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ok, got a smoke pole

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recurve shooter:
sorry, no pics right now, got a different phone and i cant figure out how to post pics.  >:( anyway, its a cabellas sporterized hawken, percussion, .58  :o cal. i have a few questions for yall. i tried asking a few on the muzzleloading forum but it didnt help much. anyway, patches, what do i use and how tight should it make the ball fit in the bore? second, lube. i havnt tried to make anything homemade yet, but i have some muzzleloading lube, but i dont really know what its based on, i think its petrolium based, and of course, i have bore butter, which i think can be used for lube??? and it has a replacement ramrod on it that falls out when you point the gun down. how do i fix that???

anyway, i really like the gun. not all trad but close, short little sucker, 28 inch barrel. double set trigger set finer than a frogs hair, which i love. the bore is chrome lined , adjustable sights, its outfited for a sling, and has a sling my uncle made for me years ago when he was in angola state pen on it. its sighted for a hundred yards, so at the fifty that ive been shooting it it hits 5 inches high or so. thats alot of drop! but anyway, it should make a good partner for my .44 bp revolver, and whas appropriatly dubbed, The Beast.  ;D

JW_Halverson:
Bore butter is a fine lube, never had any problem with it except that it is often liquid at higher summer temperatures.

Go back to your owner's manual and get the rate of twist for the barrel, you might have something that has a fast twist for shooting conical bullets rather than slow twist for round balls.  Or it might be a red-haired stepchild with a rifling twist rate that is in between meaning it won't stabilize maxi-mini-conical bullets for spit and spins roundballs so fast that you blow out your patching. 

If you are shooting a .570 roundball purchased from the store, it's going to be made of soft lead, almost elemental pure.  Nice advantage there is that the ball will "upset" or deform when the gun goes off.  The force of the black powder explosion behind the ball will cause the ball to flatten slightly at the back and squeeze outward to grip the rifling.  In my opinion, too many people claim that muzzleloaders (traditional ones) are tempermental and picky in their loads.  Ten thousandth patching should be just fine, easier loading than thicker patches.  THAT is very handy for that backup shot.

I own 4 different muzzleloaders and I find that they all change point of impact when I change somethign in the load, whether it be different sized ball, different thickness patch, different lube, etc.  But all loads shoot consistent patterns and the sights can be adjusted to compensate.  I have yet to find a load that sprays all over the target unless you count the one where I didn't use any patch at all.

Lastly, go load a tightly patched ball down the barrel without any powder behind it.  Yup, you heard me.  Then pour a little water with plenty of dish detergent down the barrel and practice pulling a stuck ball.  Sooner or later you are going to run a dry ball down the barrel, might as well get it over with while you are at home and no one is standing behind you at the range pointing and laughing. 

Smoke'em if you got 'em.

Eric Krewson:
Just checked cabelas' website, your gun's rifling is 1 in 48 if it is the Hawkins and 1 in 28 if it is the Hawkins carbine.

1 in 48 will shoot balls or conicals, 1 in 28 is a conical barrel.

Dane:
A good patch material is pillow ticking, always worked well for me.

Experiment with different loads and ball combinations, including minis, which dont need patching, as the base is hollow and expands into the grooves when you fire the piece. Place a large piece of white fabric, maybe a drop cloth, on the ground in front of your bench, and when you see unburned particles of powder, you know you have gone beyond what the gun likes, so reduce the load from there. The odds of you blowing up a modern barrel are pretty slight, so hefty loads are fine, even 125 or more grains of FF for that caliber.

The best advice for any muzzle loader is to clearn it religiously as soon as you are done shooting for the day, so you don't get pitting. The stuff is so corrosive, you cant be lazy on that part.

Dane 

WOODSLORE:
I have a 50.cal hawken so maybe I can help.OK here goes, #1. patches first DEFINATELY use pillow ticking its what the mountain men used and you can get a crapload of the stuff for a few bucks. #2. Lube, mink oil and tallow are great(tallow you can getfrom fat from the butchers for free). #3. ramrod, take a little piece of leather and glue it to the rod track to tighten the fit. Hope this helps ;D

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