Opinions on Thompson Center 54 Cal. Renegade

[BigAl52]

What rate of twist did you do your Hoyt barrel. I had him do a 62 and had it done 1 in 66

Mine are 1 in 60 I had him do 2 of them one off of a Hawken and one off of the Renegade. There both 58 caliber and the 1 in 60 is what Bobby reccomended when we spoke on the phone. Al

[Buttonbuck]

I was debating between 56-66 he said go slower with one used for hunting loads. I'd like to get it so I can shoot out to 100 yards well. Like under 4" need to develop a better load.

[Buttonbuck]

Kittery trading post often has good used ones fairly priced. They get a lot of the 56 cal smoothbore renegades

[Good Cheer]

One of the cool things about the Renegades is their being engineered for heavy charges.
Got one of those .56 barrels that was a little bit rough inside when it arrived in a swap.
Every time I look at it I think it needs to be a fast twist .57 for minie molds with a plain base plug.
Or maybe a fast twist .585 for plain bases with paper patches...

Once I found out that I could swap out the plugs in all my Lyman minie molds my mind just started going in all kinds of directions.

[BrianL]

PM sent

[Kylongrifle]

cant go wrong with a renegade..Mine will cloverleaf three .530 roundballs in front of 80gr FFG goex at 50 yards..

[Lead pot]

I have had my T/C 54cal Hawken for many years. great rifle!

BA, you and I should get together and make a swap. your a south paw and I'm a right hander were both shooting the opposite rifles.
I picked mine up when I short seated a quick follow up shot and put a walnut in the .54 Renegate barrel. Went to town and found this .50 Renegate lefty on the shelf to finish Deer season.

[GoexBlackhorn]

If I had $565 to spend, I would much-rather have a brand new 54-cal Lyman Trade Rifle.

With all that smoke-in-the-air leadpot, I'll bet you were firing at least 100gr powder there.

Over a dozen sidehammers and no inlines. Come on over to the other side man...... at least buy one. The water's nice & warm.

[Lead pot]

Nope that ain't me making that smoke, that is Bad *** doing that.
The way that muzzle is elevated and his size I bet it was 150 grains LOL.

[Buttonbuck]

Same 80g 2f load with pilliwticking patch 530 Rb cast with lee single cavity mound. Out of xray room sheathing. Use ballistol and water. Honoring Dutch Shoultzs' methods. load same result drops deer in their tracks. I get awesome expansion as well.

[barnabus]

TC is american made...Plain and simple.Lyman made over seas

[mooman76]

Unfortunately, they no longer make sidelocks.

[wingspar]

Unfortunately, they no longer make sidelocks.

I have never looked at the Thompson Center web page till I read your comment. You are right. It took a long time to find anything about side locks. Buried deep in their web site I found the manual for the Hawken, but nothing for the Renegade. Once again, I am late to the party. I sure wish I could find some of those rifles mentioned in this thread for $200, but nothing of the sort from what I’m finding. I expect to pay $400 to $500 for a Renegade, and that might be enough for me to put off my black powder dreams for a while.

The Lyman Great Plains rifles appeal to me, but that curved butt stock looks like it would be painful.

[Beagle333]

Keep your eyes open. You'll find a .54 Renegade or Hawken for $250± soon enough. They're out there.

[wingspar]

Well, I just did it. I won a GB auction for a used TC Renegade in .50 cal. Seller says there is no pitting or rust. Photos aren’t very good, but I do wonder about the condition, but I’ll find out soon enough. I took one of his photos and improved it slightly for posting here. I will definitely post some good photos when I get it.

[Beagle333]

Looks good from that. Happy shooting!!!

[marlin39a]

I've got 2 Renegades in 54 cal. A percussion and a flintlock. I love them both.

[wingspar]

I sent the guy an email minutes after I won the auction last night and I still have not heard from him. Hope to hear from him soon as I’d like to get the check in the mail first thing Monday morning.

Since I have zero black powder experience, I’m probably going to have a ton of questions. I finally figured out what a sabot is and I doubt I’ll have any interest in shooting them. Do people shoot round balls in these guns and or mini balls?

[Good Cheer]

Both really.
Renegades were engineered to use round ball as well as solid and hollow based projectiles.
48" twist creates enough RPM's to generally let you use bullets up to about an inch long. Hollow bases will let the bullets be a little longer. And at the same time 48" has long been known as a useful twist for shooting round ball.

Along these lines I'm getting a replacement base plug for a Lyman 533 diameter minie to give a thick walled skirt.
Gonna paper patch it for .54 with heavy charges.

[wingspar]

Both really.
Renegades were engineered to use round ball as well as solid and hollow based projectiles.
48" twist creates enough RPM's to generally let you use bullets up to about an inch long. Hollow bases will let the bullets be a little longer. And at the same time 48" has long been known as a useful twist for shooting round ball.

For some dumb reason, emails from GB have been going to my ISP’s spam box, so it was my ISP blocking them all of a sudden, and not poor communications from the seller. What really bugs me about this is that some emails from GB arrived and some got stuck in the spam folder and they all started going to the spam folder as soon as I won the auction. Anyway, it’s all resolved, I’ve talked to the seller on the phone and the check is in the mail. I should have the gun sometime around Thanksgiving. Now, for some questions. Hopefully it is ok for me to ask these questions here.

1. I have a bunch of accessories in a wish list at Midway, but want to do a little more research before I order them. Are there any good sites out there for black powder purchases, from the powder to bullets and all accessories?

2. As I’ve mentioned, most of what I know about black power and muzzleloaders is from watching hickock45. His go to powder is Goex 2F which is what I’m thinking of using. I know there are a lot of synthetics out there, but how many think sticking with real black powder is the way to go?

3. Right now, I’m not leaning towards bullets or round balls. I don’t hunt and wonder if there is an advantage of sorts between bullets and round balls? I see round balls are a lot cheaper.

4. As for the size of round balls while looking at them for .50 caliber I’ve seen .480, .490 and .495 for a .50 caliber gun. Can there really be that much difference in a ball that works in a .50 caliber rifle? What works best in the Renegade?