bought my first smokepole kit... Traditions St. Louis 50cal

[DEVERS]

Well, I saw it on sale and I had a gift certificate and I had been wanting a new project.

So, I got a Traditions St. Louis Hawken 50cal kit.

Everything checked out and looked complete/unopened.

I paid a very fair price for it.

Question time, do folks recommend bluing the barrel (PermaBlue or BlueWonder) or browning it (plumb brown)? If I brown it, I am probably going to tarnish the brass after cleaning up the rough surfaces.

Also, what do other folks use with similar smoke poles? round ball & patch, Lee R.E.A.L, Maxiball, or sabot with these?

I plan on taking it deer hunting this fall if I don't bag something with pistol.

 

[Rebel]

Welcome to the smoke and fire club. As far as finishing the barrel on your rifle that is pretty much a personal choice. I like mine browned. I tarnish any brass i have on the gun with black powder reside. Others like to keep the brass show room new and shiny. As for projectiles, a .490 rd ball over 70-80 grs of either 3f black powder or Pyrodex P if you can't get black should be a good deer hunting load. And you can load down to 50 gr or so for plinking and small game. Make sure if you get real black powder not to let anybody talk you into using Elephant. It is DIRTY.

 

[Zonie]

As rebel says, the barrel finish is up to you.
Your rifle isn't technically a Historically Correct gun stylewise although it is very close to several rifles which were made in California in the 1850s. This gives you the advantage of being able to say I B??????ed the barrel because that's the way I wanted it! :grin:
IMO, the browning is less reflective than blueing and to some hunters, this is important.

After you sand the brass the degree of polishing you put on it is another thing that's up to you.
It will always look like brass unless you use something like Birchwood Casey Brass Black on it.
Brass Black is not a hard coating and will wear off if it is handled very much.
By the way, some hunters swear that polished brass has not seemed to scare deer.

After you finish the gun, only by shooting it a lot will you find what it's most accurate load is.
It may be anywhere from 45 grains to 100 grains with a patched round ball.

Speaking of round balls, besides being historically the projectile of choice, they will have a higher initial velocity than any of the conicals using the same powder load.
With an 80 grain FFg load under a round ball, the muzzle velocity will be around 1573 FPS. (980 FPS at 100 yards). The same load with a 370 grain Lyman Maxi has a muzzle velocity of 1239 FPS. (1031 at 100 yards).
Out to 100 yards, IMO round balls are just as lethal on a deer as a conical and IMO, the higher velocity of teh ball makes it shoot a little flatter out to 80 yards.

Beyond 100 yards, the conicals have the ballistic advantage, but if you shoot using the iron sights, the sights become (for me) the limiting factor for the good accuracy needed for a clean kill.

When building your rifle, if you have any questions, feel free to ask us over on the Builders Bench forum area.

If I forgot to say it, Welcome to Muzzleloading. It's the greatest fun that can legally be had.

 

[Old40Rod]

As far as finish, I prefer brown myself, but look at photos of finished rifles on the forum. If you are going to brown, I highly recommend Laurel Mountain Forge browning solution. It is idiot proof, a fact I have proven many times. :haha:

 

[Norskie]

You need to figure out your twist rate (which is probably 1 inch in 48 inches, and may be stamped on the barrel). This will help when you're working up good loads for various circumstances.
If it's one in sixty, just shoot round balls, you'll never need anything else. Keep us posted on the build. A Traditions ain't the Cadillac of the muzzleloading world, but it ain't a Yugo either.

 

[DEVERS]

Its a 1:48 and the guy behind the counter said to stick with PRB or Maxi's

PRB is what I will start with.

Thanks for the info!!!

 

[Ice Tigre]

Congrats! its a good gun. Of course, I'm a bit biased, as I got mine last christmas. :winking:

have fun putting it together, I hope you do better with the butt plate than I did, :cursing:

Mine is acurate at 65 yards, with the rear sight as far back as it will go, .490 PRB over 60 gr.(FFG) pyrodex RS. might give ya somewhere to start....


Don't forget to post some pics when you finish it!
:thumbsup:
Gary

 

[MSW]

congratulations, and welcome to the M/L community. if you like brown, go with Mt Laurel... it's said to be idiot proof and, as an example, i've yet to manage to botch it up. if you like blue, you might want to consider fire blueing... there's a link on the builders bench, and i think it looks great, but it's really a matter of personal preference.

good luck!
MSW

 

[leadball]

I like the traditions. i own the kentucky 50 cal percussion as does my son and they have yet to fail me. 1-66 twist and a ball shooter

 

[walruskid1]

welcome devers, make smoke and be safe. glad to hear you took the plunge. :hatsoff:

 

[nate c]

Good luck / congrats / have fun with the kit.

I'm still building mine now, can't say much has to how it shoots or what it likes yet, but hope to know fairly soon.

Nate

 

[cayugad]

Its a 1:48 and the guy behind the counter said to stick with PRB or Maxi's

PRB is what I will start with.

Thanks for the info!!!

A young man (14 years old) I know, had his father purchase the same rifle although his was assembled. He brought it to my house and wanted to learn to shoot it.

We found that 85 grains of Goex 2f and a patched roundball is a very accurate load in the rifle. I know he tried muzzleloader hunting last year with it but as luck would have it, he never got a shot...

Good luck with your rifle...