First outing successful

[Wolfmanjack]

I recently bought a tc hawken from a nice gentleman on this board and was able to shoot a few rounds this afternoon. I was blessed with multiple successes in fact. Every component I used this afternoon was (except the pillow ticking) was made by me! My homemade black powder shot very well and burned cleaner than previous batches. The density is not quite on par with factory black powder but it seems to be very energetic. 100 gr by volume weighs exactly 85gr. My homemade percussion caps fired with 100% reliability today. I think I have perfected my technique for quality and reliability. I make about 25 at a time and it takes me about 30 minutes. My patch lube(beeswax and olive oil) seemed to keep the fouling soft and accuracy at 25 and 35 yards was quite surprising. I was afraid my components would produce shotgun like patterns. This was not the case. My goal was to not have to rely on store bought components to enjoy the shooting sports, goal accomplished! Oh yea I cast my own .490 round balls as well.
I now need to stretch the range out a little but I think 50 yards will be minute of deer without a doubt. All shots today were with 70gr by volume homemade black powder. I’ll try and get a pic of target up soon.

the one problem I had today was the patch ball combo was very tight. I bought the red pillow ticking from Walmart. I don’t have a micrometer so I have no idea the patch thickness. I really had to bang on the short starter to get it going. It was a struggle with the range rod as well. Looks like I’ll be experimenting with a different patch material here soon. I’ve read that the blue Walmart ticking may be a little thinner than the red?

 

[Wolfmanjack]

 

[Stykbow]

I’m not surprised that ball & ticking combo was tight. Just this week I went to Walmart to buy ticking. The red striped ticking was something like .0275” thick and the blue striped was around.0255”. I ended up buying some without stripes that measured .0220” that would compress to roughly .0185”. Haven’t shot it yet, but I did load a ball just at the end of the barrel. It was tight, but not too tight and printed the weave on the ball.

 

[UndeadPoet]

Great shooting, Wolfmanjack!

‘Poet

 

[UndeadPoet]

Thanks for the pillow ticking micrometer info, Stykbow. That is is good intelligence for us to have.

‘Poet

 

[ghostdncr]

I was afraid my components would produce shotgun like patterns. This was not the case. My goal was to not have to rely on store bought components to enjoy the shooting sports, goal accomplished!

I love seeing this! Been working on it for awhile myself and it feels mighty good to free one's self up from depending on the mercantile.

 

[wb78963]

I recently bought a tc hawken from a nice gentleman on this board and was able to shoot a few rounds this afternoon. I was blessed with multiple successes in fact. Every component I used this afternoon was (except the pillow ticking) was made by me! My homemade black powder shot very well and burned cleaner than previous batches. The density is not quite on par with factory black powder but it seems to be very energetic. 100 gr by volume weighs exactly 85gr. My homemade percussion caps fired with 100% reliability today. I think I have perfected my technique for quality and reliability. I make about 25 at a time and it takes me about 30 minutes. My patch lube(beeswax and olive oil) seemed to keep the fouling soft and accuracy at 25 and 35 yards was quite surprising. I was afraid my components would produce shotgun like patterns. This was not the case. My goal was to not have to rely on store bought components to enjoy the shooting sports, goal accomplished! Oh yea I cast my own .490 round balls as well.
I now need to stretch the range out a little but I think 50 yards will be minute of deer without a doubt. All shots today were with 70gr by volume homemade black powder. I’ll try and get a pic of target up soon.

the one problem I had today was the patch ball combo was very tight. I bought the red pillow ticking from Walmart. I don’t have a micrometer so I have no idea the patch thickness. I really had to bang on the short starter to get it going. It was a struggle with the range rod as well. Looks like I’ll be experimenting with a different patch material here soon. I’ve read that the blue Walmart ticking may be a little thinner than the red?

you make you own black gunpowder? Please mention me in your will if you would.
Bunk

 

[Eterry]

We do not discuss the making of Black Powder. If you continue discussing it your posts will be deleted and the thread locked.

 

[wb78963]

thank you Mr. Moderator for shutting this down.
. We already use explosives in our game which sensible people BUY.
yr' Obt' Svt'
Bunk

 

[towgunner11h]

Dare I say “Clap for the Wolfman”?

 

[towgunner11h]

To add- oops- didn’t realize that was verboten!

 

[fishmusic]

Wolfman, I'd be interested in hearing about your homemade caps. Are you using the Tap o Cap tool? I have been trying to figure out a consistent method of using Prime All. Are you using Prime All?

 

[Eric Krewson]

Joann's Fabric is great place to buy ticking, the red is .010, the blue is .015 and .018. The denim is anywhere from .012 to .025 the ounce rating. Seems like drill cloth is .015 but I could be wrong.

I have a TC in .50 that I couldn't drive a .495 ball in with a sledge hammer, a .490 goes in with .015 ticking with a moderated smack of a ball starter.

This is the tightest TC bored rifle I have ever owned and I have had a bunch of them.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I measure the drill cloth from Jo-Ann's at 0.017". However I don't compress the fabric hard with my micrometer. In most cases you compress the fabric and the lead into the 0.005" windage between the ball and the top of the lands. You need just enough compression to fill the windage and the groove depth.

 

[hanshi]

Polish the rifles crown with sandpaper and that should make it easier to start the prb into the muzzle.