Milsurp After Hours

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DuncaninFrance wrote:.,..............................WATCH THIS SPACE

Whats up ????/??????????????????????????
They did not sell your rifle on you did they ????
Robert

I spent 2½ hours in the gunshop yesterday looking at BP replica guns and suffering the inability of the sales staff to service one customer at a time - IN TURN
After being told that the Hawken rifles that were on order had not arrived and would be delivered "Maybe next week" I examined a Kentucky Rifle, a Ranger Rifle and a couple of others. Was not impressed with the wood to metal finish of them and was not prepared for the muzzle heavy balance of the replicas.
Decided not to buy a replica

Then my mate and our friend who is a salesman at the shop suggested I look at a more modern approach.
Liked what they showed me, liked the price and so came home with this and 250 rounds of .50" 300gr.
Hope to shoot it Sunday a.m.









Gun price 223€ / £200 / $323 / AUD 301
Bullets 43€ / £39 / $62 / AUD 58

I am going to buy a Lee R-E-A-L bullet mold for it soon - .50" 320gr 44€ / £40 / $59 / AUD 59.50

That's like going out to buy a dog and coming home with a cat. Oh well. Let us know how you like it after you have tried it out at the range.

Niner wrote:That's like going out to buy a dog and coming home with a cat. Oh well. Let us know how you like it after you have tried it out at the range.

Yes, a bit Robert but I was not impressed with the quality of the historical replica stuff from Ardesa and the Ranger, which was my second choice to the Hawkin was very muzzle heavy - didn't feel good at all

Well, it's been a week since I bought the rifle and I have not had a chance to get it to the range

I have been able to give it a good look over and pull it apart - which is easy, just undo a Screw and a Hex stud and the stock and barrel separate easily.

Here are pics of the two pieces.

Took it to the range on Wednesday to see what it could do.
Another BIG learning curve

I measured out 3 different charges, 3.89, 5.0 & 5.83 grams shooting a .50" 300 grain lead bullet.
The best load seems to be the 5 gram ( 77.15 grain ) 3f using a shotgun primer..............HOWEVER

Looks like I have a LOT to learn about BP rifles.

After 2 shots the third bullet got firmly stuck about 2/3rds down the barrel and it took me about 10 minutes to remove the breach plug and chase it out with a rod and hammer.
There was a considerable amount of crap in the barrel and I assume that this jammed the bullet.

Seems to me that the solution to the problem is:--------------------

1) Run a cleaning patch through the barrel after every shot using some solvent.
2) Coat the bullets with a thin coat of Alox lube, even though they have a lubed channel in them.
3) Grease the threads of the Breach Plug and the Nipple so that, in the event of a problem, they can be easily removed.

Out of 9 shots to the target, 7 struck it at 50mtrs - just don't ask about the grouping

Afterwards stripping and cleaning were easy.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I never had a bullet lodge in the barrel using any actual even approximate correct load of powder. I'd wager that the load wasn't nearly enough powder to start with. Maybe the tube load you made up didn't empty in the barrel for some reason or maybe something was wrong with the powder.

Over the years I've had a senile moment now and again and loaded a patched ball down a tube before noticing I had neglected to load the powder first. In the couple of incidents I just removed the nipple and sprinkled in a little bp and put the nipple back , put on a cap and was able to fire the round out with just the small charge.

Sorry Robert, you misunderstand.
It was fouling in the barrel that prevented the bullet from being rammed home on the powder charge.
I have made a long funnel from aluminum tube so the charge is delivered to the cavity at the base of the barrel without getting mixed up with the fouling.
It's the fouling that is creating the problem.