Powder charge, et al.; need advice

[bren]

Please excuse my ignorance, but I'm new to my flintlock & muzzleloading and need some advice on a couple matters. Rifle is a TC Hawken, .50cal. flintlock. Fellow who sold me rifle & showed me how to shoot it made up some 90gr charges of Goex 3F for shooting 370gr maxi-balls; pan is primed with 4F. This all agrees with TC instruct. book, except for using the 3F: instruct book says 2F. Any big diff. here? Also, I weighed 90gr charges on my elect. powder scale and they only weigh about 64gr. -- is this a problem? Lastly, does frizzen need to move all the way forward on flint strike? New TC flints are shorter than original on the rifle and only cause frizzen to be thrown about half-way. Thanks for any and all help.

 

[roundball]

Please excuse my ignorance, but I'm new to my flintlock & muzzleloading and need some advice on a couple matters. Rifle is a TC Hawken, .50cal. flintlock. Fellow who sold me rifle & showed me how to shoot it made up some 90gr charges of Goex 3F for shooting 370gr maxi-balls; pan is primed with 4F. This all agrees with TC instruct. book, except for using the 3F: instruct book says 2F. Any big diff. here?

The industry rule of thumb when using 3F, is to reduce the load data for the 2F charge by 10-15% to keep the pressure in the same approximate range;

Also, I weighed 90gr charges on my elect. powder scale and they only weigh about 64gr. -- is this a problem?

BP is to be measured by volume, not weight...and the weight is and will be different than the volume measurements...best advice I could give is to focus on measuring charges, not weighing them...just opening up chances to make a mistake down the road.

Lastly, does frizzen need to move all the way forward on flint strike? New TC flints are shorter than original on the rifle and only cause frizzen to be thrown about half-way. Thanks for any and all help.

The frizen should flip open all the way...sounds like the flint is too far away from the frizzen...when positioning a fint in a TC lock, close the frizzen, go to half cock, and set the flint so it's all but touching the face of the frizzen (paper thickness away) and ensure that it will be hitting the frizzen with an ever so slight downward slicing action, not square or straight on into the frizzen.

FWIW, I've found that Tom Fuller 3/4" Black English Flints work best in my TC flint locks.

 

[bren]

Thanks for all your advice, Roundball. Now, if I could only get this PA weather to clear up so I can go out and fill some tags.

 

[Stumpkiller]

If you're real lucky, you can get by with priming and using FFFg as the primary charge. Simplifies life immensley. I've been using 3F in a .54 flinter for both recently and I think I'm sold on the arrangement. I backed of 15% when switching from 2F to 3F.

 

[AZ-Robert]

If you have trouble with short flints backing away from the frizzen, put an extra piece of leather around them to fill that void between their back edge and the screw.

 

[jim gray]

If you're real lucky, you can get by with priming and using FFg as the primary charge. Simplifies life immensley.

I think Stumpkiller meant to say FFFg here. That arrangement has worked out pretty well for me as well.

Stumpy,
I apologize if I misinterpretted your meaning.

 

[Stumpkiller]

You are correct. Three F is what I ment. :redface:

Oh fffudge.

 

[xbowman]

roundball, I hate to use the word ASSUME, but when I got my first powder measurer, I felt the numbers were in grains of powder, no volume. Always something to learn with this. I did find out that the marks were off when I weighed the powder. Thanks, xbowman

 

[roundball]

Yes, this is one hobby that is well worth the time it takes to read a couple of books on the subject before even reaching for a muzzleloader...the whole ML world is so different from other forms of firearms, procedures, supplies, etc, that we don't even know what we don't know...

 

[Landngroove]

I also use Goex FFFG, in the pan , as well as in the main charge, in my T/C Hawken. Instant ignition.

 

[bren]

Hey, thanks for all the help people. This was my first ever post here and I got some really useful information. Got the flint adjusted and then just had to go out in the backyard and try her out. Worked great! Looking forward to Saturday and some late season deer.

 

[jcdflint]

:v Thanks Guy's "TOO:" I was going to ask the same thing. I'm shooting a Cal.54 TC with double trigger. What other ..."PRO & CONS" for 2F and #F powder? I have a lot of 3F Goex and a full can of 4F for the pan. My TC doesn't say RENEGADE on it (only "Cal. 54").I see in Midway (05) Cat. it has a single trigger. My Ser.# is 101405. Can anyone tell Me when it was made? Thanks Jeff(jcdflint)