Everything went right! Had me looking over my shoulder wondering what I had forgotten or overlooked :grin:
Broke the front sight on my .54 Early Lancaster a few months back (trying to straighten a bend out of it). No biggie... wasn't extremely attached to the old sight anyway. A little intimidated by the prospect of replacing the sight myself but decided I had to get over that if I ever hoped to put a kit together. Spent a month fitting a replacement sight into the dovetail (you know the time-management deal) and then a few more months waiting for the spring winds (20 mph most days) to subside enough to make sighting in the rifle worth the powder and lead. Well, yesterday the big day finally came and 15 or 20 shots later the thing was shooting right on the money after taking less than a razor-blade's width of metal off the top of the new sight.
Spent the rest of the day just making up for lost time... I went through a pound of powder and a box of balls but had to quit only when I ran out of patches. No misfires; no hang fires. Once got distracted and couldn't remember where I was in the loading... used the screw to pull the ball (there was only one!), dumped the powder out and started over. Ball came out with one hand on the rod and one hand on the stock... just like it is supposed to work.
Was using Stumpy's Moose Milk as a lube... never had to swab the bore between shots... loaded easily and it stayed clean and slick enough to let me pull that ball with one hand. Used the same stuff to swab the bore when I was finished shooting for the day and it made clean up 90 minutes later a snap.
Never had to knap the flint, though I did flip it over once and had to replace it part way through the session because the darn thing disappeared! When the smoke cleared I noticed a big empty spot where it was supposed to be... the cock's jaws must have loosened up a bit and let it go flying. Still threw enough spark in the process to get ignition.
Got a slight bruise on the cheek (lot of drop on that comb) and the shoulder is telling me about the recoil. But I had a great day.
.530" roundballs
.015" patches lubed with Stumpkiller's Moose Milk
80 grains of Goex 3f
Black English flint wrapped in leather
add good weather to season to taste.
Broke the front sight on my .54 Early Lancaster a few months back (trying to straighten a bend out of it). No biggie... wasn't extremely attached to the old sight anyway. A little intimidated by the prospect of replacing the sight myself but decided I had to get over that if I ever hoped to put a kit together. Spent a month fitting a replacement sight into the dovetail (you know the time-management deal) and then a few more months waiting for the spring winds (20 mph most days) to subside enough to make sighting in the rifle worth the powder and lead. Well, yesterday the big day finally came and 15 or 20 shots later the thing was shooting right on the money after taking less than a razor-blade's width of metal off the top of the new sight.
Spent the rest of the day just making up for lost time... I went through a pound of powder and a box of balls but had to quit only when I ran out of patches. No misfires; no hang fires. Once got distracted and couldn't remember where I was in the loading... used the screw to pull the ball (there was only one!), dumped the powder out and started over. Ball came out with one hand on the rod and one hand on the stock... just like it is supposed to work.
Was using Stumpy's Moose Milk as a lube... never had to swab the bore between shots... loaded easily and it stayed clean and slick enough to let me pull that ball with one hand. Used the same stuff to swab the bore when I was finished shooting for the day and it made clean up 90 minutes later a snap.
Never had to knap the flint, though I did flip it over once and had to replace it part way through the session because the darn thing disappeared! When the smoke cleared I noticed a big empty spot where it was supposed to be... the cock's jaws must have loosened up a bit and let it go flying. Still threw enough spark in the process to get ignition.
Got a slight bruise on the cheek (lot of drop on that comb) and the shoulder is telling me about the recoil. But I had a great day.
.530" roundballs
.015" patches lubed with Stumpkiller's Moose Milk
80 grains of Goex 3f
Black English flint wrapped in leather
add good weather to season to taste.
Bill
