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What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

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Last week I found a squirrel cooker fork I didn't know I had but all I found was the fork and no upright.
This morning I dug through my junk and found a piece of 1/2" rod, fired up the torch and made a new upright. No purty but totally functional.
 

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First shots through two .45 cal percussion pistols purchased here from fellow forum members.

First was a customized CVA bought from @Roller Boy, detail pics in his ad here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/custom-45-cal-pistol-250-shipped.179690/

Next was an Armi Sport Le Page bought from @BoomStick, detail pics in his ad here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/lepage-45-pistol-51-spf.172562/

Both shot with .445 balls, .010 patch and 25 gr. 3F Swiss load. Distance to target was seven paces; four shots each: CVA target on the left and Armi Sport on the right:

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The CVA flyer was me surprised by the light trigger and not quite zeroed in on aim. The Armi Sport grouped a little better - no surprise, as it's supposed to be a target pistol. Bore was tighter and required mallet starting.

Quite happy with both. Rang a gong at 25 yds with each one shot only.
 
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Shot a new to me TC45 that I have been working on and after the shot I see the hammer is on half ****. My best guess is the nipple is worn out, was not doing it earlier in the week. Shooting 60gr Goex with 440 ball and 18 ticking. Noticed the grouping was not as tight today as yesterday.
 
Rain yesterday and today so cast some lead. Used a TC mold to cast pure lead .530 dia. balls.....about 240 of 'em. Should hold me for a while. Only second time I used my Lee 20# pot. Impressed with the way it held temp. I monitored temp. w/ a Lyman lead thermometer holding it between 755 and 770 degrees. Worked great. Just got word this am that the big shoot I was heading to this weekend in Havre, MT was cancelled due to rain/flooding. I guess the lead will keep.
 
I have both RCA volumes and can probably get some idea pictures for you.
I found this neat book. Has lots of info and pics. It covers many of the Lehigh, Bucks,Berks, Lebanon and many more. The Berks -Reading School is catching my eye. Will definitely make a flinter to be proper.
 

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Little experiment with 2f and 3f Triple 7. Found out 70gr by volume of 2f weighs 55 gr and 70 of 3f weighs about 60 gr. So I weighed out 55 gr of both to see what the Chrono said, sorry forgot pictures. Both still had 100 ft per second extreme spread but even though I cut the 3f volume it was almost 200 ftps faster. Interesting. Groups not impressive until I tried 320 grain REAL' S with oversized over powder wads. More work needed!
 

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Made up some "historically correct"* paper cartridges with .648 ball and 70, 75 and 80 gr 2F Swiss for my .69 cal Charlesville and took her out to the range to try my luck with paper cartridges. Much more pleasant loading and shooting experience with this smoothbore than previously with my .675 patched balls. Though the interesting thing was that contrary to my usual experience with milsurps and muzzleloaders I wasn't dealing with discovery of point-of-aim elevation for desired point-of-impact, I was dealing mainly with windage, as I discovered the Charlesville was hitting significantly to the right of POA. All part of the fun, I suppose. After windage discovery at 50 yds I even took a couple ganders at the 100 yd gongs and actually hit one out of two shots. Though not the one I was aiming at, hah!! It was the one next to the right ....

These .69 cal balls sure do make some big holes in a target, though:
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* I wasn't SO exactly "historically correct" so as to not make use of a GLUE STICK making my cartridges!! 😄
 
Inventoried parts that are showing up for my NW Trade gun build that were delivered today.
There's more coming so I have to be patient......but it ain't easy ,😬
 
Inventoried parts that are showing up for my NW Trade gun build that were delivered today.
There's more coming so I have to be patient......but it ain't easy ,😬
 
Inventoried parts that are showing up for my NW Trade gun build that were delivered today.
There's more coming so I have to be patient......but it ain't easy ,😬
 
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