azsixshooter
36 Cl.
An old friend of mine gave me a couple of CVA guns he built in high school last September. A .50 cal Hawken and a .50 cal Kentucky pistol with a 10" barrel. I finally got some BP and took the pistol out for a workout yesterday. I had a paper target and a small steel buffalo target that I picked up at the Lansing Muzzleloader Club's state championship shoot a few weeks ago. I was shooting Hornady .490" PRB's and some 270 grain Buffalo Ball-ets that I picked up at Johnson's Sporting Goods in Adrian when I got the black powder. I don't want to get too attached to the 270 grain Ball-ets because it looks like that company is out of business and no longer making those rounds. They were fun to shoot over 40 grains of Goex 2F though, they really put the smack on that little buffalo at 25 yards! I took some pyrodex out that I've had for about 30 years and it shot fine. I found that the PRB's over 25 grains of Goex 2F was a fine load to enjoy at that range and I was getting some pretty decent groupings despite a heavy trigger and my old eyes trying to shoot semi-buckhorn sights in the shady woods. What a fun way to spend an afternoon though, I think all the BP smoke even helped keep the raging mosquitos at bay. They were bad at first but after I got a good cloud of smoke going in the area I was in they kind of cleared out.
I am going to refinish the wood stock on this pistol and I may even draw file and brown the barrel at some point in the future. I would also like to learn about tuning actions and improving the trigger keeping safety as a priority at some point. I have "The Gunsmith Of Greenville County" and was recently reading the section on action tuning and it was pretty interesting. Without having a borescope it is hard to tell what condition the bore is in, but looking into it with a flashlight I'm not seeing any major rust or pitting. It may benefit from a lapping with some JB Boreshine, but I'm going to get some trigger time on her from a bench and see how much I can tighten up the groups by improving my own shooting first. I may also try different powder/patch combinations with the Hornady round balls. Maybe next year I can shoot the pistol match at the state competition, that was a ton of fun!
I am going to refinish the wood stock on this pistol and I may even draw file and brown the barrel at some point in the future. I would also like to learn about tuning actions and improving the trigger keeping safety as a priority at some point. I have "The Gunsmith Of Greenville County" and was recently reading the section on action tuning and it was pretty interesting. Without having a borescope it is hard to tell what condition the bore is in, but looking into it with a flashlight I'm not seeing any major rust or pitting. It may benefit from a lapping with some JB Boreshine, but I'm going to get some trigger time on her from a bench and see how much I can tighten up the groups by improving my own shooting first. I may also try different powder/patch combinations with the Hornady round balls. Maybe next year I can shoot the pistol match at the state competition, that was a ton of fun!
