• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Search results

Shop deals on ebay
the hawken shop
Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. Herb

    The Horace Kephart Hawken

    Horace Kephart was a firearms writer of the early 1900s. His book "Sporting Firearms and the Hawken Rifle, Rifles for Big Game and the Hunting Rifle" is a treasure of comparison details of rifles and calibers. There is good information on the Hawken family and their rifles. I got my copy from...
  2. Herb

    looking for info on a saddle.

    You could contact www.dryforksaddle.com. They are here in Vernal and build saddles.
  3. Herb

    What size Olde Eynsford

    I've used 10 to 15 pounds of Olde Eynsford in my .45, 50, 54 and .58 calibers. I have not had good results with OE 3F, but OE 2F and OE 1 1/2F are wonderful powders . Craig Kirkland, owner of Bear River Powder, a Goex Master Distributor, told me a couple of years ago that the only caliber he...
  4. Herb

    Help me understand twist rates

    Thanks, Notchy Bob. Yes, my last Bridger Hawken was built with an Oregon Barrel Company barrel. According to The Gun Works catalog (info@the gunworks.com), "Oregon Barrel Company is a specialty barrel making company." Look them up on their web site. They custom make a barrel to your specs...
  5. Herb

    Help me understand twist rates

    Here is a .54 caliber 24" barreled Hawken with a 1 in 48 inch twist built by Bob Browner and written up in Muzzle Blast magazine April 2018. His 50-yard group was with 60 grains of Goex 2F at 1200 fps and the 100 yard group was with 120 grains of Goex 2F at about 1660 fps. The second photo is...
  6. Herb

    Why is a fast twist bad for a round ball?

    I only used this 120 grain load as a twist demonstration. I used to hunt deer and elk with 120 grains of Goex 2F but in recent years have gone down to 100 grains. What caliber are you shooting? A 12 gauge wad is .740 diameter.
  7. Herb

    Why is a fast twist bad for a round ball?

    That Track of the Wolf Jim Bridger rear sight I used is too low. I'd have to cut the front sight lower than I like to bring the 50 grain and 80 grain loads nearer to point of aim at 50 yards. So I made a new rear sight, but still not tall enough. I used it here and repeated that 120 grain...
  8. Herb

    Going from Swiss 2F to 1 1/2F

    A measure cut to hold exactly 100 grains of Swiss 1 1/2F by weight holds only 94 grains of Swiss 2F. In .54 and .58 caliber muzzleloaders I built, more than 100 grains of Swiss 1 1/2 will give hard fouling at the breech. I make weight-corrected measures for each powder brand and granulation...
  9. Herb

    Why is a fast twist bad for a round ball?

    Hung Load hasn't been here since 2006, so he can't thank those of you who responded to his request for help. But I appreciate your replies and learned from them. So here is my deer rifle.
  10. Herb

    Why is a fast twist bad for a round ball?

  11. Herb

    Looking for some outstanding ML 100 yard target score photos

    So what are you going to do with this data?
  12. Herb

    Anyone use Olde Eynesford 1.5 FG?

    Stikshooter, thank you for that post! I for one really appreciate your experience. Last summer I phoned Craig Kirkland at Bear River Powder to ask him about Olde Eynsford popularity. He said he'd recently taken a pickup load of it to a shoot in Wyoming and sold it all out. I told him I did...
  13. Herb

    Anyone use Olde Eynesford 1.5 FG?

    The first Bridger had the worn places in the pattern of the original (see my avatar at left) left unstained and the dark areas are done with Fiebing's dark brown oil leather dye, or maybe it was Lincoln. Then I came back with Track's Original Oil Finish (I think it was) to darken the unstained...
  14. Herb

    Powder, Velocities & Pressure

    Here is a comparison with Swiss 2F, targets shot at 50 yards. A 100 grain Goex 2F measure holds 109 grains of Swiss 2F at center bottom.
  15. Herb

    Powder, Velocities & Pressure

    The answer is YES. But the same VOLUME of powder is not the same AMOUNT of powder. Think of a shot-glass of beer and a shot-glass of whiskey. The same VOLUME but which has the most ENERGY (if the alcohol were a fuel)? In the photo below of three Hawkens I built, the .58 was shot with Swiss 1...
  16. Herb

    New hobby/ Hawken build

    Thanks, Dave. Those are kind words from a person with your skill.
  17. Herb

    Anyone use Olde Eynesford 1.5 FG?

    Olde Eynsford 1 1/2F is a really good powder in a .58. Here is are my first Bridger Hawken .54 and a .58 fullstock flint Hawken I built. I shot 100 grains of O.E. 3F with each, you can see why I do not use it. It may be made to group well, but I no longer use it. The middle bottom target is...
  18. Herb

    Anyone use Olde Eynesford 1.5 FG?

    Goex 2F is slower than these two powders. In three Hawkens I built, 9 groups of 37 shots of 100 grains (weight corrected measure) of Goex 2F and .530 balls averaged 1733 fps with an average spread of 63 fps. Here is my LAST copy of Jim Bridger's Hawken at top (way too heavy for me) and my...
  19. Herb

    Anyone use Olde Eynesford 1.5 FG?

    Olde Eynsford 2F and 1 1/2F are wonderful powders. I've shot 8 to 10 pounds of each through my .50, .54 and .58 Hawkens. They are very close in velocity and accuracy, but OE 1 1/2F is my favorite. Here is some string cutting at 100 yards from bench rest I did with a copy I made of Jim...
  20. Herb

    New hobby/ Hawken build

    Dave_person, thanks. I built that top actual Hawken. The bottom one is Jim Bridger's. Your work is beautiful!
Back
Top