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ratslayer

32 Cal.
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
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Yesterday was my first time sighting in my traditions 50 cal deer hunter.I shot it a 50 yards and decide to leave my power charge a 60 grains.I am shooting a little left still.so do I move the front or rear sight?

Also I shot that thing like 50 times I could not stop it was so much fun.I think I am adicted to it is there and help for me now or am hooked for life.
I am all ready thinking about getting a nicer model lol.
 
If it is a new gun I would keep shooting it for about 100 to 150 times to break the barrel in, after that then you can adjust your sights. Move your rear sight to the left to change the POI to the right. what 60 grns are you shooting 2ff or 3fff?
 
If both sights are dovetail mounted you could move either one. The direction you move them is different though. The rear sight moves in the direction you want the shots to move, in your case to the right. The front sight moves the opposite. In other words in order to move your shots to the right you need to move the sight to the left.
 
Well you adjust the rear sight because it has an adjustable rear sight of course.

But a hint first;
A right hand shooter,, shooting a little left,, can very likley be what we call a "Peek".
"Peeking" is an involentary movement of the rifle to the left just a smidge when the shooter wants to see if he hit his mark on the target. It happens quite frequently, even to seasoned shooters when the pressure is on for a make or break shot.

It really takes consious effort in form and technique,,
Follow through Baby, Follow through,, :wink:
Concentrate on putting the rifle sights back on the target immediately after touching the round off.

And Yes, most rifles accuracy will improve and the Point of Impact will change just a tad as the barrel breaks in around 100-150 shots.
 
Well then the barrel is not broken in yet I have not went threw a 100 yet.I am shooting to the right by 2 inch's my friend is a little to the left.I must hold it a little different then him.

thanks for the help.
 
The peek is not my problem sometimes I flinch if the nipple is fowled and i get a delay.I need a botle of compressed air to blow it out every once and awhile.Is that what you guys use to blow out the nipple ?
 
Can't say as though I have ever had a problem with the nipple fouling. Usually ignition delays are from other causes, like fouling getting pushed into the chamber prior to loading powder.Pyrodex will tend to have more delay issues also. If you are using Pyrodex, try buying the magnum caps, they work better for the substitute black powders.
 
ratslayer said:
The peek is not my problem sometimes I flinch if the nipple is fowled and i get a delay.I need a botle of compressed air to blow it out every once and awhile.Is that what you guys use to blow out the nipple ?

I am going to try and give you a heads up here! I am not sure what you are shooting as powder but I have a .50 Traditions. I made a sight adjustment after about 25 shots. when I put about a 100 +or- shots thru and few other changes I made a final adjustment that was basically a tweak!
I am not saying that it doesn't take a fair amount of shots to wear the roughness out of the lands barrel, which will tear patches and affect accuracy but if you make small adjustments you can get a lot closer to sighted in too begin with! I guess what I am saying is the gun was fairly accurate right out of the box!

I tried a sub,it produced a large amount of fouling and I could not get consistent hits with a sub, no matter what I tried!

I swithched too GOEX 2FF and have never looked back. I also use Hoppes 9 Plus Black Powder Solvent & Patch Lubricant as a lube.

The next thing I learned while still using a sub. I usually wipe about every third shot. Like I said the sub produced a huge amount of fouling, if I wiped in one motion all that fouling is pushed into the patient breech, and eventually into the nipple. Traditions and CVA have the same type of patient breech, the drum thread into the barrel and into the breech plug. A design that if you are having fouling problems it will push that fouling through and out the nipple eventually!
I have a mark on my ramrod that indicates the dead on the bottom unloaded. I wipe with this method using three different patches , first wipe 1/3 of the barrel, second wipe 2/3's of the barrel, and third wipe and always with a clean patch, the last 1/3 of the barrel.

The last thing to learn when sighting in a new muzzle loader is change only one thing at a time!
Whether that one thing be, grains of powder, lube, patch, bullet, wiping methods an adjustment of the sights, etc., etc. After making that one change fire at least five rounds and see what difference that one change made.

The next thing is breathing when making that shot. I practice the same thing no matter what I am shooting.
Breath in breath out breath in and on the exhale I squeeze the trigger. Follow thru is important too. Most likely you ain't going to see where the shot hit with the smoke from a muzzle loader anyway so when you squeeze off the shot stay with your head glued to the stock and eyes on the sights. If you don't practice this you get in the habit of jerking your head away to see the shot and eventually you will get too the point of doing this while making the shot.

Traditions gets a bad rap but I look at it this way. The lower price allowed me to get into this madness. I now own one more and am thinking of a third. When it comes too the gun. If I do my part the gun will do it's part and on a good day I will put my accuracy up against any other brand.
 
I know it's a starter rifle but it still is fun to shoot.I don't lift my head .I shoot skeet and that is something you learn right away as soon as you do that you miss.I am not new to shooting just muzzle loading.

The powder I am using is pryodex rs when that is done I will try the goex ff2.I bought some more balls speer" and patches when i get done with them
I will see what she will do.
thanks for the tip
 
ALSO..while I sight in anything, be it BP or centerfire, I always shoot off a sturdy rest. Sandbags and a picnic table works well. Doing so takes many variables out of the picture and allows you to see exactly where the rifle is shooting. Like others have stated..adjust one thing then shoot 3 shots, swab with a lightly dampened spit patch between shots. After you get the rifle shooting bulls eyes consistantly then you can practice offhand. Keep us posted and have fun! :thumbsup:
 
Will this work

003-2.jpg


:wink:
 
It will work just fine. I have a little portable table not nearly that sturdy and have fired many sub 1" five shot groups with modern rifles. No, can't even come close with MLs and open iron sights but that's me, not the table.
 
Well got out today before dark shot 5 rounds in a row at 50 yards.I got a 3 inch group some of the balls did touch then I did my self in I pushed the cleaning rod all the way down and plugged the breach even Picking the nipple didn't work.

I went in and got the air compressor and blew 120 pounds of air pressure into the nipple for a few minutes took it out into the field and it shot .I think i learned my lesson now.lol

Shooting center fire is a lot easier then black powder that's for sure.
 
ratslayer said:
Yesterday was my first time sighting in my traditions 50 cal deer hunter.I shot it a 50 yards and decide to leave my power charge a 60 grains.I am shooting a little left still.so do I move the front or rear sight?

Also I shot that thing like 50 times I could not stop it was so much fun.I think I am adicted to it is there and help for me now or am hooked for life.
I am all ready thinking about getting a nicer model lol.

They sure are fun to shoot! A centerfire may be easier, but you can't make loading adjustments on the fly like you can with a muzzleloader. It's fun to be able to shoot 40, 60, 80 or 110gr of powder as you like to experiment and adjust for impact.
 
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