My .54 Hawken came in teh mail, and i shot it for the first time this weekend. was awesome. can't wait to get back out there. shot prb's and 70 grains of pyrodex RS. had a bit of trouble with my percussion caps. seems like i could never seat them all the way. many times i had to cock rifle and pull trigger twice before the cap would go and the rifle would fire. how hard should it be to push these caps on? they are #11 magnum caps. also the 70grn load while fun, seemed pretty weak, and the manual that came with it recomends 80grns for PRB. is this enough power for deer? i've seen many posts that talk abotu charging a rifle like this much heavier how much can i safely load? the book says 80grns RS for round ball, and 72grns for maxi ball. i was thinking possibly loading 90-100grns for hunting, would this be effective? safe? i don wanna over laod the gun, i just need enough power to kill deer inside 100yds.
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shot the .54 for first time
- Thread starter BUERICH
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Well my .54 is a flinter and took two deer with a 90 gr load of 2FF and PRB last year. One droped where it stood and the other ran about 20 yards before dropping so as long as you put it in the right place, I really dont think it matters if you use 80, 90 or 100 gr of powder.
i think i most likely will go 80 for sure, maybe 90. while i most definetly would not want to be standing on the muzzle end of the 70grn charge, it just seemed to lack umpf. although i guess i am used to shooting high powered centerfires. if 80 is enough to drop a deer then thats all i need.
Find the load your rifle likes...It doesn't matter how much powder you pour down the bore if the ball won't hit the target! Could be 70 or 80 or more. One of mine likes 100gr Pyrodex RS or 110Gr Goex FFg. Haven't tried 777 yet. Or any others subs. But the other likes 80gr Goex FFFg and won't shoot Pyrodex RS worth a D--- but likes 80 gr Pyrodex P just fine. So find the load your rifle likes! :m2c:
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My suggestion is to start at 70 and shoot it on the bench and work up a load and find out where the gun shoots the most accurately. Anything 70 grains and up should kill a deer no problem... but if you find your gun shoots 3 shots into a single hole at 50 yards with 105 grains of powder, by all means, use 105 grains of powder instead of 90 grains with a group that's 3 1/2"!!
As far as safety, if you keep your charge under 120 grains of FFg, or 100 or so grains of FFFg, you should be well within the safety limits of the rifle. (Shooting PRB)
As far as safety, if you keep your charge under 120 grains of FFg, or 100 or so grains of FFFg, you should be well within the safety limits of the rifle. (Shooting PRB)
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Great minds think alike! :redthumb:
it didn't group very tight with teh 70grn charge. we were shooting more for fun than actually really focussing on our aim. at 50yds it hit about 3in low, and the shots were a little spread. probly good enough to body shoot at close range, but i'd like to do better. next time i shoot i want to move up to 80, and try to focus on getting a good load and sighting it in good.
ERich
ERich
What make of Hawken is it? Is it a T/C or some other brand? 80-90 grs of powder would be plenty for deer with a .54 as long as you place the shot where it needs to be. Good luck, and have fun.
Glad you're enjoying your Cabela's Hawkins. They are made by investarms. I just checked the manual on my Lyman Trade Rifle and they suggest the max charge of 120 grains 2f and 100 grains 3f. I have been shooting 100 grains of 2f with a patched .530 roundball with exceptional accuracy.
As for the cap being hard to seat... many Investarms percussion owners reported the same thing. They solved the problem by buying a Hot Shot Nipple and changing them out. They make a beautiful rifle and then put a junk nipple on it... go figure.
By the way the rifle is new and sometimes you have to shoot them for a while to break them in. Keep shooting, but you could bump the load up a lot more then 70 grains :imo: and still be safe. What did your patches look like?
Again, glad you're enjoying the rifle.. Keep at it. My friend has the exact same rifle and his load is 100 rains of Pyrodex RS and a patched roundball. Beautiful looking wood on his too... post a picture of the new addition to the family if you have the means. We all like to look... :thumbsup:
As for the cap being hard to seat... many Investarms percussion owners reported the same thing. They solved the problem by buying a Hot Shot Nipple and changing them out. They make a beautiful rifle and then put a junk nipple on it... go figure.
By the way the rifle is new and sometimes you have to shoot them for a while to break them in. Keep shooting, but you could bump the load up a lot more then 70 grains :imo: and still be safe. What did your patches look like?
Again, glad you're enjoying the rifle.. Keep at it. My friend has the exact same rifle and his load is 100 rains of Pyrodex RS and a patched roundball. Beautiful looking wood on his too... post a picture of the new addition to the family if you have the means. We all like to look... :thumbsup:
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My Lyman GPR (also made by investarms?) has the Lyman stainless steel nipple. RWS caps sit high and sometimes just bend when hit by hammer. Remington caps sit all the way down and ignition is much better.
thanks for the info. that helps a lot. i think i will be starting with 80grns next time and workin up. i don have a digital picture of the rifle but its the hawken sporterized as pictured on teh cabelas sight. at
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...MainCatcat20712
i'm not sure if it linked or not, but if you go to[url] cabelas.com[/url] and look under black powder rifles and shotguns its the hawken sporterized. teh rifle not the carbine. although my little brother bought the carbine. in .54 also. i will try the nipple i have for now and see if it breaks in, if not i'll be lookin for one of those replacements. i like to be pretty certain a gun is gonna shoot when i pull the trigger. although otherwise it performed beautifully. my patches were whatever came with the stater kit with the rifle. they were yellow, i don remember the name. all loaded pretty easy, was a blast to shoot. lotta work to clean, but worth it. i can't wait to get it sighted in and try it on some game.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...MainCatcat20712
i'm not sure if it linked or not, but if you go to[url] cabelas.com[/url] and look under black powder rifles and shotguns its the hawken sporterized. teh rifle not the carbine. although my little brother bought the carbine. in .54 also. i will try the nipple i have for now and see if it breaks in, if not i'll be lookin for one of those replacements. i like to be pretty certain a gun is gonna shoot when i pull the trigger. although otherwise it performed beautifully. my patches were whatever came with the stater kit with the rifle. they were yellow, i don remember the name. all loaded pretty easy, was a blast to shoot. lotta work to clean, but worth it. i can't wait to get it sighted in and try it on some game.
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what brand caps are you using? I have had this problem with CCI caps on an old rifle that always fired the old Remington caps first hit. I cannot find Rem caps around here. I have turned down the nipple tube to try to correct this, but have not tried in out yet.....
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You could try this.
I had a simular problem with my Ruger. I refuse to use any other caps but RWS and found they did not seat properly. So I took one of my Lanskey knife sharpening stones and chucked it in a vice. Held the nipple between my thumb and finger and just twisted it on the stone. Went slow and made sure I honed it evenly on the taper.Stop and keep checking the cap fit often. Took about an hour and I ended up with a perfect fit that resulted in no more misfires.
I had a simular problem with my Ruger. I refuse to use any other caps but RWS and found they did not seat properly. So I took one of my Lanskey knife sharpening stones and chucked it in a vice. Held the nipple between my thumb and finger and just twisted it on the stone. Went slow and made sure I honed it evenly on the taper.Stop and keep checking the cap fit often. Took about an hour and I ended up with a perfect fit that resulted in no more misfires.
First off.. a very nice looking rifle you got there. My friend's Cabela's is the Hawkins with the patchbox and all the brass. Other then that they are the same rifle.
I shot a lot of CCI #11 magnum caps and never had a problem with them. I used to about go crazy when I shot Remington caps. I once kept track and had 11 misfires out of one tin.
A short time ago I bought a case of RWS Dynamite Noble 1075 and they sure are a nice shooting cap. They seem to hang on to the hot shot nipple just fine.
Also if your rifle gets real fuzzy I always tell people to try real black powder. It always amazes me how well just plain old Goex will go off when other powders will not. It might be a little more messy, but that's half the fun...
Again, good luck with the rifle and keep us posted..
the CCI's seem to shoot just fine once i get them seated properly. i push them on pretty hard, and they hang. but when i pull the trigger its like the hammer falls and just pushes the cap down the rest of the way it doesn't fire. if i cock and fire again then it fires. haven't had a misfire where the cap actually exploded and the rifle didn't fire. i wouldn mind shooting the GOEX but the pyrodex is much more accessible to me for now. its possible that i'm just not seating the cap right, but i pushed on it pretty hard with the leather capper, i'm scared to push a lot harder, i dunno how easy it'd be to pop one while capping the rifle. i won want it goin off less i have it shouldered. otherwise i've got no complaints it went smooth. cleaned with soap and water and wiped with oil, haven't seen any rust yet and its been a few days.
Well, like i sad above, try lowering the hammer on to the cap and then push the hammer forward to seat the cap further. See if that helps.
