lyman .50 Deerstalker loads

[Ed oetzel]

Just picked up a deerstalker .50 would like to know some loads to start with I will be hunting whitetails inside of 75 yards.Also for anyone who has one how are they...ED

 

[Rebel]

Try 70-80 grs of Goex 3f powder and a ticking patched .490 rd ball. Plenty for deer. What you want is the load that gives you the best accuracy and still has enough power. If you get a good accurate load within that 70-80 gr. range you are good to go.

 

[Frank Briggs]

One of my shooting buddies just bought a deer stalker, too.

Nice rifle. I really like the stock.

His rifle was not doing so well with .490 balls and .010 patches.

I noticed when loading it that the .490 ball was pretty loose and easy to push down the bore.

When we changed to .495 ball and .018 patch things got a lot better.

That rifle has only been to the range one time, so we havn't settled on a best load yet.

we intend to load it with every combination of patch powder and ball that we can come up with , and hope to find at least one combination it likes.

Your rifle will require the same kind of experimenting if you want it to shoot for you.

 

[playfarmers]

I have been using one for the past 14 years. Every bullet I could get my hands on has been fired from this rifle, some worked good, some not so good. The .495 ball, 80g of 2f and a 18th patch "lightly" lubed seems to work the best. Too much lube seems to make the ball fly all over. I have just started to use Balistol patches and they seem to work ok, but i have not fired enough rounds to tell for sure. The Hornady Bal-et and 80g of 2f also worked good.

 

[nortonjunk]

I just bougth a 50 cal Deerstalker for hunting.

Do you have any trouble loading after a few shots using the thicker patches (.015-.018)

I plan on starting with a .490 RB and .010 patch.

I worry about having to re-load a time or two in the field and having to pound it down the barrel

 

[410-er]

Go with the .490 ball and .018 or .020 patch.Lyman like thicker patches.I used 80grs of FFg in the one I had.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Clean the barrel between shot. You can use spit on a cleaning patch- just wipe the patch on your tongue- no need for a big wad of spit on it- to pull out the cake that builds in the barrel. Then run a dry patch down the barrel to make sure its dry, before pouring in the next powder charge.

Loading a Muzzle Loader is not a quick fire deal. Deal with it. Accept it. Don't try to bend the rules. These rules don't break very easily, and getting a stuck ball out of a barrel is a royal pain. If you insist on seeing how many shots you can fire out of your barrel before you can't get another ball all the way down to seat on the powder, do it at a range, and not in the hunting fields. This is one " test" that has been done over and over again by thousands of new shooters before you. I would hope that just once, one of you new guys would simply learn from our mistakes and just clean the barrel between shots.

Yes, there are some guns, and some lubes that let you shoot without cleaning. All day long. You will hear from Roundball I am sure, as he is very proud that he can shoot all day and not wipe his barrel. He should be. His barrel is a rare event, but he doesn't have the experiences with other gun barrels, fired in other areas of the country with different relative humidity, and temperatures than he experiences in his home range.

I have had a few guns that stayed very clean except for the last few inches of the barrel. The amount of lube on my patch just wasn't enough to lube the entire length of the barrel, and crud built up towards the muzzle, while once you got past it, the fouling was very soft and easy to clean out.

Other guns stay cakey all the way down to the breech, and so far the lubes I have tried have not made much difference in how hard the cake is. I thought Bore Butter was the answer, but I met my match with a gun that just wants to cake up, even with liberal use of bore butter.

You don't have to jump off a cliff to know that the sudden stop is going to hurt! I think the same way about cleaning ML barrels frequently. If you don't do it, you are going to get hurt, with a ball stuck half way down the barrel, powder in the barrel, and no cleaning fluid or solvent along so that you can pour it down on the PRB and loosen the crud around the Patch, so you can at least run the ball down on the powder and then shoot it out of the gun to give you access to the entire barrel for cleaning. Simple water will loosen up most stuck balls, but too much of it, will seep around the ball and neutralize the powder. Then you do have to pull the ball, and dig the soupy powder out of the gun, dry the barrel, the flashchannel, and the powder chamber in the breech if there is one, before you can reload the gun for the next shot. Do you really want to be doing that in the field because you are unwilling to take the time to clean the barrel between shots? Does this not seem to be the lesser of the two evils?

The ML rifle in your hands is a single shot weapon. That is all you should expect to get at a deer. Most deer are not going to stay around while you reload, no matter how fast you can do so. So, pick your shots at game, turn down shots that might not get through the brush to the deer for a killing wound, and join the rest of us who talk about the big one that go away! You will like yourself so much better.

 

[bramble]

Natty & 3D,
Welcome pilgrims! congrats on the .50's and getting into smokin'. I too am relatively new to muzzleloading. That said, MLF has put me way ahead of where I should be. You will find that some folks get a little long in their narratives, usually that's a combination of a wealth of knowledge and a passion for the sport. Two suggestions;
Learn from the mistakes (and experience) of others. Read everything you can on MLF. There may be some conflicting opinions, personal preferences, etc. but the general thread of knowledge is quite consistent. As paul :bow: said above the most valuable part of this is learning from the mistakes of others, not having to learn from experience
The second suggestion is make your own experience (and mistakes). Specifically, burn a lot of powder on the range. The variability from gun to gun, and from load to load in the same gun is amazing.
I look forward to hearing more from y'all, especially some stories under the ML Hunting thread.
bramble

 

[playfarmers]

I have no problem loading several loads without any cleaning at all. I am using Wonderlube now, and Pyrodex or 2f Goex with the .495 ball and 15-18 th patches. I had very poor accuracy with a .490 ball in this rifle. The bore is a little over size, that is why most bullets didn't shoot as good as the tight fitting ball. I like the rifle enough that I am looking at one in .54.

 

[nortonjunk]

paulvallandigham,
Thanks for the advice. I am only new to flintlocks, not muzzleloading in general. I have had an inlne for several years. I run a patch down the barrel between every shot at the range. I have never had to take a second shot at a deer with that gun. There will be a day when I will have to "finish one off", for use of a better term. I know from experience I can shoot 3 or 4 sabots through the inline before swabbing the barrel.

I was askng the question to find out if I should even attempt 2 shots at the range without wiping the barrel. I don't want to get a ball stuck.... If I have to carry a few dry patches and a brush with me hunting, so be it.

Thanks again.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Ti is my personal experience that if you don't clean between shots, the second shot goes to a different POI than the first shot did. If I clean between shots, the balls hit in the same place. Each gun is different, though, and only you can tell whether your gun shoots to a different POI on the second round out of a dirty barrel, and how much importance that is for the kind of shooting you expect to do. I did a lot of demonstrating trick shooting with my gun clubs when I was starting out, and I neede to be able to plaace each successive shot through the same hole as the first shot out of a cold, clean barrel. MY reputation got to be a little inconvenient, as I arrived at a demonstration late one day, and the othr men were already shooting, and missing badly. They had set up a playing card on edge on a stick hafl the distance to the backstop, and were trying to cut the playing cut with their round balls. When I came up, the range officer of the day announced to the crowd that here finally was a man He knew could do it, and forced me to shoot a cold gun, with no warm up, to see if I could split the card. The Gods were looking down with pity on my poor soul, and I split that first card, and then another, and another, and after doing three in a row, they let me get off the firing line, so I could take care of some club business that had to be done, as I was both the secretary, and the club's lawyer, and resident Agent for the corporation. I had papers to be signed, and this was the first time that year we got all the officers in one place at one time, so I could get all the necessary signatures on forms that had to be sent in to the state! About a half hour later, I got back on the line, and the other guys still had not split a card, and were waiting on me, again. I did miss one card that afternoon, but I had figured out that particular trick, and could consistently split cards pretty much all day long. If you want to learn how to do it, read
[url] www.chuckhawks.com/off-hand_shooting.htm[/url]

Paul

 

[n8dawg6]

natty i just got a deerstalker about 6 weeks ago. mine is a flintlock . . . that's the main reason i got it, i wanted to try out a flintlock and the deerstalker was the best deal i found. if yours is a flintlock, you'll need to use blackpowder. if its a percussion rifle, you can use pyrodex RS. my experience with pyrodex is that, although it still has to be cleaned at the end of the day, and is actually more corrosive than blackpowder, the fouling it produces does not accumulate like blackpowder. using pyrodex and shooting roundballs in my t/c's with 80 g. pyrodex, i can go on shooting indefinitely without swabbing between shots. the drawback to pyrodex is that it is harder to ignite. you have to be sure that some powder has made its way into the bolster/fire channel for sure ignition.

i also shoot blackpowder in my sidelocks. depending on the type lube you use, you can usually get quite a few shots before having to swab. however, with blackpowder the accuracy decrease/velocity decrease/pressure increase will become increasingly noticeable after enough shots without swabbing.

i have fired a t/c new englander w/ wonderlube patches and goex 2f blackpowder, without swabbing, for 10-15 shots no problem. on the other hand, with a pound of elephant powder i had, even using wonderlube patches, i had to swab between each shot w/ a t/c renegade.

anyway, its kind of a learning experience for each individual rifle, with the varying bore sizes, etc. i have never had an instance where i couldnt load at LEAST two shots in a row without swabbing. HOWEVER, i have had instances where, after seating the 2nd shot, i KNEW that seating a 3rd shot would be improbable if not impossible. just dont get overzealous . . .

one thing that i have found to be absolutely certain is that using petroleum-based lubes for your patches will make things worse. stick with one of the many natural lubes available for your patches. i still like to use break-free clp as the rust preventative for my rifle, but i clean it all out of the barrel before i start shooting.

btw, as to my deerstalker . . . i was really surprised at what a good piece of wood came on it. it's walnut with some noticeable figure. the wood-to-metal fit leaves a lot to be desired, but it will do. too much plastic on the rifle, too. this might be one that i end up "customizing" . . . . imo, though, it's still well beyond my CVA's in terms of quality of workmanship.

oh yeah, one other thing . . . swabbing between shots w/ blackpowder kills all the sparks. just sort of a paranoia on my part (after seeing a cook-off), but better safe than sorry

 

[Halftail]

3D,
I have Been shooting a Lyman Deerstalker since the Fall of 2001 and I have found it likes 70 Grains of 3f GOEX with a .490 RB and a .018 ticking patch.Good on targets and Deer. :v

 

[CrackStock]

Look at the Hornady Great Plains bullet in .385 grains (#6620 IIRC)

This does quite well in that gun and is highly effective on deer.

CS

 

[Rat Trapper]

I agree with Crackstock, the Hornady Great Plains bullet is very good. Where I live it is very hard to find black powder any more. The cost of the lic has gone up to the point most stores refuse to handle it. Have been told the cost of the lic is more than the profit of selling it. So I am using Triple Seven 2F and it is pretty clean in my TC Hawken 54 cal. When I use bore butter with the Lee REAL 300 grain bullet I can shoot as much as I want and never wipe the bore. When using the Great plains bullet I don't wipe in the field. since I have never had a reason to load it more than once after firing it. That was cause the first deer came out early and I wanted to stay and try for another deer. It was worth the wait as I got a second deer and the gun was dirty after the first shot anyway.

 

[strongarm]

Remember the thickness on a commercial patch isn'et close to what they say it is. The best way to tell is to squeeze the patch in a micrometer, until it is taught and read the thickness. You will be surprised at what it will read. To save some money go to a fabric store buy some pillow ticking. Usually called blue stripe, wash it in cold water with a cup of vinagar and allow to line dry. Cut strips or patches from there. That is a lot more cheap and effective than changing ball sizes.

 

[Halftail]

Look at the Hornady Great Plains bullet in .385 grains (#6620 IIRC)

This does quite well in that gun and is highly effective on deer.

CS

I never shot anything but round balls in any of my Muzzleloaders but I might be open to trying them Great Plains Bullets.They sound as if they pack quite a wallop.Where do you but these at?