Decided to start the morning by trying to get a 4 legged tasty hooved critter on the last day of the gun season in these parts. That part was a bust, but thing got fun afterwards. My good friend who owns the farm I hunt has an above average .54 Hawken copy that he has owned for years and has never been able to get a load worked up to his liking. He is a great shot, but not the most experienced in BP rifles. A couple weeks ago I brought it home, gave it a proper cleaning and replaced the front sight that he had filed down to almost a nub.
Today he got out his shooting supplies and with ball, patch, veg oil lube, and powder we proceded to work up a load. Shot it at 25 to see how it looked. Not bad, but low and left a touch. Went to 100 and shot his large target board and found it about 6" left and at least 9" low. Not a big deal, we were only using 60 grains at this point. Work our way up to 100 gr and the ball in perfect north and south. but still to the left. He gets me a punch and a small hammer and I give it a few precision taps. He teases me about not hitting it hard enough, but I tell him to loader her up and take a shot. Perfect X ring shot. Before it was all said and done we had settled on 110gr as a good 100-200 loading, and what I'll use on ML season next week. (He doesn't hunt)
