New to blak powder

[swhunter]

I bought a cabelas hawkin this summer and wasnt to impressed,had to heat the hammer and bend it so it would hit the cap square on.It works fine now but for the money I thought it would be better quality.I just ordered a Lyman Great Plains 54 cal.kit and was wondering what the difference was between a .530 and a .535 round ball was.Want to get a round ball mold and need a recomendation.Also want to hunt deer and elk with the plains rifle and what would be a good round ball and powder load,dont plan on shooting over 100 yards.Is that pushing it to far for a clean kill on an elk?Thanks SW Hunter   Colorado

[Snowshoe]

From what I have seen of the Lymans, they like the larger balls. My.50 cal likes the .495, and an old shooting buddy used a .535 in his .54 Great Plains, and his .54 Deerstalker. I would try around 90-100 g of Goex FFG. He used to use 90g of FFFG in his Great Plains, and had very good accuracy and power out past 100 yards.

[spitpatch]

I have 2-54's and have shot both size balls with no noticeable difference. The patch size will be different......010/535......015/530. 100 yards in my opinion is well within range for a good kill on those animals. Good choice of gun also. 90-100 gr. 2F......plenty of power.

[harryo]

I bought a cabelas hawkin this summer and wasnt to impressed,had to heat the hammer and bend it so it would hit the cap square on.It works fine now but for the money I thought it would be better quality.I just ordered a Lyman Great Plains 54 cal.kit and was wondering what the difference was between a .530 and a .535 round ball was.Want to get a round ball mold and need a recomendation.Also want to hunt deer and elk with the plains rifle and what would be a good round ball and powder load,dont plan on shooting over 100 yards.Is that pushing it to far for a clean kill on an elk?Thanks SW Hunter   Colorado

If you are not aware of it, both your Cabelas Hawkens and Lyman GPR are made by the same Italian company, Investarms, and share the same lock.  I mention this because some finished percussion GPRs also have the hammer slightly off center of the nipple.  When this occurs, the nipple sits forward in the hammer cup.  I don't think this is the norm for Investarms percussion rifles but it also isn't uncommon.  I have 2 GPRs and 2 Investarms Hawkens and only one of the Hawkens was this way.  If you talk to other Investarms percussion rifle owners, you find the same trend.  Most are OK but occassionally one has the same problem.   If the hammer will still clear the capped nipple it really isn't a problem.  Replacing the stock nipple with a shorter nipple can alleviate this problem, too.

Every case of this misalignment, that I have seen, was caused by the lock being inletted just a bit too far back in the stock, or the barrel tang not inletted back enough.  The front edge of the cut out in the lock plate, for the snail, is actually against the front of the snail instead of being centered with it.  Check your lock to barrel fit before you assemble your rifle and if, it appears you will have this problem you can correct it by inletting the lock forward a bit.  If this will cause too much of a gap at the rear of the lock plate, to the stock, you can also inlet the breech tang back a bit further into the stock.  I'm only talking about a very slight adjustment so just take a wee bit of wood at a time and check the fit.

Good luck!

[swhunter]

Thanks for the advice.I hope the rifle gets here this week,would like to get started on it.What makes a good homemade patch and homemade patch lube?would like to go all traditional with this rifle,even going to cast roundballs for it.WT Colorado