My friend just bought a precision rifle for $75. Its sold by Cabelas but was made in Italy. It looks similar the the Hawken rifles w/ the octagon barrel, and is not drilled and tapped for a scope. I myself shoot a T/C Black Diamond. I wanted to get the right information so here are some questions hopefully you all will know the answer too. 1) My friend wants to be traditional by shooting opensights and using the ol' ball and patch. What would be the best powder for this load? 2) Also what grain charge would you use...probably not over 100 right? 3) Would he have to use some sort of lube or anything of that relation? I apologive if this sounds naieve but i wanted to be sure that he knows the gun and how to take care of it. If anyone has any other information that would be of benefit it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks alot.

John;
1) If he wants trad,he should stick to real BP like Goex in either FFG or FFFG depending on calibre
2) My 50 Hawkin likes 85gr of FFG and a 15thou patch with a .495 RB. That is where I get my best accuracy.
3) Some patches are dry lubed but I also use a bit of "Spit Patch" on my patches to keep the residues soft and clean the bore every 5 to 10 rounds while shooting with T/C Number 13 cleaner.
Mama Flinter also posts on bushnelloutdoors.com and your friend might do well to drop in there to the message board for more info. Tellem Fred sent ya.lol Derf

I meant percussion but you all probably figured that out.

Hey John,

I don't know what caliber your friend's rifle is. I'm assuming that it is a .50 caliber. If so then I would recommend GOEX FFG for his propellant since he wants to stay traditional. If real BP is not available, then any of the other stuff should work. I've only had experience with GOEX FFG and Pyrodex and both of them work for me.

I would start with a load of 60 grains or so and work up to the maximum load for the rifle, checking for accuracy. I assume he has the owner's manual to let him kow what the maximum charge of BP would be for his rifle. I'm going on memory here, but I believe the maximum load for my Lyman GPR with a round ball is 120 grains of BP. (I shoot 100 grains of GOEX FFG) Another tip is to swab the barrel with a wet patch followed by a dry patch between shots at the range for the best accuracy.

As far as the ball/patch combination...I would buy prelubricated patches of different thicknesses and balls of varying diameters and see what the rifle prefers. In my .50 caliber GPR, I shoot .495 Hornady balls and Ox-yoke .015" pre-lubed patches and they work well for me.

It's all part of the fun finding what the rifle likes. In general, the tighter fitting the ball/patch combo the better. But you don't want to get too tight to where it would be difficult to load in a hunting situation.

One other thing to consider, you didn't mention what the twist rate of the barrel was. The slower twists are designed more for roundball shooting (1:60 to 1:72 etc.) while the faster twists (1:28 or 1:32 etc.) are more for shooting conical, sabots, Powerbelts, etc.

HTH...
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