TC Cherokee .45 (darn cat...)

[obx-shooter]

I got up from my computer to do a couple of things and when I returned the cat was sitting on the keyboard of my laptop. After I shooed the mangy critter away I saw on the screen "Congratulations Michael, you are the winner of Item # ________ ! Apparently the cat had done a "Buy It Now" in my absence.

Or "Hey Honey ... you won't believe this but I won another gun... !"

Which sounds better ... ?

The truth is ... I've been looking for that $200 pristine TC Cherokee for a couple of years that y'all seem to find ... but you guys keep buying them before I cross their path. (Y'all are some lucky folks.) Anyway ... I keep seeing Cherokees and Senecas either for $600 ... or for $400 .. with issues. "Very minor crack in wrist" or "Bore is dirty but should clean up fine..." and I don't need another project.

I have bid on a few ... and either "lost" out to a "buy it now" ... or "lost" in the last hours. Sooo when this one showed up ... I considered the bidding bit ... but ...

Any how. The seller assures me the bore is "like new", "doesn't even appear to have been fired" and I have enlarged the photos and examined closely and all I see are a couple of gun safe dings on the stock.

So ... any suggestions about loads that work for y'all or accouterments I can acquire while the gun is in transit ... I mostly plan to plug holes in paper on cardboard with it but mebbe a deer if it gets close enough to the muzzle (I got a few .50s and .54s and mebbe a .58 or two).

[quilbilly]

I have been using a Cherokee and a Seneca (until recently), both in 45 for deer for at least 20 years. Both have been with PRB and no deer yet has survived to complain. A 55 gr load of 3f Goex sending the PRB on its way has been filling the freezer more than a dozen times and that includes 200 pound plus mule deer though my target of choice is blacktail deer. Once the stock on my Seneca is repaired then replaced later, I will be using it again but the Cherokee has done the job. In a couple weeks the Cherokee will be put to work again. For the record, I have several 50 cal muzzleloaders that have gotten their share of deer but my first choice has become the 45's until the rains come when I pull out the stainless 50 with the plastic stock (also with PRB).

[obx-shooter]

When I began looking my intentions were to get the Cherokee for my granddaughter but she has showed more interests in first a Youth .243 and now a .308 carbine for deer hunting. So I rather think the Cherokee might be my "roaming" gun for days where I go as far afield as back and hips will allow. I rather have liked the cut of it's jib since I first saw one.

Both my grandkids (the girl is far more outdoorsy than the boy) have fired light loads in a .45 TC Hawken, the heavy thing soaking up the light loads I used( I have not taken time to work up anything for this rifle just cobbling together a generic light load for the occasion.) This was from bench rested and I'm sure they will progress with lighter prb loads with the Cherokee.

I know how her eyes brightened at the Youth model .243 ... mebbe the diminutive Cherokee will have a similar effect. But I have wanted one since I first saw one ... thinking I wanted a .36. The truth is our squirrels are tiny and since my grandmother passed on I haven't come across really good squirrel dumplings.

I just got a pound of Old E in 3f and your load of 55 grains looks good... mebbe minus 5 or so for first shots. I have a .440 roundball and a .45 MaxiBall along with a .575213OS and a .570 roundball here on my desk ... and boy does the .44 ball look tiny. I think I will follow your lead and go PRB with the Cherokee relegating the MaxiBall to the .45 Hawken.

I have a New Englander with a chipped toe that I never intended to buy (made a ridiculous low offer that was accepted) that is my wet weather gun ... when I hunt in the rain ... which isn't often.

[Hanshi]

The .45 is my favorite and I've owned several and still have two. The flintlock longrifle .45 has killed most of the deer I've taken with muzzleloaders.

[OverMax]

Oh how I wanted a 45 Cherokee model a few years back. After years long search locally I gave up the chase. Settled for a Fox Ridge custom offered 45 cal Hawken. Been pleased with my Hawkens patched ball performance since day one. Little 125 gr ball has knocked over some pretty nice size northern MN deer for me over the years.___ Oops. back on point.

Your a lucky dog to find a clean and sounds like a hardly used one. What I call a fireplace mantel special.
obx-shooter
As you probably remember back in the 80s when many like us purchased their sidelock's. Any T/C sidelock purchase came with a Owners Manual that cover all available models & calibers _powder charge recipes _ and typically used projectiles including those for the cherokee & seneca use. So
Enjoy the dandy new smoke pole.

.440 ball 60.0 grs is its optimum charge. Velocity: 1701 fps__Energy 816 ft lbs at muzzle.

[725]

Don't have my record book available, but IIRC, 70 grains of FFg and a maxi-ball made a perfect mushroom for me.

[bedbugbilly]

obx-shooter - LOL I've never used that excuse that the cat did it but I may improvise the next time I buy a gun and tell my better half that the dog hit the keyboard with her paw and bought it for me! :-)

Congrats on your new gun! I just bought a nice used Seneca in 45. I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet but I did cast up some RB and REAL for it this week. Good luck with your new toy and enjoy!

[obx-shooter]

I emailed Thompson Center and they sent me a pdf file of the original manual complete with their suggested load limits. Having heard a few tales of broken wrists on the stocks I plan to stay at least 10 grains under the upper limit calculating for the difference between their 2f and what I intend to use, 3f ... so mebbe 20 grains under? Any thoughts of any reduction on using Old Eynsford (sp?) vs regular Goex?

[Good Cheer]

Reminds me of a guy I worked with in south Texas. He and his wife had just drove home from shopping and he knocked the sack with her new bottle of scotch off of the dinner table. And instantly yelled "That darn cat!"

The Cherokee might just be the best thing TC ever built.

[quilbilly]

If you are using PRB, you don't need to keep that charge 20 gr under. I found the recoil of 55 gr of 3F Goex to be quite pleasant with PRB. With as beautiful and delicate a stock of the Seneca's and Cherokees, any recoil problems would be from larger conicals. The problem for my Seneca was the fragileness of the stock near the wedge pin up front. It doesn't that much of a hit to break (mine happened when I fell against a stump while dragging a mule deer up a mountain in the dark). My Seneca consistently shot 2-1/2 inch groups at 100 yards with PRB using .010 patches and occasionally did me proud at rendezvous. After the break and taping it together with duct tape, it shot even better. It will again after I finish a new stock of exquisite fiddleback maple this winter. Word to the wise - take care of that wedge pin as they are nearly impossible to replace!!! I actually put a piece of tape over the pin when going into the field just to be safe.

[obx-shooter]

Well the Max Load shown in the TC Manual for the Seneca and Cherokee is 90 2f roundball and 80 2f Maxi_ball and that just seems stiff though I certainly get that it would be more punishing to the gun with the conical than RB. Using my "extrapolating" that works out to 70 3f Old E for PRB ... which is near the most I've seen any talking about using. Your 55 3f seems to be the median suggestion ... and I think I will start with 45 gr 3f and go from there w/ PRB. I may just relegate my 100 or so .45 MaxiBalls to my .45 Hawken.

As has been said the key with the .45 and PRB for deer is shot placement. I once had to twsit severely to the right in a stand to bow shoot a deer and the result of the twisting was I under-drew the bow a little making the arrow go left and resulting in a liver hit. I finally found that deer at 3 am. nearly a half mile from that stand thru heavy going ... a miserable lesson in a shot not quite "on".

[obx-shooter]

My bottom lip is stuck out a mile ... :( . My Cherokee arrived today ... and the lock doesn't work. It goes to half cock and that is it ... Looks good otherwise ... but ... I have no use for good looks if it doesn't work ...

[Wayne Smith]

First, pull the lock and see if there is any swollen or broken stock getting in the way. That would be the easy solution.

[pietro]

Don't have my record book available, but IIRC, 70 grains of FFg and a maxi-ball made a perfect mushroom for me.

That's just about the same load (I use FFFg) I've been using in my Cherokee .45 since the mid-80's, when I bought it new - then in a .45 Seneca I started to use about 10 years ago.

Both rifles are still pristine, as I take care when hunting them - spare/repair parts are near unobtainium.

https://i.imgur.com/RQBIoIdl.jpg


.

[obx-shooter]

First, pull the lock and see if there is any swollen or broken stock getting in the way. That would be the easy solution.

I did and it appears the sear spring cup is "frozen". I am not very mechanical and I'm concerned if I begin disassembling the lock I won't be able to reassemble it. Anyway .. I took a spring from a ballpoint pen and cut it to fit over the sear spring cup and press on the sear and the lock appears to be functioning just like my other T/Cs ...

[Wayne Smith]

See, a little tinkering ... Drop some Kroil on that now that you have it functioning.

[TNsailorman]

Looks like I am going to have to find me a cat. Wifey is beginning to become suspicious about me "accidently" hitting the "buy it now" key. I shoot a .50 caliber rifle that I made many moons ago. It was made using a set of prints from the Colorado Historical Museum of the Modena rifle. It has a 35" Douglas 1" across the flats barrel and 66" twist. The charge is 100 grains of FFFg powder and a 178 grain round ball and patch. Shoots flat and hard. I never chrongraphed that load but the books I read said it was over 2000 fps. That 30-30 territory for sure. Love the smell of black powder smoke on a damp cold morning. james