Some fun with the Hawken

R

RockyMtnHunter

New member
A horrible day to choose as it was 90* and the sun was just beating down on me. 5 shots total, 3 for the group and 2 more 15 minutes later once I adjusted my sight, reloaded my tubes and then went back outside. The only thing I can say about shots 4& 5, I noticed the sun was behind the clouds and I was able to make out my rear sight a lot more clearly. I will leave it 2" high for now.

110gr goex 2f

.020" moose milk lubed patches

.562" homecast round ball

100 yards.



 
Why bother, you know you can't kill anything with loose powder, round balls and iron sights. I hear they are thinking about outlawing them for anything bigger than rabbits being as they are so antiquated.

Nice Shooting, good to see there are some traditionalist out there, though percussion caps are kind of borderline.
 
Nice gun, good shooter too. Is that a Thompson big boar? I had a .54 Thompson Renegade for sale on here a while back, but no interest at the time. I may re-list it.

Mike
 
No, its CVA Hawken with a 32" Douglas 1:66 twist 58cal CVA Mountain Rifle barrel I added on to it. Pretty much an easy swap other than having to relocate the barrel tenon so I could use the factory wedge key slot in the stock. That took about 20 minutes of careful work with a hack saw and then a file.
 
Great rig, I have one of the original CVA Big Bore(58 cal.) Mountain Rifles and it was accurate enough that I shot it in log cutting matches. It has been very reliable.
 
Excellent! I don't get modern muzzle loaders. Real black powder with round balls has very consistent velocities and is very accurate. The trick is having a tough enough patch to stay in tact after firing and having a very slow twist barrel. 1:60 to 1:72 twist is preferred for 50 cal and up round balls. The faster in between 1:48 twist will tear patches with hunting loads.

Since the round ball is one homogenous piece of lead it holds together and penetrates as well as most high powered rifles.

Funny but I spend no more time loading, firing and cleaning than the guys with pellets, rifle primers and sabots at the range.
 
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If its not too hard to load I would try a slightly larger ball with the same patch. It may group better. Some places carry .570 round balls but you would probably have to go with a slightly thinner patch. GOEX FF is a great choice.

I use 80 grains of GOEX FFF, .530 round balls and .018 Ox yoke pillow ticking in a .54 Lyman great plains rifle. Same load for the past 20 years. Have killed numerous deer from 20 yards out to 150. The deer at 150 was laying down and the ball was a pass through.

Still have not shot a bear with it.
 
Agreed, the .570" ball did give me my best accuracy but I havent found a mold for it yet, other than lymans $95 single ball mold
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I can load it with the .020" patch as long as i use moose milk for my patch lube, the wax lubes tend to get real sticky and make for some hard loading.

Owned a few GPR's myself, along with building 4 or 5 for others. Awesome rifles and a ton of fun to build.

You can still get the CVA barrels from Deer Creek Products out of Indiana. I bought the 58 last October and they only had a couple left after I got mine. I'll be ordering a .45cal round ball barrel here it later this year. Just a nice light load target barrel for fun.
 
Good shooting! Most folks do not relize the accuracy that can be obtained w/a good muzzle loader.

Enjoyed the writeup and can almost smell the smoke from here.
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Originally Posted By: AWSNice Shooting, good to see there are some traditionalist out there, though percussion caps are kind of borderline.

I always add a pinch of FFFg under the nipple after loading my . 50 cal. Browning Hawken to add a bit of authority to the PC.

My biggest concern is moisture when hunting in the rain. Found a great solution to that problem. Pushing a fired .32 ACP cartridge case over the shank of a 5/16" drill bit produces a snug fitting cap that fits the nipple and not only keeps your cap/powder dry, it serves a second purpose of providing a safety when carrying the rifle capped and loaded.

Last time I fired up the smokepole was 9/11/01 and we all know how that ended.
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Did quite a bit of load workup before that hunt trying to get minie balls to shoot in a round ball barrel. Finally settled on 100 gr. Goex FFg behind 300 gr. flat base minie ball loaded on top of a felt wad.

The smaller target was fired at 50 yds. and larger target @ 100. Those iron sights didn't agree w/my (then) 65 yr. old eyes, but would shoot minute of elk, had the opportunity presented itself.



Regards,
hm

 
I use Hopps #9 blackpowder solvent & patch lube for a patch lube with .018 Ox yoke pillow ticking. Hopps does not get sticky however it will dry out so I use it as I load no pre-lubing. Hopps #9 is about the consistency of a light to medium oil and can be used to clean the rifle afterwards. After about 5 or 6 shots it starts getting a bit tight so I just run a patch (Cut up old cotton T-shirt) soaked with Hopps down the barrel then a clean patch to dry it. Then reload and keep on shooting. I carry an old Afrin bottle with Hopps in it when hunting.

Yes saw the price on the Lyman ball mold. You can get them cheaper on the net without the handle. Lee makes a .575 but it seems that would be too large.

45 sounds fun. Have 2 friends that use .40s as well.

Never tried the paste stuff.
 
I have a 54cal CVA hawken that I built back in 1981 when I graduated 8th grade. Finally shot my first deer with it last winter. Shot this doe at about 50 yards 90 grains Pyrodex rs and a hornady ball. I had trouble with the factory rear sight and ended up soldering a williams peep on the back of the barrel.
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Nice rifle and some good shooting.

I'm proud to see there are some people who still like the Hawkin style muzzle loaders. I have had mine for over 30 years, and have killed numerous deer with it.

I had no luck at all with roundballs in it. It was when I switched to the lead conicals, the 385gr Buffalo bullets that the rfle really shined. I know that the 1-66 twist should not stabilize the big conicals, but with 110 grains of Goex fff it is super accurate out to 100 yards with open sights.

I limit my shots to 100 yards or hopefully less, and have 100% passthroughs and a higher percentages of DRTs than with my 270.
It is one of my favorite rifles to shoot, and would never give it up for an in-lime muzzleloader.
And in all that time I've had this rifle, I have never had a fail to fire. KNOCK ON WOOD, lol

Shayne
 
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