, but love to dress up and parade around some...especially at our mountain man rondy. There are about 4 or 5 of us "colonial black sheep" in the club and we enjoy the heck out of it. Will be trying to put together a dog 'n pony show about period 1740-1780 for local schools. What say you?
Regards,
John in Oregon
 
Oregonjohn, So you're getting a Brown Bess...
I think that's great...I use 120-150 grains of Fg or FFg in my BESS with a .015 pillow-tick patch lubed with T/C maxi lube and a .735 diameter round ball.
I use a .020 patch with a .715 home-cast round ball also.I have used FFFg in the priming pan, but it is a little slower than FFFFg...
(Remember that the mountain men only had one powder for both priming and main ignition.)I use this higher load in my Bess after working up to it and it's a strong gun...
I started out with a 70 grain load and worked up to what feels right for my gun.Watch your patches... Faster burning powders will burn holes through them at larger charge size, these will let you know if you reached your gun's maxinum load as well.My Lyman muzzleloading handbook states the following loads for the brown bess...
20 grains to 150 grains of FFg black powder, using a .715 round ball and a .020 patch lubed with Crisco...(gr)(fps)(Ft.lbs)
20- 341- 141
30- 455- 250
40- 569- 391
50- 662- 530
60- 754- 687
70- 817- 807
80- 879- 934
90- 943- 1075
100- 1006- 1223
110- 1047- 1325
120- 1088- 1430
130- 1136- 1559
140- 1184- 1703
150- 1213- 1778I hope this helps and feel free to email me with any questions you may have.
[This message has been edited by musketman (edited 01-11-2003).][This message has been edited by musketman (edited 01-11-2003).]
 
Hey Oregonjohn...
Get your BROWN BESS yet?Are you right or left handed?
My left handed friend once shot my bess, he set his beard on fire...
shocked.gif
I'm just glad he didn't throw it during his struggle to put himself out...If you do not care for the side-blast, many muzzleloading suppliers offer flash guards for the Brown Bess.Not a bad idea if you have people standing to your right when you shoot.
[This message has been edited by musketman (edited 01-22-2003).][This message has been edited by musketman (edited 01-22-2003).]
 
I can't honestly claim a "favorite" caliber. Each of my guns is a favorite for some specific task. For example, for serious competition I use a heavily modified T/C Hawken with a Green Mountain Barrel with 1/72 rate of twist in .50 caliber. It's won any matches for me in the 27 years I've been shooting it. It's also a fun rifle for hunting caribou.

Alaska hunting regulations require .54 caliber or larger if hunting moose, bear or other large animals with a round ball. For most of my big-game hunting I use a custom built .58 caliber trade rifle. The most accurate load for that rifle is 120 grains of Goex FFg under a .575 round-ball patched in tallow-lubricated linen. That load allows me to shoot eight inch groups at 120 yards with no problem and it will kill anything I'm likely to encounter. On the other hand, it's a heavy gun to carry around all day (nearly 9 lb) and with that narrow butt-plate recoil can be brutal. Not something you want to shoot all day on the line.

The most common gun I carry in the field is a 20 gauge (.62 caliber) smoothbore, either a reproduction Tulle de Chasse or my shortened (24 inch barrel) trade-gun. I carry the Tulle nearly all winter long, shooting grouse, hares, foxes and beavers. I wouldn't hesitate to harvest either a moose or black bear with it. At ranges under 50 yards I shoot it just as accurately as my rifle, it's light weight (just over 7 lb) and has provided me many meals on the trail.

During summer, when the only open hunting season is for black bear, I usually carry the shortened trade gun, primarily for defense against grizzly bear should I be so unlucky as to encounter one during a trek. Loaded with shot, it's also harvested a few grouse and hares.

Swanny
 
Hey Musketman, you mentioned in a previous post that you use 90 grains of powder with a .735 round ball for deer hunting. In this posting a few days apart you say you use 120-150 grains of powder in your Brown Bess. I'm looking for a load for my gun but can't figure out what you really use for yours. You must be wasting alot of powder if you load with 150 grains and for how many days afterward do you have your shoulder in a sling? How about the straight scoop on what you use?
 
Its 120 grains for deer hunting
The 90 grains is a plinking load, sort of...
I upped my hunting load to 120 because I felt 90 was not enough to decreese the bullet drop rate to my liking.

As for a sore shoulder, I wear a heavy hunting jacket and the gun's weight helps reduce the recoil... It's not that bad...

Sorry about the mixed information, I ment no harm...
 
To me, it depends what you are shooting at. I love the .54 for hunting, in both Kibler Woodsrunner, or the T/C white Mountain Carbine. Depending what the weather is. Big fat balls are easier to handle when your hands are cold, and you are as clumsy as I am.
For just fun shooting at targets, or plinking I love the .32 Crockett. Super accurate out to about 50 yards. But I must admit, the tiny .310 balls are tough to load, but miserly on powder and lead.
 

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.75 Brown Bess is #1 in my book...I also like the mighty .54 caliber muzzleloader followed closely by the heavy .58 caliber civil war muskets.My least favotite is the .45 caliber...
I like my Kentucky long rifles in .40 caliber or smaller.
The CVA Poor Boy in .38 caliber flintlock is an awsome weapon on critters and varmits.
My favorite has been my .54 rifle, Trudy. Lately though she has had bad accuracy problems, and I'm diagnosing them, but things don't look good.

LD
 
I've a "thing" for smaller calibers, so the ML rifle I've always imagine I'd own is a .32 or .36...

But my first was a .54, then I bought a .50 and then sold both without ever even shooting the 50, and quickly used the funds to buy a better .50 (went from CVA to TC) and a .45 (again, CVA to TC). It has been turkey season and while I've shot both maybe 5 times each, I haven't really taken the time to you know, shoot them and get to know them real well and figure out a preference. Just on handling the White Mountain Carbine is certainly a winner....

And TBH, if I had to pick a single favorite caliber, it wouldn't be for a muzzle loader....
 
My favorite is the 32 flinter.
However 75% of the time target shooting its the 45 flinter (light recoil and bucks wind well).
Percussion is my 40 cal - But I am working on a 40 flinter too.
Hunting its always been the 54 flint.
However, now that I got a 62/20 ga trade gun its my new favorite turkey gun (Maybe deer its much lighter and no shot opportunity will be available over 40 yards in most my spots.)
 
As soon as I cast some more .600 balls I will be back to the range to experiment some more with my Pedersoli trade gun.
Last time I shot ball out of it, it was doing very good with 80 gr, FFG, 80 gr corn meal, and bare .600 ball, ant then a cardboard wad to hold it all together. Seemed to shoot much better than a patched round ball, same powder load.
I know it doesn’t make sense, but this cornmeal load worked for me .
It would be nice to find a good round ball load to 50 yards, that’s about my limit here with open sights.
 

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