What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

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I browned and “aged” the barrel and lock with cold browning solution and carded areas back to give highlights and contrast to the pieces.
 

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Actually, that rifle just came to me today and I ran a patch down the bore and that is how they came out! Managed to get 4 and the 5th one got stuck at the bottom with the jag. 🤣 I bought it with knowledge it was going to be dirty. Seller made that clear so, all is good.👍
Any luck getting your jag out of the barrel?
 
More piddling in the shop. Worked with the horn some more, think I’ll stop at this point. Later I’ll get the lath going and turn a plug from red cedar and a stopper from crepe myrtle. Going to go for a walk first.

You got me wanting to order a raw horn.

Like I need something else to do!🤣
 
More piddling in the shop. Worked with the horn some more, think I’ll stop at this point. Later I’ll get the lath going and turn a plug from red cedar and a stopper from crepe myrtle. Going to go for a walk first.
I like rustic and that one is shaping up to be a shooting man's horn! 👍
 
I stopped at a local pawn shop to see if there were any muzzleloaders there. They had one that was built around 1970 buy a builder from Colorado. It was a well made copy of a .50 caliber Hawken that looked like it had been used for hunting. I inquired for the price and the said $ 700.00. As I held it I asked if they had a bore light and they did not. I took the ramrod and slowly ran it down the barrel leaning it to one side to detect any pitting. It felt like someone had welded # 7 bird shot into the barrel, I told them the barrel was heavily pitted, thanked them for letting me examine the rifle and walked out. Some of these pawn shop guys need to learn more about fire arms before they put a price on something.
Most in my area are bitchy women, or they can't hardly speak English
 
Shot the 1861 today and resolved two issues I found to be responsible for my previous frustrations with this firearm: 1) Don't wad the Minie ball, as some YouTubers demonstrate stuffing the emptied paper cartridge down on top of the powder before ramming the ball. No. Don't do it. Discard the paper and just ram the lubed ball down on top of the powder. 2) Use a Minie ball with the tightest fit. I have Minie balls from several sources, and I discovered upon close inspection and measuring with calipers that they're not all the same. I found that the tighter the fit at the muzzle, the tighter the resulting group. Conclusions: this rifle musket is just fine, it was just my loading procedure that was previously at fault.
 
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