Jan 21st.

Took the Hawken out again with 40gr pyrodex RS, .015 patch and .440 round ball. I was shooting off my sand bag rest and at 50 yards.
I also shot some 285gr Buffallo Conicals at the same target (marked red) with 80gr RS and i did not like the group at all.


I took it back to the house and cleaned the barrel with a few patches and loaded up 3 powder tubes with 70gr RS and the round ball combo.

No good!


Later on in the evening i wanted to try the same 70gr load but use a ox-yoke wad under the round ball to protect the patch and i was very pleased with it but i still have to do a little work with shrinking the group. Possibly use a .018 patch next time out.


The next day i used 60gr pyrodex P with the .440 round ball , felt wad and .015 patch. Whhhhhy do we always talk our selves into taking one more shot and then fudgin up the group?

You do what everyone needs to do... and that is take the time and experiment with loads to find out what works for a particular smokegun. You actually go the extra mile and post. I believe too many center fire shooters or beginners who try muzzleloading expect too much on the bench the first time they stuff something down the barrel and "let-'er-fly". There are no pre-packaged "factory ammo loads" at WalMart... they need to realize they have to make the loads up themselves !

Here's a flash-back story that comes to mind, so please bear with me. I once met a rookie at the range who had a collection a .50 caliber muzzleloaders of various qualities spead-out all over the benchs(you know... you've see it before). It drove me insane when he said he didn't like to shoot "that one" because: "I can't get that piece-of-junk to shoot...I guess you get what you pay for". Well, as I stared at the "out-of-the box" Traditions rifle, I was so-o-o-o tempted by the devil to first say to him: "if you want to sell that piece of junk, I'll take it off your hands for you". But my better sportman half won. I ended-up getting 6 pounds of elk hamburg from him in payment for getting his Traditions "piece-of-junk" to shoot.

He couldn't put any of his smokepoles down from then on. He was on the bench ALL the time experimenting. (I don't think his wife particularly cared for me for what I turned him into ... I think his wife was ready to divorce him!... )