need help

[lhrbull]

just getting started with a muzzle loader. i recieved one as a gift(inheritance) it is a thompson center hawkens. uses caps on the breech plug. they have been shooting it with loose powder at 90 grains with 385 buffalo bullets. my question is can i use the pellet powder in this type of muzzleloader and are there better bullets now. thanks in advance

 

[Tom_Krupinski]

LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-02 AT 09:06PM (MST)[p]I suspect that you have a stock T/C Hawken rifle. You did not say what caliber it is, but you should be able to shoot most any projectile, patched round ball, maxiball, with the 1:48 twist. I have a few of these and I use loose blackpowder and it works very well. If it's a 50 cal. and you want to try some patched round ball, use .015 patch material with a .490 round ball on top of 70 grains of FFg black powder (note Swiss brand black powder takes less) for a mild and accurate load.

Also suggest that you contact Thompson Center Arms either by e-mail or by telephone and they will send you a free instruction book for shooting and taking care of that rifle. http://www.tcarms.com

Good luck and have fun with it.

Tom Krupinski
Glendale, Arizona

 

[Gator]

Try the pellets and powerbelts Get a box of 30 gr pellets and one of 50 gr pellets couple of boxes of powerbelts I use 348gr lead and copper. The you will have to play around with it some to find out what shoots best could be 90 gr or 130 gr or 100 I'm sure you get what I mean.After you get a good group going with this setup, try changing your bullets and using different weighs and kinds,until you got the best of both worlds, Then your ready. That was the short verison. Good luck

 

[shedcrazy]

I would continue to use powder in that arm. You dont want a trouble when you least need it. And using pellets with those caps is asking for trouble.






shedcrazy