Hornady Great Plains opinions

[Pacobillie]

Just bought a used TC Hawken in .50 caliber; 1:48 twist. Performance with .490 PRB (.015 Pre-lubed patch) has been erratic thus far. I am going to try .495 PRB next. I also picked up a box of Hornady Great Plains conical bullets, 385 Gr. Has anyone here shot those in a TC Hawken? Any recommended loads?

 

[Zonie]

Your problem may be due to the pre-lubricated patches.

Sometimes these can sit on a dealers shelves for years and many of us believe the cotton fibers, if exposed to some oils will break down and loose their strength.

If you didn't collect your fired patches to examine them the last time you shot, be sure to collect them the next time you shoot.

If the patches are torn or ripped where the ball was contacting the rifling, the patch was the cause of the poor accuracy.

If you don't want to get into saving a lot of money by buying a yard of cotton pillow ticking or other thick material, at least look for non-lubricated patches to shoot.

You can lubricate these with vegitable oil, factory made patch lubes or even spit.

If the non-lubricated patches are still tearing or ripping the cause is due to either sharp rifling lands in the bore or sharp edges where the rifling meets the muzzle crown.

 

[Walks with fire]

.490 ball, Wal-mart ticking (around .017) and 80-90 grains of Goex should have you prettttie happy.

 

[BrownBear]

The Hornady Great Plains is probably one of the best conicals out there, both for accuracy (long as you put a lubed felt wad between it and the powder), and performance on game. Haven't shot game with mine because I generally use round balls, but my hunting pard uses nothing else.

Only down side is cost. If you decide you like them and want to shoot more, the Lyman Plains bullet is nearly identical if you're willing to do some casting. You can recover the cost of the mold really quickly, when you stop shooting the factory stuff.

 

[Pacobillie]

Your problem may be due to the pre-lubricated patches.

Sometimes these can sit on a dealers shelves for years and many of us believe the cotton fibers, if exposed to some oils will break down and loose their strength.

If you didn't collect your fired patches to examine them the last time you shot, be sure to collect them the next time you shoot.

If the patches are torn or ripped where the ball was contacting the rifling, the patch was the cause of the poor accuracy.

If you don't want to get into saving a lot of money by buying a yard of cotton pillow ticking or other thick material, at least look for non-lubricated patches to shoot.

You can lubricate these with vegitable oil, factory made patch lubes or even spit.

If the non-lubricated patches are still tearing or ripping the cause is due to either sharp rifling lands in the bore or sharp edges where the rifling meets the muzzle crown.

Thanks for the input.

I did not look at the fired patches, but if I go back to the range today, I will try and recover them.

FYI, I was shooting 80 grains of Pyrodex RS. .015 Bore-Butter prelubed patches. It was not horrible, but not up to my standards. About 4-5 inch groups at 50 meters.

My .45 TC Hawken shoots about 1.25 inch groups at that same distance with .445 PRBs, and 60 grains of Pyrodex P. The .45 seems to like a bigger ball and a thin patch. That is why I am intent on trying the .495 RB. Unfortunately, the .490s were all that I had on hand yesterday.

I also tried .018 patches, but the results got even worse.

BTW, I also have a 1:66 slow twist barrel for that rifle, but it is currently missing a front sight. I am awaiting one from TOTW. Therefore, I could not try it out yesterday. That will be my target shooting barrel. The regular 1:48 TC barrel will be my hunting barrel. That is why I asked about the HGPs.

One thing that I did not mention is that I did find a combination that shot well. I had some Hornady green "plastic patches" on hand. They shot very well with the .490 RBs. Please forgive me for sinning:')

 

[Rat Trapper]

The Hornady great plains 385 grain bullet is a very good hunting bullet. It is my go to bullet for my 50 cal TC Hawken. My load is: 90 grains of Triple Seven 2f, ox-yoke lubed felt wad over powder and CCI #11 mag caps. Rifle has a TC peep sight and TC fiber optic front sight. While I have a number of other rifles, this is my favorite rifle for hunting. It gets used very little with anything but the load listed above. Other rifles get brought into action when I use round balls.

 

[dennyhawk]

If your rife is brand new out of the box, you might want to lap the barrel just a tad. Or just keep shooting it. Sometimes it takes a new barrel a hundred shots or so to settle in. The plains bullet is a good one, but you may also consider a maxi ball, which was developed to be shot out of your rifle and similar ones with the 1:48 twist.

 

[dennyhawk]

sorry..just re-read your post, and see the rifle is used. Make sure the barrel is real clean. and try different powder loads, patch sizes, and ball sized...don't give up too easy on prb. Your rifle should be a tack driver!

 

[Idaho Ron]

My guns soot the Hornady 410 better than the 385 but the 385's are still sub 2" groups at 100 yards. I use 100 Gr of Pyrodex select RS and seat them firm. Ron

 

[Pacobillie]

I went back to the range today; this time with .495 RBs, GPBs and Goex FFG. I used the .015 pre-lubed patches, as there was nothing wrong with them.

Group size with the PRBs shrank to a tad under 2 inches, using 80 grains of Goex FFG. I did not try other loads. With some load development, it can probably do better.

The GPBs shot quite well. Group was 1.2 inches @ 50 meters, using 90 grains FFG. However, the POI is about 1.5 inch higher, and 2.5 inches left of the PRB POI.

 

[buttonbuck]

I would do well at 50 yards off a bench keyhole groups w/a 54 renegade. I harvested deer with them until I switched to PRB which I perfer now....The expansion is usually very good. I just followed the boxes suggestion of 100 grains or was it 105 grains? Oh well.