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  1. V

    Powder preferences?

    I have used Elephant, Goex, Schuetzen, and Swiss. (I would like to try KIK, having recently heard good things about it, but I have 20 pounds from these other manufacturers I have to shoot up, first!) I will never, ever, ever, use Elephant powder in a gun. It produces the worst fouling and...
  2. V

    Roundball penetration

    I've killed 8 or 9 deer with PRBs, .50 and .54 calibers. I've had 2 pass-throughs. Caveats: 3 shots with the .50 were straight on (17, 22, and 42 yards) and all three fell over dead where I shot them. One with the .54 was strongly quartering toward and it was a bad (too far back) shot which...
  3. V

    Double Ball??

    I've never done it myself, but have been meaning to for some time. I'm going to try it in my wife's $300 .50-cal Lyman Trade Rifle (with a barrel about 2x as thick as it needs to be) instead of in my many times more expensive custom .54 with a nice swamped Rice barrel. Anyway, I've heard that...
  4. V

    Hunting method / Still hunting

    Rarely, myself. I prefer to sit and wait between bedding and feeding sites. I can usually prepare for the shot, have a much better rest (my knees), and am not winded/out of breath. However, the first deer I ever shot, with a flintlock no less, was by stalking. I had sat in the morning and had...
  5. V

    Strange chunk of wood

    I'm not an expert in these things (I do have a forestry degree, but I'm not a wood processor, mill operator, or logger more intimately familiar with the properties of wood), but here's a thought I recently learned: Red or "soft" maple (Acer rubrum) often has very good curl, but is prone to...
  6. V

    Switching to Goex

    I've used Elephant FF, Goex FF and FFF, Schuetzen FF and FFF, and Swiss FF in my .54. I will never use Elephant again. I consider Goex and Schuetzen about equal, but I am a Swiss convert. Once I shoot through all my Goex and Schuetzen, I will stick with Swiss FFg. Maine Powder House, Upper...
  7. V

    Proper Camo for deer huntin?

    I have camo, but only wear it in the early seasons here in PA. Not because I think I need the camo but because it's thin and uninsulated and all my other hunting clothes are for cold weather! I'll wear a Woolrich red/black plaid or a Cabela's dark forest green wool jacket and light gray/sage...
  8. V

    the community buck

    Congrats and THANK YOU for not giving up on the tracking job. A LOT of other hunters would have stopped tracking after not finding the deer in the first few hundred yards, especially after the blood trail got thinner. Surprised the deer bled out so much yet took so long to recover. My first...
  9. V

    Hunting Lube

    I've used mint-scented and pine-scented bore butter for years and never had a problem with being scented by deer. I have to agree with others that you, your clothes, your burps or flatulence, gun oil, and everything else will reach the deer's nostrils long before any patch lube. I remain...
  10. V

    Camo, blaze orange observations...

    We Pennsylvania smokepole users are required to wear >250 sq inches of orange in our early (October) season (as well as our regular centerfire season in early December). Any muzzleloading, single barrel longgun is legal during this season, so I think everyone agrees it's safer to wear orange...
  11. V

    unloading

    If damp here in PA, especially during our early (October) season, I'll pull my ball after a hunt. In the late season (late December-mid January), I will leave a load in and leave my rifle out in the cold. A buddy of mine left his rifle loaded the entire season (never firing at a deer) and it...
  12. V

    Hard Bore Butter

    DO NOT use mink oil for boots!!!!!!!! That is not named properly. You can buy real mink oil (check out http://www.trackofthewolf.com). They sell an 8-ounce tin. It is the real stuff and good for cold weather shooting. But it is best for very cold weather. Even 40-degree weather is probably too...
  13. V

    flintlock shooting tips?

    Sorry for cross-postings or repeating info others have posted, folks, I'm just repeating here what I posted to another forum on this topic: (1) For a new flintlock shooter, definitely wear eye protection at the range. One should always do so with any firearm, but especially with muzzleloaders...
  14. V

    Sparking Problem

    I'm not convinced distance between frizzen and flint at half-cock is much important, so long as the frizzen opens properly, is properly hardened, etc. etc. I say this because I learned flintlock on a Lyman Trade Rifle and the flint was about 1/32 from the frizzen at half cock. SParked every...
  15. V

    Swamped or Straight?

    I have a swamped 44-inch Rice barrel for a custom .54 and can't imagine what the balance would be like if the barrel was straight. I recommend the swamped barrel for look, feel (balance), and period correctness. All else being equal, however, if you are an accuracy nut, the straight barrel will...
  16. V

    Calibre accuracy?

    I wonder if some competition shooters out there might be able to weigh in on this. I am not one, but am relaying the following opinion from a gunsmith friend of mine who has built over a dozen hunting flintlocks and talks regularly with barrel makers. He (the gunsmith) says that all else...
  17. V

    Wonder-lubed Patches

    I use bore butter or ox-yoke as my primary patch lube and used to use it to protect my bore after cleaning. My .54-cal barrel has about 500-600 rounds through it, but it's only 1 year old. I used to use hot (never boiling) soapy water. Then I stopped using soap. Now I just use luke-warm or cool...
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