.54 Cal Hawken at 100 yards

[AllenHawken]

I have become quite proficient with my .54 caliber InvestArm kit-built Hawken at 50 yards shooting .535 lead round ball with .018 spit-lubed pillow ticking patches and 60 gr FFg black powder load.

Next outing will attempt 100 yards.

Before I work it out through trial and error, how have those of you who have been there changed your approach when shooting at 100 yards?

I plan to try three things and see what happens:

1. Raise elevation on rear sight until I hit something other than the ground in front of the target.

2. Increase powder load in increments of 5 grains to see if it makes any difference maintaining elevation at distance.

3. Keep my rear sight at its current 50-yard setting, but systematically raise my aim point above the target until I hit it.

What have you guys tried that works?

 

[ohio ramrod]

I always try my rifles at different ranges before trying any adjustments. Ball (bullet) rise and drop varies with muzzle velocities and projectile and with the diffence of "line of sight" and "bore line. For example an iron sight 3/4 inch above the center of the bore, and a scoped line of sight two inches above the bore will give completely different results. :idunno:

 

[roundball]

2. Increase powder load in increments of 5 grains to see if it makes any difference maintaining elevation at distance.

What have you guys tried that works?

A couple of thoughts:

Different strokes for different folks of course, but personally I've never wasted my time, powder, patches, and balls with minor little changes of only 5grn increments...so one thought to consider is use 10grn increments.

Also, shooting coarse iron sights out to 100 yards can introduce an influence that will open a group size but itself, regardless of the load.
Consider getting yourself a bright gaudy sheet of colored paper and mount it on the target face as an upside down triangle so you have a very visible, tiny, precise aim point for every shot.

 

[necchi]

With the same point of aim as your 50yrd sight setting,,
It'll drop about 5"s.

Depends on what you wanna do with it, Tagret shooting? Rendezvous novelty targets? Hunting?
I guess what I do is find the load that gives me the tightest group at 50, then pratice to learn the drop at various distances with that load.
I don't change the sights and I don't change the charge.

p.s.
5grn increments work fine,

tip,
Look for a load around 75-80grns with that rifle, and that patch-ball combo

 

[BrownBear]

With that light of a load, it might drop even more at 100 yards with only a 50 yard sight-in.

My usual load for my 54 cal Investarms is 90 grains of 3f, sighted in dead on at 75 yards (my sights are fixed). With that sight-in, it's an inch high at 50 and 3-4" low at 100.

Without the adjustable sight, I just do "Kentucky windage" for longer or shorter ranges than 75 yards.

 

[Rat Trapper]

Starting with your 50 load, move back to 100 yards and use a 6 o'clock hold. The 6 o'clock hold allows you to hold the same better. I zero my rifles to hit where I hold the sights when using the 6 o'clock zero. That way when I go hunting I can aim dead on and hit. I just shoot smaller groups with the 6 o'clock hold with iron sights. Some guys will put a scope on the rifle to work out a load and then remove it once they have found the best load. Scopes remove aiming errors. The Bevel Brothers who use to write for Muzzle Blasts magazine often talked about gluing a scope to their chunk guns for load work.

 

[Walks with fire]

I would take my powder charge up to 80 or 90 grains at least for a 100 yard shot. I would shoot that charge at 50 yards first and then with no adjustment try the 100 yard target. Next I would start holding up a bit more front sight if needed and have the target sitting on top of the front sight.

 

[roundball]

With that light of a load, it might drop even more at 100 yards with only a 50 yard sight-in.

Agree...60grns is a pretty mild load for 100yds.
After zeroing my own 90grn Goex 3F powder charges at 50yds, testing showed they'd drop 4" at 100 even with a stout powder charge. Another reason why my personal opinion / experience is that 5grn increments are such a waste of time and money when such a large difference is being experimented with...I take bigger steps until I start getting into the black.

Little 5grn increments will work...for that matter, 1grn increments will also work... :grin: ...but as long as they're printing in the white underneath the bullseye its a waste of my time and money to just gradually walk the POI up a 1/4" at a time.

Instead of spending all that time and money shooting 5grn increments, a simple / quick more efficient approach for initial roughing in, is if you double the distance then double the charge...immediately get a visual for an initial POI, and just tweak from there.

 

[Rifleman1776]

As others have stated, 60 gr. at 100 yards is impractical due to drop.
In his book "Shooting and winning with the Champions", Don Davis described the Hawken Match at Friendship. He said one charge used is 137 gr. FFg. This very challenging match is shot at aproximately 135 yards, uphill in a ravine. Light and wind conditions play the devil with shooting conditions. Still many of the scores turned in are amazing. To me, simply head shakers. As in, "it can't be done", but it is.
So, work on yer charges, I'll betcha you end up in the 90 to 110 gr. charge range with real bp.

 

[rafterob]

All good advice so far. My preference for elevation adjustment is to use front blade heights and not mess with the rear adjustable sight. Once you start adjusting the rear, it can be an endless quest on trying to get back to where you originally had it sighted in for. You may be OK with the 60 grain load, so try it first. But if you are getting excessive drop, consider upping the charge. Just for example, I have two rifles in .50 cal. A 28" barrel shooting 70 grains FF and a 32" barrel shooting 65 grains FF. The 28" barrel yields a 6" drop at 100 yards, the 32" about 3" drop. The 28" has a front bead/blade and I place the entire bead above the top plane of the rear sight to hit center at 100 yards. The 32" barrel I can pretty well still use a dead-on hold with just slight elevation. One tip for starting at 100, get a big (like 4'x 4') Target backing free of any previous holes.

 

[mooman76]

For my .58 I raised the powder charge 30 gr to get the same impact point as I did for 50y.

 

[FRJ]

One other thing you have to consider is wind drift with only 60 grains of powder. Its a rude awakening when your balls drift clean off the target and backer with just a 20 mph wind!!!!! I have done it and am not impressed with that light a load at much over 40 yards. I'd go up to at least 90gr and possibly up to 110 gr to keep wind drift kinda manageable at least on the paper. FRJ

 

[mfim]

Very good point on the wind. I personally would never hunt with a gun where I had to remember how much or less of which sight ( front/rear ) I had to see at what yardage.Same sight picture every time while hunting for me. A .54 Hawken is supposed to be a fairly flat shooting gun. Put some powder in it. 120 is my light hunting load. Dead on cloverleafs at 50. one inch low at 100.

 

[Paulussie0]

If You can get your hands on Swiss #2 use 60 Grains and you only have to put up your rear site a few mm
Between 50 and 100 mtr and you are on target.
If you are using one of the other powders you will have to change nothing , becouse the Swiss powder is faster then the others .
It will foule less to in combination with wonderlube on your patch , so you don't have to wipe the bore between shots.

 

[roundball]

Same sight picture every time while hunting for me.

Put some powder in it..

Amen.....thank you !
:thumbsup:

 

[Snakebite]

Put some powder in it. 120 is my light hunting load. :thumbsup:

Couldn't agree with you more. 120 of 2F is my hunting load for my .54 Hawken. Dead on at 100m.

 

[Rat Trapper]

Put some powder in it. 120 is my light hunting load. :thumbsup:

Couldn't agree with you more. 120 of 2F is my hunting load for my .54 Hawken. Dead on at 100m.

:thumbsup:

 

[Rifleman1776]

Put some powder in it. 120 is my light hunting load. :thumbsup:

Couldn't agree with you more. 120 of 2F is my hunting load for my .54 Hawken. Dead on at 100m.

That is very stout, IMHO.
My .54 Jaeger I use 75 gr. bp and would use it on a black bear.

 

[oldarcher]

I think that everyone who has responded to this post has added valuable information, for my 2cents...I have always used only one charge for all shooting situations...each barrel will produce better groups at a specific load, patch, and ball size combination than others. For example, if your barrel shoots it's best group with .015 pillow tick lubed with bore butter, and a .490 ball and 75 gr 2F. then it stands to reason that it will shoot it's best with that load no matter what the distance...why would you want to load a different charge than what you have proven to be the one your rifle likes best, simply correct for bullet drop by raising or lowering your aiming point. Something to think about...??

 

[smo]

I have owned a few Investarms over the years and have found that those guns hold a better group with a light powder charge(60m to 70 grns.). A TC you can bump up to a heavier charge and most will still shoot good groups.I have just never found this the case with Investarms. :idunno: I know both are 1 turn in 48" but i'm not sure about the depth of the grooves.That could be the difference. :wink: