alan gumtow
32 Cal
Can anyone help me with my rifle I am looking for any manuals or technical data such as nipple size I just acquired a 45 caliber Italian made Charles Daly percussion rifle and have no clue what I need
Charles Daly 45 caliber Italian made percussion rifle
- Thread starter alan gumtow
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
Ben Meyer
40 Cal
My .50 Hawken is a Charles Daly made in 1985 by Investarms. Charles Daly was an importer, who got guns from multiple manufacturers in Europe and sold them in the US. If you dig deep on the internet, you can identify the makers mark and find the mfg date. I have the owners manual as a pdf file I could email you, PM me and I will.
alan gumtow
32 Cal
Thanks that would be great
alan gumtow
32 Cal
Attachments
Nice clean looking gun. You should have fun with that shooter. .45 caliber 
.
.Check and make sure it is unloaded by running the ram rod down the barrel. It should reach the breach, if not, there is something in there. I have handled a lot of used muzzleloaders that were loaded, many for years without anybody suspecting. What you got is an Investarms Hawken, with a Charles Daly stamp on the barrel. I got one exactly like yours in .54, complete with the Charles Daly name on it. Also own two others, a Cabelas and a Lyman, but they are all made by Investarms. I think very highly of them, much better quality than a CVA or Traditions IMHO. Your nipple is 6 x.75, available from many sources online. If the barrel is on good condition, it will be a great shooter. There are many options for loading, but this will get you started. Get some .440 pure lead round balls, .015 pre-lubed linen patches for .40-.49 calibers, some appropriate powder, I like Pyro P or real black in 3f, and good luck on this, some #11 percussion caps. Pyro RS will also work, as will any 2f black powder. Like I said, there are many options to tweak your load with.
As far as loading, make sure the barrel is clean and no oil is in the breach area. I run a dry patch from a t-shirt (on the jag) down the barrel, then snap off a few caps to insure the the flash channel is clear. Point the barrel in a safe direction while doing this, and see if the blast from the cap is getting thru by holding it up against a leaf or something easily moved. In .45 caliber. I like 40 to 60 grains, by volume. You can go higher, but 60 grains is an excellent load for deer in the .45. Dump your selected powder down the barrel, center a round ball in the middle of a patch, and ram it down until it is firmly on top of the powder. When dropped on the load, your ram-rod should bounce. You are now ready to cap and fire. Just place the cap on the nipple, making sure it is firmly and fully seated, and you are ready to fire. Sounds complicated, but is is not. Stick with a basic load, and it will be second nature in a few minutes. When you are done, thoroughly clean your rifle. Your rifle has a hooked breech, so clean up is easy. Remove barrel wedge and ramrod, and simply lift the barrel from the front off of the stock. I clean my rifles with hot soapy water, filling them up and pumping a cleaning patch up and down. Repeat until clean. You can also buy some expensive cleaning junk that will work almost as good as soapy tapwater if you desire. Take your nipple out and scrub it with an old toothbrush. After the barrel is clean, run dry patches down until all the moisture is gone. Sounds hard, but I clean my Investarms Hawkens in 5 or 10 minutes easily. I then finish with what many consider blasphemy, I run a patch soaked in regular old 3 in 1 oil down the barrel, and place a LIGHT coat around the nipple and breech area. Been working for me for nearly 50 years. My .54 Investarms Hawken, my first muzzleloader I got in the mid 1970's, has a mirror bright bore after many thousands of shots.
Attachments
Ben Meyer
40 Cal
I cant speak to the quality vs TC, CVA, etc, as I've never owned those. What I can say is, although visually these Investarms Hawkens are pretty "plain Jane" rifles, they are quality where it counts....in accuracy. I've won 2 out of the last 3 black powder shoots at my gun club shooting mine! My go to load is: 80gr Goex 2f, a .490 ball and .018 pillow ticking drylubed with ballistol and water 6:1, and CCI caps. This was at 25yds offhand. And ive taken two Indiana whitetails with it; hit exactly where i was aiming both times.
alan gumtow
32 Cal
Nice clean looking gun. You should have fun with that shooter. .45 caliber
Thank you so much that is what I was looking for.
Keep it simple. When I got my .54 Hawken, it came with a jug of Pyrodex, 100 .530 round balls, 100 caps, 100 unlubed patches, and an empty .45-70 shell for a powder measure. Fella at the gun store gave me a 3 minute tutorial. Didn't know Pyrodex wasn't "Holy Black", just used it as it worked fine. In my blissful ignorance (pre-internet) I took a lot of deer, a few bear, a couple of elk and a few pronghorns that way. Lubed my patches with shortening. After the initial 100 were gone, I used old jeans and t-shirts cut into rough squares as patches. Didn't know anything about patch thickness or super exotic patch lube made of walrus blubber and milk from a yeti. For reduced loads, I got a second .45-70 shell, and cut it in half to use as a powder measure. Killed a bunch of squirrels and bunnies that way. Probably would have gone to my grave happy and content had the internet not come along and I learned I was doing everything wrong.
