50 calibre PRB in a "Hawken"

Brutus

Brutus

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West of most places....and in Alberta
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Jonathan Browning Mountain Rifle
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First and lowest shot was with 70 grains of Goex FF. The others were all with 80 grains.
I plan to pump it up to 100 grains and try this at 100 yards next time.
Not one hickup or hangfire and all shots on paper for the first go-around!
Distance of 55 yards from the bench.
 
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Sweet. I just got the BP bug too. Waiting to take out a Traditions Hawken that I repaired and a .58 cal Parker Hale 2 band Enfield carbine repro in beautiful condition. Let us know if you try any 3F. I've read that it's okay to use at 10% less volume. And I'm really curious about shooting roundball with Pyrodex. Would be interested in hearing about a comparison. Cheers.
 
If the target rings are 1" wide then I am certain your Browning rifle can group better than that at 50 yds: try a slightly thicker patch and some liquid patch lube. FFFg powder will serve well, even in 54 cals and leave the bore less fouled so experiment. 45 - 50 gr makes a good 50 cal target load and 70 - 80 gr for longer range and hunting. I think you will find 100 gr will open up your groups significantly. Good luck.
 
Ol' Flinter said:
If the target rings are 1" wide then I am certain your Browning rifle can group better than that at 50 yds: try a slightly thicker patch and some liquid patch lube. FFFg powder will serve well, even in 54 cals and leave the bore less fouled so experiment. 45 - 50 gr makes a good 50 cal target load and 70 - 80 gr for longer range and hunting. I think you will find 100 gr will open up your groups significantly. Good luck.
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Thank you for the handy advice Ol' Flinter! Ths is my very first ML rifle.

Cheers.....
 
Ol' Flinter said:
If the target rings are 1" wide then I am certain your Browning rifle can group better than that at 50 yds: try a slightly thicker patch and some liquid patch lube. FFFg powder will serve well, even in 54 cals and leave the bore less fouled so experiment. 45 - 50 gr makes a good 50 cal target load and 70 - 80 gr for longer range and hunting. I think you will find 100 gr will open up your groups significantly. Good luck.
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X2 what Ol flinter said, you can tighten that group up, I would start out with 65 grainsand maybe go 70.grns, those Jonathan Brownings are really well made accurate rifles.
 
Myself I really don't mind taking it out very soon, just as it is with my present load of 80 grains.
I'm very surprized to do this well using these buckhorn sights with these older eyeballs, as they are not my favorite style of rearsight.
 
Not going to happen. The present situation is the front sight held down flush with the top the notch is pretty good for 50 yards. Might take a 70 yard poke at the utmost if I can confirm with the Lieca and hold a bit higher. I'm keeping things realistic and using only one sight picture for all of my relatively close range shooting while deer hunting. Anything further is safe from me and this rifle.
One great little tip from archery hunting is putting up boundary tape up at your maximum shooting distance for quick visual referance while hunting from one spot and along a chosen shooting lane(s). I think this might become part of my plan.
No metalwork here...........and no hail mary shots.
 
With 80 gr FFg or FFFg and a dead-on point of impact at 50 yd, the same sight picture at 100 yd will likely print only 4 - 6" low so you would not have to hold over a deer - just at or slightly below the top of the back. You would have lots of impact energy at 100 yd to kill a deer and likely the ball would pass completely through.

Widening the rear sight notch makes accurate aiming easier in poor light. It seems contrary to logic but that helps you to see a clearer outline of the front sight against mixed backgrounds and in low light - a bit like using a peep sight.
 
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