I know Fred enjoys muzzle loaders as much as I do, but are there any other fans around here? My sons and I (along with one of their buddies) headed off to our favorite gravel pit last Monday for another plinking session. They all brought their modern tacti-cool rifles and handguns, ranging from their new FAL's and Ruger 57's to their buddy's brand new Tavor 7 (some really weird Israeli bullpup in 7.62 NATO). My God, there seemed to be at least one piece of brass in the air at any given time...
Anyway, I brought one rifle, that's it that's all. My trusty Lyman Great Plains Rifle in .54 caliber. It's purely a round ball shooter, rifled with a true round ball twist - 1:66". My load is 100 grains of Swiss 1.5 Fg black powder, a .015" thick patch lubed with Wonder Lube, and a .535" diameter round ball. Velocity is about 1,800 fps.
I just kind of quietly stood back and loaded and wiped, stepping up to our firing line every few minutes and taking a shot at our hanging gong. I managed to hit that 8" dia gong at about 130 yards each and every time from a variety of field positions. Perfectly adequate "hunting accuracy" for any rifle. What a relaxing day of shooting. I should shoot my muzzle loaders more.
