.54 Loads for Deer

[BrownBear]

What's everyone shooting in their .54's for deer?

What rifle and load are you shooting?

 

[buckskinner]

flintlock .530 ball with .015 patch

for patch lube i use Balistol in a 1:3 mix with water (1 part Balistol 3 parts water )

2 Over powder wads (when hunting)
80grains Goex FFg

 

[rancher]

What's everyone shooting in their .54's for deer?

What rifle and load are you shooting?

Lyman GPR flintlock
.530 Hornady rb
pillow ticking patch
85 grains of Goex FF

 

[BrownBear]

Sounds dandy to me! Have you tried 3f? My GPR 54 prefers it over 2f at all charge levels.

I'm using 35 grains for snowshoe hare and 50 or so for casual shooting. The rifle doesn't seem to care, either in accuracy or point of aim out to around 50 yards. Really handy, so it gets lots of shooting.

 

[sbhg]

to those guys that are useing an overpowder wad, doesnt it complicate the reloading for the second shot? does a wad increase accuracy that much, that youd use one in your hunting load? thanks.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I just use a little 1" square of waxed paper scrunched up to keep the lubed patch off the powder so the oils don't leach down and "kill" the powder. No noticable effect on accuracy. When I load up for deer I have gone three weeks with the same main charge sitting in place. I don't use it for the reload. I'll be cleaning the rifle that night - since it's been fired - whether I shoot again that day or not.

Last year I left a charge in my .50 percussion rifle for 11 months (loaded barrel stored in my unheated garage) just to see what would happen. It went off with only a slight hesitation and hit a about 2" above normal.

 

[rancher]

Sounds dandy to me! Have you tried 3f? My GPR 54 prefers it over 2f at all charge levels.

I'm using 35 grains for snowshoe hare and 50 or so for casual shooting. The rifle doesn't seem to care, either in accuracy or point of aim out to around 50 yards. Really handy, so it gets lots of shooting.

Nope, haven't tried any FFFg yet. Once I use up all my FFg though, I will definetly get a can an try it out.

 

[buckskinner]

only use an over powder wad for the initial shot. if i have to reload to shoot again, its not a factor... let me explain.

when hunting, my firearm may stay charged for several weeks. during this time, i dont want the patch lube to dampen the main charge, so i keep the charge isolated with the wads.

if a shot is fired and a reload needed, i will do it without the wads, as this is a short term situation.

 

[tjohnson56]

T/C .54
.530 Hornady RB
Red striped pillow ticking .018-.020
Moose snot, starting to really like this stuff
90gr KIK 2f

Shoots about 3.5 inches high at 50 yards and back zero at 100 yards.

 

[BrownBear]

Lyman GPR flintlock
.530 Hornady rb
pillow ticking patch
85 grains of Goex FF

I want to toss something out, landing somewhere between an observation and a question:

All my GPRs seem to have been real "sharp" at the crown when new, cutting patches when seating until they wore in a bit. Once I got past that, they seemed to shoot better and better, the tighter my ball/patch combo. But even now, there's a tradeoff between a tight combo and the potential for cuts at the muzzle while seating.

I'm getting ready to try my hand at coning. If that solves the cutting problem with tight combos as I hope it will, I'm going to try moving up the tightness scale a notch.

All theory at this point, but I've got a .535 mould as well as a .530 mould. Since Walmart ticking is the easiest patch material for me to get locally, I'm going to start over on the load development process with the larger ball.

I'm guessing (and hoping) that I'll get improvements in the GPRs already great accuracy.

Anyone done anything similar?

 

[roundball]

to those guys that are useing an overpowder wad, doesnt it complicate the reloading for the second shot? does a wad increase accuracy that much, that youd use one in your hunting load? thanks.

I always use an Oxyoke prelubed wool wad over the powder with all of my rifle hunting loads...my experience was that they tightened groups some, they protect the powder from any chance of contamination from patch lube, they eliminate any worries about patch failure from the fire of a strong 3F powder charge, and they put more lube in the bore.

This past summer I chronographed a set of identical deer hunting loads in a Flintlock...a set with an Oxyoke was, a set without.
The standard diviation between shots without a wad was actually pretty good at only 25 fps...but with a wad the SD was only 6 fps. I'm certainly not saying that getting my deer or not hinges upon using the wads...but I believe they offer so much I just always use them in my rifles.
(Interestingly, the wads cause occasional flyers when I try to use them with PRBs out of my .54cal and .62cal smoothbores, so I can't use them there).

Speaking for myself only, wads offer no problems to me for my hunting reloads and I say that for the following reasons:

1) Hunting in fairly thick woods the shots are close and so far certain...they either goes down where they're standing or at least fall in sight of me after a mad dash of 25yds with their heart shot out...no quick 2nd shot necessary;

2) Or...they make the mad dash for 25yds which happens to put him out of sight past some trees or brush before he falls and no quick 2nd shot is possible;

3) I carry a couple reloads in T/C's excellent 4-N-1 pocket reloaders and I have the wad already included in the component string...when I punch in the patched ball the wad is right there underneath it and they all go in and down together as a single activity.

 

[Rat Trapper]

In the TC 54 Hawken, I use 120 grains of Triple Seven 2F, felt wad over powder, 390 grain hollow point Hornady great plains bullet. Muzzle vel is 1673 fps. Heavy load, not recommended for wimps! Shoots excellent groups of under and inch at 50 yds and performs well on deer. Would make an excellent elk load. Use a hot shot nipple and CCI #11 mag caps.

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

I shoot a traditional flinter custom made, I always use thick deer tallow for my patch lube it does not seem to leach into my powder. I have never left it loaded for more than 5 days, I see no reason to do so. My rifle has a Rice 44 inch tapered barrel. I put in a Joe Woods Cone. Most of the places I hunt there is not a shot over 30 yards. so I use my light load....

60 grains of Goex 3F
.530 round ball
.20 thousands tallow lubed patches

If I am hunting over a large open field I up the powder to 80 grains.

My goal next year is to kill a deer well past 100 yards with my traditional Flintlock Rifle!
That being said, when I take my rifle I see deer
at 35 yards. When I take a flintlock smoothbore musket I see deer at 130 yards!

 

[Rat Trapper]

I too like to shoot my deer up close and personal when I can. With a ML I'd perfer them to be inside 50 yards, but if they step out beyond that, they may not get a free pass. Kind of depends on how bad I want meat and if I feel like skinning and cutting.

 

[redwing]

You are talking about Mule Deer? For the Mule deer I use 95 to 100 Grs. of Wano 3F. I use a .024 cotton duct patch and a .530 ball. For the eastern white tail you can use some of the lighter loads. :thumbsup:

 

[longcruise]

Anyone done anything similar?

Brown Bear, I have never coned but I do reshape the crowns of my rifles. The GPR, CVA, Traditions and GM barrels are all, IMO, in great need of treatment.

I'm working on a sort of tutorial on this subject since it came up in another thread and several members asked about it. Here's just a couple of pics as preview.