Thompson Center Arms Hawken freed from layaway!

[Junk Yard Dog]

Too thick for this kind of rifle, they woule work better on a smoothbore, hand made smoothbores most of all because they can have odd size bores.

[Darryl]

I'll have to do some looking around. I'm not sure if the local scrap yards would sell it to me. Most of them are these large corperate style yards. I have never asked it they would sell stuff to customers.

Where are you?

Beautiful rifle

I go to the recyclers. They all have some lead.

Dolk

[ponycarman]

I'll try something thinner next time. This was my first time shooting it. Trial and error I guess. I also dinged the stock and got a couple scuffs in the blueing lol. Scuffed my new shotgun too. I guess firearms are made be used. They can't stay pretty all the time haha.

I live in upstate SC dolk. I'll have to check with some local recyclers. I don't have the casting equipment yet though.

[desdem12]

50 calibers use mostly 490 balls and .015 patches. You can use .495 balls and go down to .010 patches to see which shoots better. If you are having trouble with the .015 and .490 then switch to the .010 and 490 and see if that helps. After a couple of shots they foul up and it is harder to load but shouldn't have to hammer it. Good luck.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I'll have to do some looking around. I'm not sure if the local scrap yards would sell it to me. Most of them are these large corperate style yards. I have never asked it they would sell stuff to customers.

Where are you?

Beautiful rifle

I go to the recyclers. They all have some lead.

Dolk

We sell it when we have it, and when someone is not there hoarding it all as it comes in. They are likely to have harder lead, but with a patched ball you can use the harder stuff, it's the patch touching the rifling, not the lead. Hard stuff is not good for miniballs as the hollow of this bullet will not expand into the rifling very well unless it's soft lead.

[ponycarman]

After I got home from shooting I measured the material with a micrometer. It was around .020. And the round ball I have is .490. That would definitely explain my difficulty lol. I may have to just go buy a couple yards of pillow ticking from walmart to use. I've heard that stuff works well.

[desdem12]

I use pre lubed and measured patches and they work great. cant remember who makes them right off cause I bought a ton way way back. I have a couple different sizes and different balls so I can work out some accuracy if I need to. The 54 lyman I have loves the 530 balls and 015 and is very accurate. I have used some Minnie in it but not often.

[ponycarman]

I'll have to keep and eye out for some. Academy has some seasoning patches but says on the package for cleaning only. Not sure what the difference is. The only reason I have been playing around with making my own is because I didn't want to wait for an order and because local stores have almost no supply for traditional muzzle loading.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I use regular USGI .30 cleaning patches to patch my .50 Hawken round balls. I just lube them up, and they work fine. I use them in the .45 Pedersoli Kentucky also.

[ponycarman]

Alrighty neat! I guess the rifles aren't too choosy about patches. As long as its all cotton and engages the rifleing properly.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Yes, they are just a gas seal between bullet and bore.

[bunkysdad]

I have a couple of packages of the yellow pre-lubed patches, a couple boxes of round balls and 3 kinds of powder. As slow as I shoot that lasts me a long time. The round balls are available locally, but if you want to order online all the stuff is available at Grafs, Cabela's, and the specialty black powder stores like Track of the Wolf, Buffalo Arms, or Dixie

[ponycarman]

I was able to find a box of .490 round ball locally. The shop said they can order the stuff for me too if I wanted. The powder is harder to come by. I currently have two pounds of 2f pyrodex and one of 3f. That should last me a while. I take my time shooting too. And with the small 20gr charge for the pistol and around 60gr in the rifle that should last me a while.

The pistol worked just fine too. Even with the #11 caps. Functioned fine. It was quite fun. I will have to shoot them alot more often to get more familiar with them.