I put together a Traditions KLR kit and love shooting it. It's what I take hunting during primitive firearm season. I am having an issue while shooting where the comb of the stock really beats my cheek up. I've tried different positions while shooting but haven't found a solution. The thing I haven't tried was to sand down the comb. I guess I don't wanna mess it up. Am I heading the right direction with altering the stock? I welcome suggestions.
It's a .50 cal with a 166 twist and I run between 90 and 100 grains. Bullet is either round ball or great plains bullets by Hornady. 90 for the round ball and around 100 for the GP bullet since it's 385 grain lead hollow point.
Cool. Heres short answer. Your using way too much of the wrong powder. Not that Im a great BP guru but ive been doing this a long time. Stick with me cause ill explain some stuff. Maybe we can discuss it and learn something.
Shoot real BP in your traditional guns. Fake stuff, degrades over time. That stuff is very inconsistent anyways.
Years ago, .50 cal shooter used much less grains per shot, depending on species. Buffalo was in the 90 to 120 grain range with a prb. But you aint huntin buffalo. Your plinkin or shootin deer.
Let the inline guys who shoot pellets, use scopes n sabots, shoot the heavy loads. They needs lots of velocity to make their sabots expand.
Traditional shooters shoot a soft lead ball. Youll get awesome expansion and penetration if youll cut your load down to the 50-70gr range.
If you read old articles and advice, they recomend working up a load starting at one(1) grain per caliber size. So you would start at 50gr. And work your way up until you found a accurate load. From my years of experience that happy spot is always under 70gr.
Another thing. Your gun isnt really based on a particular "style". Its called a Kentucky but thats more a marketing ploy. Your rifle is a mix of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Pennsylvania styles. Your stock shape doesnt lend itself to heavy loads. Where as a Hawkens type shape does.
Each "style" of muzzle.loader shoots and handles recoil very different. Virginia type MLers in .50 can be brutal if the loads aint kept low. Tennessee style are great in the smaller calibers but jump them up to the "hog" rifles and recoil really sucks in 50 n 54 caliber and thats with med heavy loads.
If you insist on shooting heavy loads, I recommend a Hawkens or Plains Rifle. Simple reason is they were designed for killing bigger game and heavier loads. Elk, Grizzly, Buffalo. The Eastern styles of rifles where more designed for deer, hogs, small game, utility farm type weapons.
So my recommendation is to just drop down to about 60-70gr. With a PRB thatll get ya mostly pass thru's and lotsa dead deer out to about 100ish yards. All with a lot less felt recoil.
Just wanna add that 1:66 is great for RB but not so much for conicals. You can get away with shootin them but they really need a faster twist.
Shoot real BP in your traditional guns. Fake stuff, degrades over time. That stuff is very inconsistent anyways.
Years ago, .50 cal shooter used much less grains per shot, depending on species. Buffalo was in the 90 to 120 grain range with a prb. But you aint huntin buffalo. Your plinkin or shootin deer.
Let the inline guys who shoot pellets, use scopes n sabots, shoot the heavy loads. They needs lots of velocity to make their sabots expand.
Traditional shooters shoot a soft lead ball. Youll get awesome expansion and penetration if youll cut your load down to the 50-70gr range.
If you read old articles and advice, they recomend working up a load starting at one(1) grain per caliber size. So you would start at 50gr. And work your way up until you found a accurate load. From my years of experience that happy spot is always under 70gr.
Another thing. Your gun isnt really based on a particular "style". Its called a Kentucky but thats more a marketing ploy. Your rifle is a mix of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Pennsylvania styles. Your stock shape doesnt lend itself to heavy loads. Where as a Hawkens type shape does.
Each "style" of muzzle.loader shoots and handles recoil very different. Virginia type MLers in .50 can be brutal if the loads aint kept low. Tennessee style are great in the smaller calibers but jump them up to the "hog" rifles and recoil really sucks in 50 n 54 caliber and thats with med heavy loads.
If you insist on shooting heavy loads, I recommend a Hawkens or Plains Rifle. Simple reason is they were designed for killing bigger game and heavier loads. Elk, Grizzly, Buffalo. The Eastern styles of rifles where more designed for deer, hogs, small game, utility farm type weapons.
So my recommendation is to just drop down to about 60-70gr. With a PRB thatll get ya mostly pass thru's and lotsa dead deer out to about 100ish yards. All with a lot less felt recoil.
Just wanna add that 1:66 is great for RB but not so much for conicals. You can get away with shootin them but they really need a faster twist.
Just to add a little more about Black Powder. 3F makes for higher pressures in larger calibers, yet 2F is said to create dangerous high pressures in smaller calibers. If either is true it would effect felt recoil. The fake powder only compounds the possible problem.
Generally the rule is FFg for .50 and larger and FFFg for .50 and smaller.
Personally I use 2F in most guns but have a couple I use 3F in. My .32 Crockett gets 20gr of FFg. I shoot only FFg in my .31-.44 revolvers. I use FFFg in 1 .54 thst shoots conicals into one big hole at 50yds.
Again none of my guns go over 70gr.
Generally the rule is FFg for .50 and larger and FFFg for .50 and smaller.
Personally I use 2F in most guns but have a couple I use 3F in. My .32 Crockett gets 20gr of FFg. I shoot only FFg in my .31-.44 revolvers. I use FFFg in 1 .54 thst shoots conicals into one big hole at 50yds.
Again none of my guns go over 70gr.
Like lurker, I have an upper limit on my muzzle loaders. Mine is 75grs of ffg equiv. - while the gun can handle more powder, I want to be able to shoot it more than 3 times before I have to put it away.
Drop those charges a little and enjoy the process more!
Drop those charges a little and enjoy the process more!
I couldn't find a picture of the stock for that rifle. If it is the "roman nose" style all you can do is lower the amount of power that you use. I have a copy of an original with that type of stock
in .50 cal. and I can't shoot more than 65 grains of 3F black and a round ball with out getting my face beat up. If you load the buffalo bullet it will have a much stronger recoil, just like a 30-06 with a 150 versus a 220 with the same powder charge. I have shot 110 grs of 2F in .50, with a round ball, in a 10 lb. rifle with a much strighter stock and it was comfortable. The only manufactored muzzleloader, that is currently available, that will handle the charge that you are usingand notbeat up your face, is th Lyman great plains.
There is nothing wrong with you rifle, it just was not designed for the large powder charge and heavy bullets. Also if you shoot many bullets. you need a faster rate of twist for best accuracy. Look at the different rate of twist that Lyman uses for the bullet barrel vs the round ball barrel.
in .50 cal. and I can't shoot more than 65 grains of 3F black and a round ball with out getting my face beat up. If you load the buffalo bullet it will have a much stronger recoil, just like a 30-06 with a 150 versus a 220 with the same powder charge. I have shot 110 grs of 2F in .50, with a round ball, in a 10 lb. rifle with a much strighter stock and it was comfortable. The only manufactored muzzleloader, that is currently available, that will handle the charge that you are usingand notbeat up your face, is th Lyman great plains.
There is nothing wrong with you rifle, it just was not designed for the large powder charge and heavy bullets. Also if you shoot many bullets. you need a faster rate of twist for best accuracy. Look at the different rate of twist that Lyman uses for the bullet barrel vs the round ball barrel.
Thanks for the input guys. I'm pretty new to muzzle loading and I can see where dropping my powder load would help a lot. I'm using FFg. I don't know where I came up with using 90 to 100 grains probably read it somewhere and didn't pay attention to what rifle they were using. I was using a conical because I thought with a hollow point and heavier lead I would get more expansion and kinetic energy. I guess using round ball will be just as effective. How do I tell if I am using a soft RB? Is there something noted on the packaging that I can look for? I primarily buy Hornady.
Hornaday balls are good enough. I try to steer new shooters to shoot what the traditional guns we're designed for.
A round ball does its best work at lower velocities. Maximum expansion usually occurs in the first 4 inches of penetration. If the load is too hot the .490 ball doest fully expand and transfer maximum energy. Rather the ball will slightly expand and just keep peeling back before exiting.
Maxi ball and maxi hunters hardly expand much but because of the extra mass will blow right thru a deer, usually.
you can also try different thicknesses of patches, sometimes that makes a difference as well.
Id try shooting a RB and dropping the charge down to 60-70 grains and see how that works for ya.
Inline ballistics work very different.
A round ball does its best work at lower velocities. Maximum expansion usually occurs in the first 4 inches of penetration. If the load is too hot the .490 ball doest fully expand and transfer maximum energy. Rather the ball will slightly expand and just keep peeling back before exiting.
Maxi ball and maxi hunters hardly expand much but because of the extra mass will blow right thru a deer, usually.
you can also try different thicknesses of patches, sometimes that makes a difference as well.
Id try shooting a RB and dropping the charge down to 60-70 grains and see how that works for ya.
Inline ballistics work very different.
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
North East OK WTS: (price drop#2)Ruger 10/22 factory takeoff barrel and flashhider
- Latest: Tin Star Firearms
-
-
-
-
-
-
