Have you noticed how close some muzzleloaders are for amount of grains needed....

How many have noticed how close some of our muzzleloaders are to each other for amount of grains needed for good groups. I have several .50 calibers and they all like 70 grains of 3FFF. My .45 caliber guns vary a little but nothing like the .58 calibers guns that are all over the map.


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I think alot depends on the kind, depth and twist of the rifling. I have found that most T/C .50 calibers with 1/48" twist tend to shoot the same with one load.

Fyrstyk wrote:I think alot depends on the kind, depth and twist of the rifling.  I have found that most T/C .50 calibers with 1/48" twist tend to shoot the same with one load.

I have to agree from what I have seen.


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I have several rifles in .45 and one in .50 that usually get 70 grains of 3F. Even my .62 smoothbore likes 70 grains with a prb. Two .45s like 60-65 grains but the other two can't actually tell the difference between 70 grns and 75 grns. The .54 can do it with either 60 grns to 70 grns.

70gr 3fg is a great load in all of my 50s!

I simply can't see as well and shoot as well as I could years ago, but at 100 yards (the farthest I shoot) 70 grains of 3F does great at that range.

Hanshi wrote:I simply can't see as well and shoot as well as I could years ago, but at 100 yards (the farthest I shoot) 70 grains of 3F does great at that range.

I don't have any muzzleloaders to test this out on .....


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Hanshi wrote:I simply can't see as well and shoot as well as I could years ago, 

I have also found that my guns weigh a lot more than they did thirty or forty years ago 

Not a young man anymore, muscle mass had decreased substantially since retirement in 2014.

Your not alone, young and old are feeling the issues of todays life styles. Jonathan (our leader) has issues (the reason for him not around at times). I try to cover for him (because I'm a wonderful person). My wife will tell you I'm full of baloney. I'm like you now was going great until last years health issues (slowed down 50% from the past old age sucks).

Oh, Welcome and hope to see you most often, thank you...


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Buck Conner wrote:

Hanshi wrote:I simply can't see as well and shoot as well as I could years ago, but at 100 yards (the farthest I shoot) 70 grains of 3F does great at that range.

I don't have any muzzleloaders to test this out on .....      
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Just so's you know I ain't getting old or older; I'm just getting along, AHEM! My weight is scarcely 2-3 lbs more than when I trained; it's just distributed a little differently is all. The eyes? Well, must be just fair wear & tear. And the fact that I get better looking by the day is irrelevant.

I used to have a wonderful .50 longrifle but my arthritic hands got to where I had difficulty handling it. I then had a .50 built that was sized better for my build/strength. It's a featherweight at 7lbs 2oz. A hybrid with early Lancaster/York/etc features. Most would call it a women's or youth's rifle but I'm around that size. I love it! "Heavy" is much harder to tote in the bush than "light". That's why I rarely hunt nowadays with my 10.5 lb .54. Peace!

It seems most of us that shoot black powder muzzle loaders are getting long in the tooth. I have my eye problems too and have resorted to peep sights on most of my guns and I now limit my shots at deer to 70 yards or less, usually alot less. The price of getting old, but i still love my BP guns, and love shooting them.

I agree with you, doesn't matter what type of event we look at today there are fewer younger folks when compared to those older ones like us. Is it because it takes some effort to get involved? These young folks seem to always have money, not like the old days when you and I were bartering for most of our gear ...


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Any of us who have younger kids - grandkids in our case - need to start them early on with BP and train them religiously.

Hanshi wrote:Any of us who have younger kids - grandkids in our case - need to start them early on with BP and train them religiously.

That's a given with black powder .....


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Winter Hawk wrote:Dutch Shoultz felt that 1 1/2 times the caliber gives a good starting point for developing an accurate load, then go up and down from there to find what is best for your gun.  So for a .50 that would work out to 75 grains, very close to the 70 grains which everyone seems to find ideal.  .45 would be 67.5 grains, again close to the 70 grain load.

~Kees~

I know with antique firearms once checked over to be sure they are safe, we used the old theory of a grain per size of caliber. - ex. .45 cal. would get 45 grains of 2FF, .50 cal. would get 50 grains of 2FF, .58 cal. would get 58 grains of 2FF and so on. The value really controlled how much your willing to try (not worth blowing an expensive antique firearm apart).



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