Moving on...

[newton]

Well, I cannot leave the front stuffer world entirely, but I am moving from my plan of using the sidelock in my .50 cals.

I went to sight in my ml's yesterday and got beat up and found a cracked stock on one, and the ram rod tip came off in the other one. Talk about a bad day.

Anyways, I'll have a Green Mountain LRH (blued) up for sale soon if anyone has been looking for one. I think I have run less than 50 rounds out of her. The other is a GreyHawk. And I'll have a Renegade to throw in the mix.

However, I can't let go of my .54 Renegade and I will for sure be getting a good slow twist rb gun in the future. I am just giving up on the heavy conicals in the sidelock thing. Mainly because I cannot stand the stocks I have and am not going to put any more money into it. Inlines just feel a whole lot better with my heavy boolits so that's what I am gonna use.

[pietro]

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It sounds like if you didn't have bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all - I sincerely hope your dream comes true......................


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[Harleysboss]

How much for the LRH barrel? Would be interested in taking the barrel off your hands. Let me know. Thx

[swathdiver]

What was the purpose of shooting heavy conicals?

[newton]

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It sounds like if you didn't have bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all - I sincerely hope your dream comes true......................


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Yea, sometimes its like that. I love my ML's, but I just don't "fit" the Renegade style stocks I guess. Its not too bad with my .54 for some reason, but still is there. But that LRH in a Renegade stock just flat tears my cheek up. I'll continue the heavy conical path with the inline. And my dream is to one day have a sweet custom .45 to shoot heavy conicals in. However, I am leaving for my annual ML hunt next Wednesday so I don't have much time to spare.

[Beagle333]

Good luck on the hunt and the switch to the inlines.

[newton]

How much for the LRH barrel? Would be interested in taking the barrel off your hands. Let me know. Thx

I am not sure just yet. I know I paid $270 to my door for it. I don't want that much out of it though. It is used afterall, albeit not that much. But I know they are worth some money seeing how they have been discontinued and are not available anymore. So I am in no rush, but am not going to try and scalp someone for it.

In the end, I guess I would do $225 shipped.

[newton]

What was the purpose of shooting heavy conicals?

Knock down power. Plain and simple. I know what a heavy bullet vs a light bullet can do. The LRH was designed for it/and sabots. One big reason also for the conicals is so I could move away from sabots. This year I started doing the PP thing that Idahoron does. But it will be just as effective in the inline.

[newton]

Good luck on the hunt and the switch to the inlines.

Well, its not so much of a switch. I started this adventure using one. I was pouring and shooting a 515 grain boolit in a CVA Buckhorn Magnum. Did fantastic. I did a write up on it on here. I called it my 50-70 Muzzleloader.

It did so well that I figured I would get the LRH barrel and forgo the inline. But I did not realize how much of an issue the stock would play in it all.

I still love my sidelocks. Cannot beat them. I pick them up whenever I see a lonely one out there. But I will have no use for the fast twist of the LRH because I am not going to be shooting sabots and, as already stated, the conicals kick my butt.

[Harleysboss]

When you get back from your hunt and get ready to sell, shoot me a PM and maybe we can take it off your hands. Goodluck hunting.

[swathdiver]

Knock down power. Plain and simple.

Hunting Grizzly bear and Bison?

.50 and .54 round balls have reliably taken ALL North American big game.

Why not sell off all of your rifles and have one custom made and fitted?

[johnson1942]

newton,sorry about you guns coming apart, dont sell that barrel, buy a used cheap good h and r shotgun and send the reciever and your fastwist barrel to smokeless muzzleloaders inc, and have them put the barrel with a 209 primer breech plug on you h and r reciever. if they cant do it john taylor may be able to.it wont cost a arm and a leg. you may have to make your own fore stock, but thats a easy job. again make your own inline, you already have the barrel. smokeless muzzleloader inc, made my son a really top quality inline from a 10 gauge h and r shotgun in had laying around. my side locks never come apart except once. i made the stock from a very pretty piece of oak. the oak cant take the vibration, and every time i shot it a chunk of wood would come off.i scapped it and made a maple stock for it. maple is best. i also put pins in what apear to be stress areas. i make the pins look like decorations. when i made a hot rod renagade i had to pin certain areas of it so it wouldnt crack. anyways make your own inline, put a scope on it and drive tacks at any distance.

[newton]

Hunting Grizzly bear and Bison?

.50 and .54 round balls have reliably taken ALL North American big game.

Why not sell off all of your rifles and have one custom made and fitted?

Hey, not knocking those guns at all, I just want something different. I am not a one gun man at all. I like variety. I will have me a custom .50 round ball rifle one day for sure.

I guess one thing that I can see happening, and what I was looking forward to working up to, is long range shooting with the muzzleloader. Round ball guns simple cannot do it. Sure, they can reach out as far as MOST north American game is taken with muzzleloaders. But, its more than hunting for me. Its the desire to just simply shoot those long distances.

[newton]

Thanks for the input Johnson. I would not have made it this far in my adventure if it had not been for you and Ron helping as much as you guys do.

I had thought about this. I thought that one day I could get a custom stock made for it. But I am not going to sink any more money into this. I can buy a good inline for my purposes for about the same amount.

I have two stocks that have cracks like this. One stock is not mine, but I picked it up. Both Renegade stocks, both have cracks in same place. But really it goes beyond that. I don't like the way they feel honestly. I could have gotten over that, but when I saw the crack I knew that was the last straw.

I would just keep the barrel since I already bought it. But it will quite literally sit there unless I invest more money than what I want to in it. So there is no need to keep it when there are others out there who have been looking for these drop in barrels. I know I did for a while before I found this one, and have since heard of others looking. I would rather see someone who wants it more than me have it than to try and "make it work". Plenty of other choices out there for shooting the big heavy conicals.

[OverMax]

Cracked Hawken & Renegade stocks. Now I know why composite stocks are the preferred for inline use. I too dislike Renegade stocks because of their profile. Only way I can shoot one comfortably is having it fitted with a recoil pad similar to a T/C 58s Big Bores stock.
Sell em all and buy yourself a stainless Omega or some other preferred brand. The move to inline for your purpose of Heavy weight projectiles is necessary as stated.

[johnson1942]

newton, i can see your mind set. what guys shoot when their are trees all around them is diff. than what guys shoot when their is millions of acres of grass around them. if i lived where you do i would probably just own .58 slow twist round ball guns. that would do the trick and then some on any critter down their. here we have to reach out and touch things that are out their a ways. thats why we shoot what we shoot what we shoot in the open west. be sides we are all kids at heart and i like to fancy my self as good as the buffalo hunters of days gone by, or even better. to day the weather is beautiful and sea of grass that i look at for miles and miles is more peaceful than any city person could ever understand. deer are starting to show up so maybe it wont be a bad hunt in dec. a rancher that has 10,000 acres gave me permission to hunt it for free, i love that word free, will cost the out of staters 1500 dollars. keep haveing fun newton.

[newton]

Well I did it. Bought an Optima V2 in stainless to boot.

One me thing I LOVED about the renegade was the double set trigger. Man are those things nice. Turns out that this CVA has a very crisp and light trigger itself. I never thought I could find a gun easier to clean than a sidelock also. But once again this new gun is just as easy.

Helps per that they were on sale. I am shooting some good groups and will post some results soon. I picked the CVA because there is a lot of info pointing to it's like for conicals vs the TC. They say the TC inlines are made more for sabots.

I would just use a round ball gun. But believe it or not there are MANY occasions to shoot well over 100 yards where I hunt and some up to 200 yards. That was my drive in all of this. To have a 200 yard gun with homemade bullets. Sure, there are some spots that 50 yards is max. But those are the spots I'll just poke their eyes out at.

Dont hate me for going with a fancy gun. I still love the traditional. Just have to see where it does not make sense for me to pursue one angle of it anymore.

[johnson1942]

enjoy what you have. the main thing about muzzleloading is self sufficiency. you can be very self sufficient with a in line. you dont have to buy their high priced packets of sabots and copper pointed bullets. cast you own bullets for paperpatch or cast grooved. you can buy primers in the bulk. didnt i see a post that you made your own black powder. im sure that inline will shoot that well. your going to love the stainless steel barrel. idaho ron and i have one and they really clean easy. dont know why, they just do. i dont know why but my gun with the stainless steel barrel didnt mind any kind of powder i put in it. it shoots pyrodex, real black or the 209 powder all the same, very accurate. life is choises, enjoy the one you made. if i had the money i would like to build a high quality inline in .45 cal 1/18 twist and put a 12 power scope on it. would like to do some real longdistance shooting with it. no brass to clean, just load and shoot. i would use 209 powder and paperpatch bullets.

[newton]

I do want to make my own powder one day for sure. Your right, self sufficient is my aim. The 209 primers are easy to come by and not too expensive. I buy the regular ones for shotguns. The boolit and paper are just a few pennies to make. I bought pyrodex p at powder valley. I wanted to follow Ron's recipe as close as possible. So far so good except the patches are tearing just a tad(piece of them comes off) when I load them.

Im doing the boolits just like he says except for the dang onion skin paper. I procrastinated and did not get any. But I am trying some things today to help. I think it's dialed in. May be able to clear out a lane on my range today to let me see what it does at 150 yards.

[swathdiver]

I understand Newton. Someday I'd like to ring steel at 1000 yards with a Pedersoli or Parker Hale Enfield with open sights. That is of course if my eyesight lets me!

When I used to shoot smokeless, shooting 5 round clover leafs with my M700 BDL in .30-06 was my passion.