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  1. Rat

    Best bet for a first smooth bore

    I think that all things considered, a smooth bore is a solid fifty yard gun, as far as killing a deer sized animal, or man-sized target. Sometimes, some guns will beat that, and with a good steady hold, and a stationary animal, we might try a shot at 60+ yards, but when hunting, that's not...
  2. Rat

    Charles Moore Flintlock Target Pistol

    She'll do damage anywhere, but she's put two deer in the freezer, both were interesting shots. One was trotting along a trail, at 110 yards, going from right to left, so I put the sights between two trees and when said deer appeared in the Zone I touched her off, deer didn't react much but that...
  3. Rat

    Navy Arms .58 Hawken Hunter?

    Is it shallow groove rifling? How many lands/grooves? From the pic it almost looks like minne' rifling. Bore does look clean and shiny. Let's take her out to .69", maybe get the weight down to 8.75#. !!!
  4. Rat

    Pedersoli Indian Musket?

    Yes barrel length has a big effect on velocity. I do know that shot does not like to be driven too fast, but I forget what the velocity (generally speaking) is for shot. I think, too much velocity and the pattern deteriorates, too little and the pellets/shot won't have enough "killing power"...
  5. Rat

    Navy Arms .58 Hawken Hunter?

    I can't quite imagine what that would be like, getting into that 180 grain range. I have fired a .58 with 125 grains, and a heavy minne', and that was about the limit of my recoil tolerance. And I am not recoil shy. Rifles must kick more than smoothbores, as I find 140 grains behind a round...
  6. Rat

    Pedersoli Indian Musket?

    Neither does my Bess have a patent breech. Good working lock, I did increase the mainspring a bit. I also made the pan "deeper", which in effect raised the touch hole. Then I coned the touch hole. It's very reliable, as it should be, with that big musket lock, big flints, big frizzen, etc. ...
  7. Rat

    Remington Navy-two powders, two groups.

    It could be. ffg Swiss is what I used to use, but as my Swiss supply began to run low I've been using Goex more. I think the quality of Goex has improved, and I have a decent supply of Goex fffg and have been using that in my pistols and .58" rifles. My Swiss is getting low, so I only use it in...
  8. Rat

    Navy Arms .58 Hawken Hunter?

    By the way, what does it weigh?
  9. Rat

    Navy Arms .58 Hawken Hunter?

    And more flash and bang, and bragging rights. And, now that the wolves are running wild again, what if they re-introduce the elephant, and cape buffalo to Washington state? See...66" would be more better. Plus, we would load it with ffffg. Lots of it. :)
  10. Rat

    Remington Navy-two powders, two groups.

    Any controversy will be forwarded to Brit. Yes, I found the difference in groups of ffffg vs. fffg to be very interesting. Again, you could tell it had some more ooomph, but really not that much. Haven't tried other loads lately. I found a long time ago that using a .38spl case for a measure...
  11. Rat

    Navy Arms .58 Hawken Hunter?

    Bore that sucker out to .66". Now that would be a gun. :)
  12. Rat

    Lyman pistol, getting ready

    Wiksmo, if you hold the Plains Pistol like a rifle, use an "imaginary" butt-stock, left hand under the barrel ahead of the lock, you will get small rifle like groups. Little backwards pressure on the fore-end, a little forward pressure with the right hand, or trigger hand.
  13. Rat

    Remington Navy-two powders, two groups.

    Ooops, hit the "full image" button twice. Sorry.
  14. Rat

    Remington Navy-two powders, two groups.

    Comments, observations? Shooting 24 grains of fffg under a ball, with wax wad, group is strung vertically. 24 grains of ffffg, again with wax wad, I got a round group. The ffffg was noticeably "hotter", but not substantially so. With either load, that .36 is one soft recoiling pistola...
  15. Rat

    Lyman pistol, getting ready

    Don't look so rusted up to me. Quite nice actually.
  16. Rat

    Period Correct rear sight on my 1795 Springfield repro

    I have a buckhorn rear sight on my Bess, same as you would find on a long rifle of the same period. There is a Bess in the NRA collection, from the revolutionary war, that has a rear sight on it. So, they did exist. In a practical sense, it makes the gun much more useful for hunting, and...
  17. Rat

    Trade, Barn, FDC, or Fowler

    Oh boy, let me throw a monkey-wrench in the works. I found that the Pedersoli Brown Bess "carbine" works well for me. In PA a 20guage is "probably" "best". However, love my Bess. Look to the left there she is with some dead birds. Where I hunt there are some critters that will hunt you, so I...
  18. Rat

    .54 cal barrel length.

    Dave's answer is best, all things considered, but we still don't know what that slug is supposed to do at 75 yards. ?? We don't know what all the considerations are. Deer? That load with a 20" barrel, or even ten inch, would kill a deer. Elk? Moose? That might be a bit of a gamble. Possibility...
  19. Rat

    Traditions St Louis rifle opinions?

    Is the Traditions, and the TC made by the same maker? Just wondered. From what I gather, they do have different breech's, but they sure look alike. ?? And, is there a breech issue with the Traditions? Can't be too serious with the way Frontier's been knocking them down. ?
  20. Rat

    Crockett ?

    This rifle was used to chase the Cayuse around after the Whitman "massacre" in Idaho/Oregon Territories. Was in the militia that was formed for that purpose. Referred to as the "Indian wars" of that period, although, again, they mostly just chased the Indians around for a year or so, with a...
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