I am giving this rifle to my nephew David and wanted to check patch material and Goex and Olde Eynsford powders in it for velocity and accuracy before shipping. I built in in 2001, using a Douglas barrel and a barrel-inletted blank. Sawed it out with handsaws. Built it for Ron Smith, who killed two deer with it and then had shoulder surgery and could no longer use it. I built him a .40 Hawken and traded it back. He recently died and I bought the .40 from his widow. This rifle has a couple thousand rounds through it now, almost all through a chronograph and on targets.
The rifle is hard on patches and should have over-powder wads, in fact I learned about them using it. Did not use them today and had bad results, but that is what I wanted to find out. Started with .013 (crush) red canvas duck from WalMart, 1 1/2" square and a lube of half Murphy Oil Soap and half 91% alcohol. Had a patch on the seating jag so wiped the bore as I seated each ball. Started with 80 grains (weight-calibrated measure) of Goex 3F on the bottom left target, first two patches blew, opened the group but did not seem to affect the velocity, which averaged 1587 fps for 5 shots. Then wiped the bore (cleaning the bullet seat) and went to 80 grains of Goex 2F, everything else the same on the bottom right target. All good patches except #4 blew, opening the group. Velocity averaged 1573 fps- just about the same as Goex 3F. This is a good load in most any .54 caliber rifle but 3F might be as good if not for the blown patches. Seems to happen with a clean bore.
A closeup of the two targets with my 80 grain Goex 2F measure.
Next I used the same regime except 100 grains of Goex 2F, left target. All good patches and velocity 1735 fps. The right hand target is with 120 grains of Goex 2F, my favorite full power hunting load. The first patch holed, but the low shot is probably due to the clean bore and the low velocity. This is why a fouler is often necessary. I don't know why the velocity was so low. Deleted that from the string and shot five more for an average of 1881 fps, 62 fps spread.
Next I went to 80 grains of Olde Eynsford 2F, same regime, but all patches except # 5 blew. There was radio interference with my chronograph and I got only four readings. Shot a sixth shot hoping to get a reading, but did not. The four averaged 1623 fps. The powder grouped very well, but this is not the patch for it, unless with an overpowder wad. Hoping to avoid the first shot with the next powder being wild or blowing a patch, I did not clean the bore after this group.
I now used .022/.014 (crush) linen, a fine patch in my other rifles, and 120 grains of Olde Eynsford 1 1/2F. Expected great things, but it shot high and #3 was off-target. All Patches blew. After the first shot I could hardly seat the ball for fouling about 6-8" in front of the breech. Just like heavy loads of Swiss 1 1/2 in my .58. Had to really jab the ball down to seat it. Velocity low but even, 1763 fps. Don't know what it would be if the patches hadn't blown all to pieces. Cleaned the bore and went to 120 grains of Olde Eynsford 2F and .021/.014 soft canvas. Patches blew all to pieces for shots 3, 4 and 5, strung out. Velocity 1953 with 124 spread.
So then I went to 100 grains of OE 2F and the .014 soft cotton and all patches except one blew. Four velocities averaged 1866 fps. I thought OE 2F was much like Goex 2F, but it sure was different in this rifle.
My .54 Bridger Hawken liked OE 2F and 1 1/2F. Using these same patch materials, I shot 4 groups of 24 shots with 100 grains of OE 2F and they averaged 1793 fps. Seven groups of 40 shots of 100 grains of OE 1 1/2F averaged 1759 fps, and not many blown patches. I didn't try 120 grains in it. Eighty grains of Goex 2F averaged 1477 fps for five shots. Six groups of 24 shots of 100 grains of Goex 2F averaged 1712 fps.
Everett's "Correct but Different Hawken" .54 got 1523 fps average for nine shots of 80 grains of Goex 2F, 1745 fps for eight shots of 100 grains Goex 2F and 1843 fps for four shots of 120 grains of Goex 2F.
So now I can advise David on what loads and patches work well, namely 80 or 100 or 120 grains of Goex 2F and red canvas duck from WalMart.
