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Shot the old Lyman 54 some yesterday

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SeaBee

My mother's family had a small farm on Bass road just south of you. My brother and I still have it . Grew up shooting and working out there. You must be retired NAVY from the base. All my folks are buried at West Union Church
Medically discharged in Aug 96, copper napthanate inhalation. I was 24…
We’re east of Hwy 14, county line runs along a pasture/garden edge. Couple miles from the old Dunlap Orphanage. Old plantation, 1792 land grant.
 
Etipp
I'll send u pictures tomorrow of my BP manual. I'm not worried about the charge. I like the smoke.

You know some above suggested
Medically discharged in Aug 96, copper napthanate inhalation. I was 24…
We’re east of Hwy 14, county line runs along a pasture/garden edge. Couple miles from the old Dunlap Orphanage. Old plantation, 1792 land grant.
Kool!!

Maybe we can burn some black sometime
 
Etipp
I'll send u pictures tomorrow of my BP manual. I'm not worried about the charge. I like the smoke.

You know some above suggested

Kool!!

Maybe we can burn some black sometime
Don’t see any reason why not. This is an “on duty” week for me, M/T and F/S/S, only off T/W. State l.e.o.
Next week is the opposite schedule. Trying to get the front yards prepped for Halloween. But should be here most days off barring doctor appointments.
 
Etipp
I'll send u pictures tomorrow of my BP manual. I'm not worried about the charge. I like the smoke.

You know some above suggested that that Graff powder just produces a lot of crud. This seems likely to me but it shoots good and I have about 10 pounds.
 
I was thinking about trying some olive oil. Her Majesty has 3 bottles.
Jam, if you go that route, use avocado oil. Much higher burn threshold. I use it for swiping always and no problems ever.
Her Majesty needs to start cooking with it too. For high temps it's much better and has good flavor.
Figure out a way to make her think it was her idea, or you will be stuck with olive oil for all eternity. You can get it in aerosol spray cans for an easy way to lube a lot of patches. SW
 
Jam, if you go that route, use avocado oil. Much higher burn threshold. I use it for swiping always and no problems ever.
Her Majesty needs to start cooking with it too. For high temps it's much better and has good flavor.
Figure out a way to make her think it was her idea, or you will be stuck with olive oil for all eternity. You can get it in aerosol spray cans for an easy way to lube a lot of patches. SW
I'll get some today. Has anybody tried castor oil?
 
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Etipp
I'll send u pictures tomorrow of my BP manual. I'm not worried about the charge. I like the smoke.

You know some above suggested that that Graff powder just produces a lot of crud. This seems likely to me but it shoots good and I have about 10 pounds.
If I had that much I’d sure soot it too. Black powder smoke is cool, no doubt.

I would, however, reduce the charge and use a tighter patch/ball combo. By doing those two things, as well as spit patches or some sort of cleaner incorporated as a patch lube, it should most certainly cut down on the fouling.

In your first post you were inquiring about how to cut down on the fouling, did you not? You have been given some solid and proven advice.

Good luck. I hope you find the solution you’re looking for. I’m outta of this one.
 
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For all the fellows getting started in our sport it would be of great help if you were to purchase Sam Fadala book,"The complete Black Powder Handbook"" . I was gifted one years ago and it helped me immensely. There were no forums back then that I was aware of?
 
110 gr of 3fg with a PRB what a waste of powder.
No wonder you can't load more than 2 shots without swapping out.
There is a diminishing law of returns with BP, unless you really need that extra 200 fps for the energy, 80 grains would suffice and greatly reduce fouling build up.

Try an experiment load half your normal load and see if you can load more shoot more before a swab out is required.

Consider the number of deer killed using a Winchester 44-40 a that cartridge held a 200 grain bullet and near 40 grain of BP (I doubt the factory actually loaded 40gr) making MV of a little over 1200 fps.

Your 110 gr charge is over kill for deer and paper targets.
My Lyman Black Powder Handbook & Loading Manual 2nd edition shows your load producing 1636 fps it would be a little faster 1660 with 2fg at the same pressure due to 2fg longer burn time.

Reduce your powder charge to be between 60 to 90 grains or be happy with the loading problem you are creating with an unnecessarily excessive powder consumption.

If you wanted to polish you barrel try lubing you patches with J.B. Bore Cleaning Compound. You'll be polishing as you shoot, hopefully at a vastly reduced powder charge.

Fire over a chronograph to see what MV you are actully getting.
Use a bore scope to see the condition of you bore, it likely not a rough as you think, particularly it the rifle has been shot a bunch of times.

On my GPR if found it took a .535" ball to swage cloth weave mark all around the circumference of the ball at both the land and grooves.
A .530" ball only made weave mark appear on the lands, nothing a the grooves.

I preferred the tight fit of the .535" ball plus the deeper cleaning action as the tight load pushed more of the crud down upon loading.
Also I use a grease lubed (Mink Oil grease) over powder wool felt wad 28 gauge size. The slightly over size wad goes slightly concave in the center when inserted in the muzzle nicely cupping the PRB.
 
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I'll get some today. Has anybody tried castor oil?
Yep. Literally. Any ailment that surfaced in our small outback remote town, my grandmother and mother would line all us kids up to receive a dousing tablespoon of the wicked stuff. Apparently, it cured everything from the common cold to leprosy! I never got leprosy :D.

Haven't used it as a muzzleloading lube though, just good old saliva, which works a treat in both my .54s.

Cheers, Pete
 
Yep. Literally. Any ailment that surfaced in our small outback remote town, my grandmother and mother would line all us kids up to receive a dousing tablespoon of the wicked stuff. Apparently, it cured everything from the common cold to leprosy! I never got leprosy :D.

Haven't used it as a muzzleloading lube though, just good old saliva, which works a treat in both my .54s.

Cheers, Pete
My 54 cal hawken with a green mountain barrel likes 90 grns of 3f or 100 grns of 2f .For target I use hopps #9 bp solvent and patch lubricant and can shoot all day with no cleaning in between and for hunting totw s mink oil works good .I use an .018 pt patch or a .022 denim patch and she’s deadly to 100 yards and a 530 rb works for me and that’s what the gun likes and shoots the best with .
 
Went to the son-in-law's farm yesterday and shot about 25 rounds. Just shooting beer cans off hand. I have both .530 and .535 balls. I was just trying to decide if I could tell the difference loading them but I couldn't

I have never been able to load more than 2 without swabbing the boar so a while back I tried polishing the bore with fine scotch Brite as shown by Dualist 54 in his video. I did a hundred strokes with the red fine scotch Brite. I guess that wasn't enough cause I am still having to clean between shots
Try using Butch's Bore Paste. Just use a patch sized piece of material around a jag with a bit of paste on the material. Run it down the bore until you need more paste, then add some and run it up and down the bore a few more dozen times. It really polished my Lyman .54 barrel and it's now one of my most accurate rifles. You may find that it removes some leftover fouling too.
 
I've shot the Hornady Great Plains Bullet in .54 and it did alright.
 
Owners Manual.jpg




Well I stand Corrected the owners manual does indicate a max charge of FFFG @ 100 grs.
 
You know some above suggested that that Graff powder just produces a lot of crud. This seems likely to me but it shoots good and I have about 10 pounds.
Initially, Graf was Scheutzen powder packaged for Graf. Then they switched to repackaged Goex. Then Goex stopped production and Graf went back to Scheutzen. Where they are at now is something to ask them I guess.


I'll get some today. Has anybody tried castor oil?
I have used Castor oil. It's pretty high viscosity and probably not a good choice to use straight. I got started using it when my bottle of what is now known as Mr. Flintlock lube all leaked out from the bottle laying on it's side. This is typical of alcohol solutions. I discovered that when a bottle of leather dye sat on a shelf for several years it didn't lose a drop but when it got knocked over I had a dye leakage on the shelf.

So enough on that tangent. When my lube leaked out I decided that since I liked it I would try to replicate it. A mixture of castor oil and denatured alcohol made for an excellent lube. I don't recall the ratio but it was very heavy towards the alcohol.

This lube will self clean the bore as you load successive shots. You must lube for each shot as you load since it's the alcohol that does the swabbing and the castor oil that does the lubing and the alcohol evaporates ver quickly. It's also a good hunting lube since it has no water content and there is no risk of corrosion.

Another variation on this is denatured alcohol or 90% rubbing alcohol (shake before using) with about ten or 15 percent vegetable oil.

Also, either of these can be applied to patches in advance and use when the alcohol is evaporated. This puts you in wiping between shots territory though so there is that.

Just one final observation, I see that you like your 110 charge but I'll just say that as @ETipp has noted it's a whole lot of powder. I don't think you are crossing a safety line with it though. I shot 110 in my 54 GPR for elk for a long time but dropped down to 80 to 90 when my hunting companions were killing elk with 54 rb and 80 grains regularly.
 
Jambuster get the newer book Lyman Black Powder Handbook & Loading Manual 2nd edition (if a newer book exist get it) it shows load for specific rifles.
Your old book show loads fired from a universal test barrel when chronographs were not commonly used.
It gives ball park MV & pressure data but not what your rifle can handle.
 
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