Bobby Hoyt Rebore Praise/TC Renegade Range Report

[Travis186]

Just wanted to sing some praises about Bobby Hoyt's work. I've had this TC Renegade for several years that originally started life as a 50 caliber. It never shot very well with PRB or Conical. I sent it to Bobby about a month or so ago and had him cut it to a 1:66 twist 58 cal. I'm a frugal kind of guy, so I do load development and sight in usually on the same target. After some fiddling I settled on 90gr of Olde Eynsford 2F with a .570 round ball and .018 pillow ticking patch. Ignited by a schuetzen musket cap. This load delivered this nice little 5 shot cluster at 50 yards. Before I was lucky to hit paper with PRB in this rifle. I still need some more trigger time before I'm totally satisfied, but am I happy? You bet.

About the gun. My wife bought this for me as a very early Christmas gift back in 2013 from Track of the wolf. I decided since I was getting it rebored I would go ahead and refinish the rifle too, so I draw filed the barrel and got rid of all the safety warnings, browned all metal hardware, and refinished the stock. My dad although not a black powder guy, was very much into the whole mountain man/western fur trapper history, so I decided to pay a little tribute to him on the rifle in the way of some carving. I haven't done it in years and I was an amateur at best when I was halfway decent at it, and it shows. I'm actually having John Bergmann build me an SMR and it will have a similar tribute to him as well. Just my way of taking him hunting with me again.

 

[Flint.]

That looks really nice and a good shooter too! That was a lot of draw filing. Did you just do the filing on the flats with the warnings? What finish did you use on the stock? I just got a renegade that was abused by the previous owner. The barrel was left uncleaned and had a few rust spots. Surprisingly, the bore cleaned up good and the rust came off the barrel but the trigger guard is badly rusted.

 

[Travis186]

That looks really nice and a good shooter too! That was a lot of draw filing. Did you just do the filing on the flats with the warnings? What finish did you use on the stock? I just got a renegade that was abused by the previous owner. The barrel was left uncleaned and had a few rust spots. Surprisingly, the bore cleaned up good and the rust came off the barrel but the trigger guard is badly rusted.

I just draw filed the warnings. Hindsight being 20/20 I shoulda done the whole rifle, TC roll stamp and all, but I didn't. I peened the roll stamps away first with a center punch. The stock was finished with several coats of permalyn sealer and then buffed back down to bare wood with scotchbrite. Once I was happy the grain was sealed I brought it back with a 1/3rd mix. The metal was browned with Laurel Mtn Forge browning solution, although I'm sure any true rust blue/browning solution will work fine.