Old Eynsford and the 77/50

[Nobade]

After such good success with Old "E" in my cartridge rifle, I had been wanting to try it in a muzzle loader. Yesterday I did a side by side comparison with it and my homemade in a Ruger 77/50. Boolits were 500gr. NEI slicks, sized to .493" and patched to .500". They will almost drop down a clean bore. Wads were a .030" LDPE and a 1/8" felt, soaked with ugly cat lube. I started with 90gr. of homemade, shooting at 200M. Fired 10 rounds without wiping, and got a group about 6 inches. Mainly to get a feel for charge weight and see just how long I could go with decent accuracy. Then I switched to Old "E". 90 gr. of that is quite a bit more lively! It also shot over the steel plate, so about a foot higher than previously. I adjusted the sights, wiped the bore, and put two touching in the center. So I wiped again, and shot again. Now four touching. Wow, this works! I kept going, wiping and shooting two shot groups. Eventually had 10 rounds in less than 2 inches of vertical and three inches horizontal - trying to chase the wind. So I swung around to a 6 inch hanging disk at 200M, fired at it and hit the bolt head holding it up right in the center. Now just to see, I upped the homemade charge and when I hit 110gr. it was hitting to the same point as 90gr. of old E. Accuracy with homemade wasn't bad, by wiping every other shot it held a 3 inch group at 200M, slightly more fouling than the old E but usable. So just as I discovered in the 45-70, this new powder works well in muzzle loaders as well. I am a bit sore today though, a 6 lb. 50-90 firing 500gr. boolits is sort of a workout to shoot! At least there's no brass to clean afterward.

-Nobade

[Boz330]

You were aiming for that bolt head, RIGHT?:bigsmyl2:

I tried some of my HM in my Gibbs rifle on the 500yd mini Creedmore target at Friendship. I quit because it hurt too much. I had to lower my sight setting from my Kik load which didn't hurt near as much. I can just imagine how you feel since that Gibbs is 12lbs to your 6lbs. As my old daddy said "boy if it hurts when you do that, don't do that".

Bob

[Nobade]

Ha - Yep, that's why this rifle doesn't get shot much. At first it was because the factory sights are worthless. Then I got a Williams receiver sight for it, and didn't have that excuse. Now I finally have to admit it hurts. But it's just so accurate it has to go out to play once in a while!

I guess a big point is how well paper patched boolits work. I regularly get in conversations with people who buy these modern muzzleloaders, buy a bunch of supplies, go out to shoot, and are frustrated. Hard to load, not accurate, cost a fortune, etc. I am glad to see more and more folks here on this forum are casting and patching for their rifles, because it works so well compared to store bought, costs very little, and is more satisfying and fun to make it all yourself. I still buy caps, but make the powder and boolits - I can go out and entertain myself all day or until my shoulder gives out for 3 bucks or so. Where else can you find that kind of low budget entertainment? Gotta love it.

-Nobade

[Boz330]

Most people try and shoot Pyrodex and sabots in the modern MLs. They don't get any bump up like BP and patched lead, not to mention the sheer expense of those combos. When I was guiding down in the Madalena/Datil area we got all of these hunters with their new inlines and they had no clue about using them.
I had to 2 guys from Coors bought the rifles and had them sent to the outfitter who had me zero them. They didn't even want to shoot them when we had the hunters check their zeros the night before the hunts were to begin. My hunter left early after telling the Camp Boss that he didn't sign up for a walk-a-bout. This was a guy 20+ years my junior on a pretty flat ranch for that area. There were 3 folks from Coors and none of them tipped their guides or the cook. Which is why I don't drink Coor's beer to this day.

Bob

[Whiterabbit]

whats an average tip for a guide and/or cook, anyways? 5%? 10%? 15%?

[Boz330]

It has been 11 years since I quit but the hunts I guided were 1 on 1 and cost $4000 to $5000 depending on whether there was a ranch permit involved. $250 was pretty standard if the hunter didn't get an elk and $500+ if they did. Minimum during my time was $0 to $700 on the top end.
The outfitter had one concession that was over $14000 for a 6 day private land hunt with minimum score limits of 350 or better and those guys topped 1K for a successful hunt. The down side was if the hunter killed anything less than a 350+ bull the hunter was fined $1500 and the guide $250. There were some very good bulls on that ranch but you had to be very careful.
So to answer your question between 5% and 10%. The big thing was whether your hunter thought you were doing him right or not. When I had a good hunter and, many weren't, I enjoyed the hunt immensely and so did the hunter and many asked for me the following year. On the other hand there were some hunts that made for a very long week. If the hunters were seeing game even if they couldn't get to them they were pretty happy. Some hunters thought that they were on an elk shoot which surely wasn't the case. I guided mostly Units 13 and 17 which were primitive weapons only, bow and ML. There were some really good bulls in that area but there weren't a lot of them and you definitely had to hunt them.

Bob

[Whiterabbit]

Thank you Bob.