Green Mountain TC Hawken barrels?

[thompson50]

I have been wringing out my TC Hawken in .50 with various powders, charges and patch thicknesses and have come to the conclusion that this rifle simply does not shoot round balls very well. What it likes is conicals, the heavier the better. Working with REALs in 250 and 320 flavor and then the 370 grain maxi ball, the groups got smaller the higher up I went in weight. At 50 yards the maxi balls would cloverleaf.

For hunting, that is fine I suppose. I am a little disappointed that I can't try my luck with my muzzleloader doe tag with round balls in this rifle, but I have little doubt that a maxi ball over 80 grains of Olde Eynesford FFG will dump a whitetail doe pretty quickly at sensible ranges. That said, with the curved metal buttplate these loads are shoulder breakers at the range. I enjoy just burning powder without killing myself at the target range and I am starting to think about having a dedicated slow twist barrel for round ball.

Track of the wolf seems to have drop in Green Mountain barrels for these rifles. I have a few questions before I part with the cash and I would appreciate any thoughts:

- Are these truly drop in with no fitting?
- what kind of accuracy should I expect from round ball loads once I find what the barrel likes?
- Will a ramrod for a standard 28 inch hawken barrel fit on one of the round ball barrels?
- anything else I should know?

Thanks. It is frustrating not to be able to find a good round ball load with what I have, but it is what it is. Oddly both of my 1 in 48 TC barrels shoot conicals better than round balls. The 54 does better than the 50, but the difference is noticeable even there.

PS,
If that .50 Hawken barrel won't shoot you could always have it turned into a .52 with round ball rifling. TC rifling cleans up real quick on a rebore. Or you could make it a .52 bore for paper patched fifty rifle (450-500 grain molds) molds and also shoot round ball in it but it'd probably make that TC Hawken into a shoulder wrecking jack hammer. My .52's (heavy barrel Renegades) are set up that way with the "kinder, gentler" shotgun butts.

Don't recommember where it was I found my .515 round ball mold but they're out there somewhere.

I have a 50. GM barrel and I have no problem shooting out to 100 yards off the bench. 80grains of FF and a patched round ball. They sell longer rods to accommodate the longer barrel. Mine fits perfect

 

[OldSmoky1967]

My experience with a TC Hawken is it works best with a tight patch. I always used the blue mattress ticking from a fabric store and spit patch. It took a sharp whack with a ball starter to get the .490 ball started. My limitation with most of my guns these days are my eyes.

Dutch's system should be a good way to get the best out of a TC original barrel.

My experience is the same. I use pillow ticking. No problem grouping at 50 yards.

 

[Stub]

I recently bought a GM barrel for my TC Hawken. It was a older 1-66 RB barrel. There was no simple drop in. The under rib was too long and hit the nose cap on the stock by 1\4 inch. I have second Hawken and the barrel just made a tight fit on the nose cap. However, the hammer hit the nipple on the edge. The cap would go off every other hammer drop. It required that I bend the hammer, which I didn't find that easy to do.