Please Help Identify

[Porter]

As a new member of this forum, it is a bit overwhelming of all the great information here. I have spent a great deal of time going through and reading all of the posts I can and taking it all in.

I got my hands on this muzzleloader about a year and a half ago and am having great fun. I whould like a little help in getting more info about this hawken style .50 cal rifle. The barrel is marked Sears Roebuck & Co. and says it was made is Japan. Does anyone know anymore about it, like who maybe made it? How do I tell what the barrel twist is, and can a better quality barrel be put on it? I understand that at 50 yards I should be getting at least 3-4 inch groups, that is not happening off the bench, I am around the 8 inch mark. I can see that the inside of the barrel has a good bit of pits or rust marks and I am unable to get them out.

Thanks for all the insight.

 

[Rebel]

Porter, it sounds like ya outa jack up the nipple and put a new gun under it. :: Seriously though, you may be better off just trying to find a better rifle. There are some good deals occasionally on places like
Auction[url] Arms.com[/url] and Gunbroker. com. It sounds like you have a badly pitted barrel and chances are you are never going to get good accuracy from it. For not much more than the cost of a new barrel, if you can even find one for that rifle, you might be able to find a good used rifle. Or for under $300 you can order a new Lyman Great Plains rifle from Midsouth Shooters Supply.

 

Back in the early 70's =, some manufacturer in Miaikta? Maitaka? Msumthing JAPAN made alot lot of bp arms and we bought'm. They made a darn good gun! The locks are good hard metal and the springs on most of'm are still working well. The only one I've had in my hands and shot, was a flint lock pistole in 50 from the same manufacturer, it was an old worn gun also but still worked.
Sorry too hear the bore on yours is so bad, but it only takes a little neglect for the old rifles to be done. It was very likley abused before took posetion of the firearm.

I'm not sure if another barrel can be found for that rifle as after-market for a reasonable price,,any "smith" can help ya but big $!!.
Oil it good. Don't re-finish the stock,,Hang it over the mantle till ya larn more about it.

 

Miruku, Miruko, something like that. Try wroapping 4 oaught steel wool around a bore brush of correct size and run it up/down the bore about 50 times. Then clean well and try it again.
What are you shooting outa that thing? Loads? Ball/bullet, powder charge etc.?

 

like maxiball said, you might try polishing the bore, then try a thicker patch with your ball....if that doesn't work and you cannot find a patch/ball/powder charge combo that works, hang it up and get a Lyman's GPR..... :imo:

 

[Porter]

Thanks for all the input. I will try and give it a bit more care before I give up on it. So, it looks like the Lyman GPR is the big favorite around here. Are the Lyman's the best choice just because of the price, or should one step up just a bit more for something much better? Do you get alot more for a little bit of money, or are the Lyman's really just that good? I really like the .50 cl rifle size in a percussion Hawken style.

 

Yes Porter, this is the land of the great GPR.

If all you want is "something to hunt with" and don't know any better they do fine.

 

[musketman]

this hawken style .50 cal rifle. The barrel is marked Sears Roebuck & Co. and says it was made is Japan. Does anyone know anymore about it,

We (forum members) seen one of these being sold on ebay a few weeks ago, here is the link to that thread...

You Gotta Be Kidding

I think this may be the kind of gun you got there...

 

[Rebel]

And if you want something to hunt with, and target shoot with, and rondy with, and you do KNOW better than to spend a whole lot more on a custom gun that may or may not shoot better, then get a GPR. A custom rifle is actually very nice, Sometimes a person feels to nice, and to expensive, to actually take out hunting. If you get a few dings in a GPR, no big deal. But if you fall and break the stock on a custom rifle, or scratch the barrel or stock, it suddenly turns into a big deal. And besides, not all of us can afford to buy custom rifles, even if we wanted to. The Great Plains is a good, accurate, fairly authentic looking rifle, and well worth the money you pay for one.

 

[Porter]

Thanks for passing along that info and the Post on the past talk on this gun. YES, that is what I have here, this one is marked Miroku 0305 so that must be the item run number and not the year or s/n. From all of the other Hawken styles I have looked at this Miroku seems to be a nice piece.

I am working on the inside of the barrel, with all the tips you gave. It may never become perfect on the inside, but if I can get it to shoot well for me, than that is the point RIGHT!

 

[Stumpkiller]

Don't lose heart. A pitted barrel is not necessarily inaccurate, just more difficult to clean. Don't get so agressive with it that you damage the rifling.

J-B Bore Paste is a good product for polishing up the bore once you've scoured out the worst of the scale. Once you get it to the point where it's not shreding patching you should proceed gently.

 

Thanks maxi. I new it was Msumpthing.

 

[Zonie]

The first thing that needs to be done (besides removing the rust) is to determine the rate of twist. Check out the current post wanting information about a .45 cal Kentucky (also made in Japan). I give one way to determine this inportant bit of information in that post.

Before you give up on this gun, if it is a slow twist barrel, you should be shooting a .490 dia round balls with about a .012-.016 thick patch. Try about 45-55 grains of FFFg, FFg or Pyrodex RS. That's a good starting place.

You need to retrive several of the fired patches to see their condition.
If they are dirty and frayed but not cut thru, then the barrel is not in that bad of shape.
If the patches are cut thru by the rifleing the rust pits may be causing the problem.
If the rust pits is causing the problem, bore lapping as some of the others have suggested may be the answer. Also check the SEARCH function using LAP as the search word. A lot of information about doing this procedure is available.

IMO, with the round ball load given above, even a gun with some cut patches should be able to hold a 6 inch dia. group at 50 yards (shooting off a bench) unless it is built for modern bullets. (That's why we need to know the twist rate).