A new gun

[2Barrel]

Hi all. New to the forum but have been lurking for a few months now. I decided to get into black powder shooting about 6 months ago. I went out and bought a T/C triumph. I must say it is a great gun and sure is a tack driver shooting Blackhorn 209. In the months of shooting this gun I started to realise something was missing. AS I was looking at the Triumph I figured out what was wrong. It didnt have a sidelock hammer on it. It didnt have wood. Heck man it didnt even have a big puff of sulfur smellin smoke. I said to myself, THIS AINT BLACKPOWDER SHOOTIN, somthing must be done. Then I found this forum and done allot of reading and searching. After tossing and turning in bed for about a month I had narrowed it down to two guns. The GPR or the Rocky Mountain hawken. I went with the Rocky mountain hawken in maple. Could not beat the price for $699.00. Of course being new to this I have a couple of questions. In time Im going to have to get some nipples for this gun. Can you guys recomment a brand of nipple thats good and what thread size ? Also, do you guys use the same wooden ramrod that came with the gun at the range. What Im worried about is, when using the woodin ramrod Im sure theres gonna be allot of residue left on it. Im afraid that this residue will rot out the thimbles of the gun when the ramrod is put back. Is there somthing I can do to prevent this. Im not sure how to clean the woodin ramrod. I thank you guys so much in advance :bow: Ive learned allot in this forum.

 

[nw_hunter]

First let me say.......Welcome to the forum.
Congrats on going to the REAL thing (Traditional ML) :thumbsup: I think the rifle you have is made by Pedersolli, and the Italians make some fine rifles.Your other choice (the GPR) would have been a great buy also.You didn't say what Cal. you have! The 5o cal would have a 1/48 twist barrel and the 54 would be a 1/65 roundball barrel.The 1/48 is designed to shoot both RB and conical.

The Italian guns use a metric nipple...I think yours would use a 6-.75mm nipple.

Once again "WELCOME" to the forum.Now you just need to get some REAL blackpowder, and go out and make some smoke. :grin:

 

[2Barrel]

Its a 54cal. 1/66 twist for round ball only. Thanks for the welcome

 

[wildeagle]

Welcome to the dark-side. :shocked2: Congrats on your new smoke pole. IMO it would take a lot more time than you have to "rot" out your thimbles, just wipe off your rod when your done and put it away, that sounded a bit odd didn't it :redface: Enjoy the forum, it's a great place hang out,learn,look at the eye candy,ect. :v

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

Don't concern yourself. There are many 200 year old rifle out there with worn ferrules, but they haven't rotted away. I've got well used guns fifty years old that show very little wear and no rusting on the ferrules. Welcome to the world of the Holy Black! Dan

 

[MSW]

welcome to the wonderful world of shooting real black... it you think the percussion deal is cool, wait until you discover rockbanging...

ahhh, once a flintlock fired have you, forever dominate your range time it will...

it's so much fun, you'll become a much better shot by spending many happy hours at the range.

by the way, check out Dutch Schoultz' system on how to work up the best load for your rifle- it's money very well spent.

go forth, and make good smoke!

 

[Lorne Johnson]

Welcome!

Newer US market Pedersolis use 1/4 28 thread nipple, and yours almost certainly does. An easy way to confirm this (which is always advisable) is to take the nipple to a hardware store and try it in a 1/4 28 nut. 1/4 28 and 6mm are very close so you really want to check this with the threads you have.

Check the color of the nipple on your gun. If it looks like brass, it is berylium and you won't be changing it any time soon (these come standard on some Pedersoli guns). If it look like blued steel, then it is blued steel. To replace with a Pedersoli product (such as upgrading to the berylium nipple, I would recommend flintlocksetc.com as he has a good stock of parts.

For a hotter nipple, I like the Mountain state Manufacturing Spitfire nipple.

That Mountain gun is a nice Pedersoli. I almost bought one. I went with a Mortimer Whitworth because the individual piece was exceptionally nice.

Good luck with it,

 

[shootemup]

Congratulations on the new rifle, those Rocky Mountain Hawkens look to be really nice.

Considering the rifle you started with, I assume you're a hunter (inline shooters invariably are hunters). Either the .50 or .54 would make a good deer rifle, but the .54 gets it done with a little more oomph. :grin:

Welcome to the forum, we'll look forward to hearing about the load you work up for it and the game you take with it.

:hatsoff:
Spot

 

[PreglerD]

Congrats for your choice! It was the right one. Trad. ML is only possible with a sidelock and real bp. I had also one of those I****, but it is not ML shooting.

Have fun and ask whatever you want about the theme.
The Rocky Mountain is a great gun. :thumbsup:

Regards

Kirrmeister

 

[William O.]

If it's Italian made then the .6 x 75 nipple from Treso is you best bet but it may be a while before another one is needed. Always nice to have a spare though, just in case. If you are not using traditional black powder already be sure to pick some up. It took several years of shooting ML's before I broke the wooden ram rod but you may want to pick up a rod made of aluminum or fiberglass for use at the range. Get one longer than the one that your rifle came with for extra leverage along with a brass bore guide that will minimize wear on the rifling and crown. That way you won't have to use the wooden rod as often with less wory about breakage.
You may want to check out this "virtually unbreakable" ramrod if you just need to have wood; http://www.periodramrod.com/

Hope this helps.

 

[Lorne Johnson]

If you don't believe me check Pedersoli's catalogue. 1/4 28 is standard issue (now).

 

[2Barrel]

Thanks for all the replys, warm welcome and info. Ill let ya know how it does at the range. I will be shooting real black powder with a .530 round ball and .015 pre lubed patch. What do you think a good starting load will be. 80 ta 90 grains of powder ?

 

[paulvallandigham]

For casual plinking and target shooting, start with 50 grains and work up from there in 5 grain increments. Save the heavy charges for hunting loads, only. The largest buffalo cartridge ever chambered in the Sharps rifle, but not made by the Sharps company, was the .50-140-550 Sharps cartridge. The Casing is 1/2 inch in diameter, and 3 1/4 inches long. A lot of Buffalo were killed with a breech loading Sharps Model 1859 in .54 caliber and 50 grains of powder. The bullet was in the 450 grain range.

You don't need a lot of velocity with that .54 to kill anything that walks or crawls on this continent. :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[Lorne Johnson]

I would second Paul's suggestion for starting loads.

 

[Barrows]

I got a maple Rocky Mountain a month ago. The nipple is 1/4x28. I had a bunch of misfires. After reading previous posts on the Rocky Mountains, I replaced the nipple with a TC 1/4x28 hot shot. I noticed the threaded part of the TC is shorter. The TC nipple has been flawless (not a single misfire) for the last 100+ shots. I'm wondering if the longer threaded part of the Pedersoli nipple extended too far, and possibly prevented the spark from getting where it needs to. If your Pedersoli nipple works, great. If not, you could try the TC. The part # is 7075. I just love my 54 caliber Rocky Mountain. I've shot a Traditions up until now, and while I still like my Traditions, I absolutely love the Rocky Mountain. It's a jump from good to incredible. With the corresponding price tag too of course. Enjoy!

 

[roger sells]

Glad you came back to the traditional world of black powder shooting. It is great fun, and my wife has finally gotten use to the smell after my 40 years of making and shooting traditional muzzleloading rifles. I am a big fan of Hawken rifles and even a bigger fan of .54 cal rifles. Let us know how it shoots.
Roger Sells

 

[jimmy82]

I also have a Rocky Mountain Hawken. I had a few misfires on occasion with the factory nipple, maybe 1 in 20. I put about 150 shots through the gun and then I go to shoot and feel back blast on my forehead and my hat kick up a lil. The nipple had broken off where the threaded portion meets the rest of the nipple body. The broken off piece stayed under the hammer and didn't fly but it scared me a lil.

I got mine a little over a year ago and I'm pretty sure that I have the metric threads but I am not all that sure atm. I ordered some standard pedersoli nipples to replace it and it has shot like a champ since. Luckly the guy who owned the range was a gunsmith also and was able to get the threads out of the barrel for me for the great price of free. :v

 

[2Barrel]

Hi all. Had the Hawken out yesterday and man it shot like a dream. Once I got used to the gun I was putting evrything in a four inch circle at 50 yards using 70 grains of black powder. Everything was going great then I made a big greenhorn mistake. I loaded the patched ball with no powder I tryed to pull the ball but it kept on stripping out. Now Im starting to panic LOL. I decided to throw in the towel and ask for help :surrender: Went up to the guy who owns the range and told him what I did and he could see my face and he giggled. He told me to get a co2 ball discharger but for right now well just put a little powder under the nipple. Well hot damn it worked, Thank god. Other than that little problem it was a great day at the range.
I was at the range about 6 hours and it was hot and real humid. I swabed between shots with 1/3 ballistol ta 2/3 water. "Is that ok ?" When I got home I cleaned the barrel in a bucket of straight warm water. On the second bucket of water it looked real clean. Went with a third bucket but used hot water for the rinse. Took barrel out and towel dryed the outside of the barrel. When I ran patches inside the barrel to dry they came out with what appeared to be rust :shocked2: Is this normal ? If not, what can I do different. After I did get it dry I kept running patches down with Ballistol till the patches came out clean. Hope I did right.

2Barrel...............

 

[paulvallandigham]

The rust you got is called "FLASH Rust" It happens when you rinse with HOT WATER. Don't rinse with hot water next time. Use skin temperature, or " tepid" water for rinsing. Use some soap in that water to clean the barrel. Soap helps to emulsify the carbon deposits. Let the barrel sit for half an hour full of soap and water.

Then use a bore brush to get the crud out of the corners of the rifling. Pour out, and rinse. Then run dry patches down the barrel to dry it. Oil the barrel with your last patch. If you see black streaks on the patches, you didn't get all the crud out. Repeat the soak and scrubbing with the bore brush.

I would not use ballistol and water to wipe the barrel between shots. Ballistol adds nothing to the purpose, and it can help make a gooey mess of BP residue. A damp patch will dissolve the salts of Nitrate and of sulfur in the barrel, and help loosen the carbon deposits sufficiently, for cleaning between shots.

Damp means, " touch it to your tongue, or lightly moistuen the patch with water. It doesn't mean soak the patch in water, or spit, and then run it down the barrel! :thumbsup:

 

[Ed Wingenroth]

Hey 2Barrel !!!

Welcome to the sport and the forum !!!

Paul offers some good advice !!! Let me add another spin on what has always worked for me....

First thing I noticed was the use of warm water to flush out your barrel.. Need to use boiling water not only to neutralize the acidic reaction but also to heat the barrel enough for it to dry all internal moisture from it (two or three flushes) ”¦ after which, use any good penetrating oil (water displacement) on a “mop” to preserve it from any future rusting.. Swab the bore dry and fire some caps before your next outing”¦ Make sure your patch is well lubed and they’ll come out easier.. 8>))

Slow down and shoot safe !!!

Ed”¦.