.54 cal Hawkins

[rachunter]

Picked up a .54 cal. Tc Hawkins for what I think was a pretty good deal. $250. Came with a few things. The guy said his father only shot it twice at the range before passing away. It's a pretty clean gun. I'm not sure what that ball starter is but I have a few plastic ones. I'm going to email Thomson center and see if it's safe to shoot blackhorn powder in it. 

[Buckmaster7600]

Sweet gun! You will have a very hard time getting The 209 to lite with a cap.


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[rachunter]

23 minutes ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

Sweet gun! You will have a very hard time getting The 209 to lite with a cap.


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the funny thing is i was checking armslist for a 7600 and kept seeing the ml. the guy lives two blocks away from me so i figured what the heck.after talking to him he said he just sold a 3006 pump gun,damn it!!!

[rachunter]

made a mistake it's a renegade not a hawkins,the thing i liked about this gun is there's no  brass.I had a .50 & .58 cal. hawkins and they both had brass all over them. After playing around and cleaning it i can see he didn't shoot it much.

i won't be hunting with it this year.going to work up some loads with pyrodex and round balls.I've always wanted to take a bear with a traditional muzzle loader.

 

[hawkenwoodsman]

nice hawkwen rachunter you may want to look at magspark its a adapter to replace the nipple you have and use 209 shotgun primer and use all black powder.i have it on my traditions hawken 50cal with no issues

[rachunter]

4 hours ago, hawkenwoodsman said:

nice hawkwen rachunter you may want to look at magspark its a adapter to replace the nipple you have and use 209 shotgun primer and use all black powder.i have it on my traditions hawken 50cal with no issues

thanks i just ordered one. 

[sailinghudson25]

Enjoy.

 

Keep the ignition channel clean and oil free, it'll fire every time.

[rachunter]

got every thing for the gun friday,but going to wait until this humidity drops.that 209 nipple fit perfect .i also found out that t/c stopped making colonials for the .54 cal, hornaday makes a ,425 gr. great plains bullet.If i get good accuracy with the roundballs i'll stick with them. 

[sailinghudson25]

Roundball,

A few things.....

Have the sprue sticking out the barrel facing you.  SPrue is the casting nub on the ball.

Patches.....  this is what makes or breaks accuracy.  Cloverleaf targets are not rare with a tuned muzzleloader.

Patch thickness is important.  A ball that is a bit stubborn to put in is about right.  Same ball size and try different patch materials until she shoots good.

Lubrication.  Everybody who knows muzzleloaders has a preference.  I use ballistol and water.  Wet the patches and left the patch dry overnight. 1 part ballistol 7 parts water.

A patch wit 3 drops of hoppes #9 works great too.  Put a small bit of wasps nest between your load and the patch to keep this lube from soaking into part of your load.

I use .016 patch material from dixons muzzleloading.  I cut them in strips, let dry.  Then load the ball at cut off from the strip.

I also take a very lightly moistened patch a swab the bore once between shots.

She takes work to develop, but not a ton.

Good results do not happen often from grabbing whatever balls and grabbing whatever prelubed patches and see what happens.

Patch material can be almost anything cotton.  Jean maerial can be used.

Once the patch is right, lube is ok, powder isn't a big factor, besides bullet drop due to velocity.  There is a sweet spot are so n so grains.   But 10 grains above or below it will be pretty good. Atleast in my experience with 10 or do different handmade and commercial guns over the years.

At bare minimum buy .530 and .535.  Use the one that makes you patches good n tight in there.  Don't worry about denting the ball a touch. She'll still shoot good.

[sailinghudson25]

I had a gun that puked balls until I learned how to do iy.  When I did I went from 7 inch groups at 100 to 3/4 inch in one afternoon.

Find a good combo, keep doing what you did.

[sailinghudson25]

Here's my PA flintlock season warm-up range session I did in December at 100 yards on the bench.

This is from my LH Lyman great plains rifle with a lyman 57 peep sight.    90 grains FFFg goex,  .016" white n green striped pillow ticking from Dixon's muzzleloading wetted then air died overnight 1 to 7 ratio of water and ballistol,  weighted to eliminate odd weight .535" hornady balls.  Every shot swabbed with a lightly wetted patch of 1 part ballistol 1 part pinesol and 20 parts water.  I use an army hold, having the top of the front sight just touch the bottom of that 3 inch or so purple paper square.  Shot is at 100 yards.

1st shot went a touch high until I had a consistent amount of fouling on the barrel to keep exit velocity the same.

 

 

Keep in mind before I learned how to get a muzzleloader to shoot good, this thing made 6 to 8 inch groups at 100 yards.

Edited July 11, 2017 by sailinghudson25

[rachunter]

it's funny how the clean shot almost always hit high left like that.My inline is set for a clean shot rather then a fouled.

i going with the .535 and a .015 patch it kept coming up as the best match for the renegade.Will see how they fly.

nice group btw. 

[sailinghudson25]

Are the patches the preludes with yellow stuff ones?

Too much lube and the ball spins in the patch 

[rachunter]

22 hours ago, sailinghudson25 said:

Are the patches the preludes with yellow stuff ones?

Too much lube and the ball spins in the patch 

yes they are i never had a problem with them before.i might give it a shot this weekend.

[sailinghudson25]

.54s are sweet.   You can have a 1 inch group and still call it cloverleafs.

Another trick that helps is wiping down the iron sight with rubbing alcohol.  Making them dull instead of shiny and producing glare on a sunny day.  You shots wander towards the sun due to thinking the glare is an even gap on the sights.

A lot of blackpowder guys paint their sights.   Bright blue is a great color.  There is virtually no metal gong I've seen painted bright blue.  It works well in fall and in winter too.

[hawkenwoodsman]

rachunter have you tired the mag sparke 209 adapter yet and if so has it helped you??

[rachunter]

1 hour ago, hawkenwoodsman said:

rachunter have you tired the mag sparke 209 adapter yet and if so has it helped you??

did't get to try it other then snapping a cap off.but thanks again i can't see this not being a plus.i'm heading up to my place next weekend and taking a few shots humidity or not.

[Pygmy]

I have used my TC Hawken since 1974 and never had a misf..ire on game UNTIL last season when I had a fail to fire on a doe the last day of the late ML  That was one time too many..I plan to get one of those 209 adaptor thingies...

[rachunter]

11 hours ago, Pygmy said:

I have used my TC Hawken since 1974 and never had a misf..ire on game UNTIL last season when I had a fail to fire on a doe the last day of the late ML  That was one time too many..I plan to get one of those 209 adaptor thingies...

i picked mine up here there's a chart at the bottom for thread sizes http://www.warrencustomoutdoor.com/mag-spark.html

from the reviews i read keeping the inside of the cup clean is important.

[Pygmy]

Thanks, rachunter...SMILE.....

[rachunter]

Hit the range to try out the gun and that 209 nipple. They both worked out,but I see a few problems with that nipple first the follow up shot will be slowed down unscrewing the cap. Second if you drop the cap it's would be like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Other then that it pretty good I'm going to use it.

The bottom shots where with 80gr. The top where 90gr.

Edited July 30, 2017 by rachunter
To add

[hawkenwoodsman]

looks good.....

[sailinghudson25]

Nice groups rachunter.  

You paint the front sight yet?   Those dark sights are tough on edge of daylight shots.

MY renegade in 54 cal flint can't load .015 and .535's.  I went down to .530's and a .018" patch.   

 

If you harvest, show us a pic of what these old timer's guns can do.    

[rachunter]

7 hours ago, sailinghudson25 said:

Nice groups rachunter.  

You paint the front sight yet?   Those dark sights are tough on edge of daylight shots.

MY renegade in 54 cal flint can't load .015 and .535's.  I went down to .530's and a .018" patch.   

 

If you harvest, show us a pic of what these old timer's guns can do.    

thanks

I painted it neon green my eyes pick up green better then red, i'd like to get it tapped for a low power scope but I don't trust these gunsmiths here on long island hopefully when I get up there full time I can find a reliable guy.

I went with the .535's and .015 patch

i'm going to try and take it with me on the January shotgun season.

[sailinghudson25]

No need to scope......

Check out the lyman 57 peep sight.  I have them on a lyman GPR flintlock and thompson center renegade, both in 54 cal.   

You might need to drill and tap one hole, but it's through the tang instead of the barrel.

With the peep and glow in the dark painted front sight, I can shoot about 20 minutes past dusk in the PA forests.

The peep comes with a hunter and target sight.  I take the target sight and drill it fully open.  IF I remember, about .160".   I still can have holes touch at 100 yards from a bench with that big hole.

 

IT looks like lyman discontinued it, but several places still have it for sale.   optics planet is one.  B&H photo might sell them too.    I'd be glad to loan out the drill bit and tap incase you need it.   

Edited November 10, 2017 by sailinghudson25