Another of my Carson Hawkens

[Herb]

I shot the Carson Hawken I am just finishing to regulate the sights.  These are the first shots through that Green River barrel, before I lapped the bore.  I kept filing down the front sight to raise the group, but with the sun at my back on the sights, I must not have seen the sights to effect the correction.  Durned rifle kept shooting them through the same hole.  Eight shots here at 50 yards.
What is interesting about this group is that these balls were wrinkled rejects, sorted from some well-cast balls that "The General" (George Patton, a local) gave me at Doc White's last shoot I got to.  I used them to get the sights filed down, then intended to use his good ones for the "proof" targets.  I don't know what the patch material was, it miked .015 on the ratchet but crushed to .010.  I still have to lap the bore and blue the barrel.

I had to quit and go play guitar at the Beehive Home, but maybe the weather will let me shoot some more before delivering the rifle next Monday.

[msellers]

Herb,
This one fine looking rifle, and almost as good a shooting barrel. That would win some string shoots for sure. Jealous I am not taking posession of the fine rifle.
Mike

[smylee grouch]

Herb, those must have been follow the leader balls.    Nice looking rifle as usual.

[mony]

Impressive on many levels. Thanks for sharing.

[gusd]

That's a fine looking & shooting rifle Herb.
Loved your Pronghorn article in Muzzle Loader Magazine.
Gus

[Daryl]

Decent group, for sure. Nice rifle.

[Marcruger]

You are quite the artist Herb.  Thank you for sharing this one.   God Bless,   Marc

[Herb]

I filed the front sight down by calculation.  The first shot of the day settled the barrel back to the breech, top left.  These are .490 Hornady balls and 50 grains of Goex 2F.  No wiping and no cleaning patch on the seater jag.  This barrel was a reject from the GRRW.  I cut an inch off the muzzle and 5 inches off the breech to eliminate most of the rifling chatter on the lands, but there is still chatter 4 3/4 inches forward of the breech.  I lapped the bore with a hickory dowel on a cleaning rod and 240 grit Brownells lapping compound, but could not eliminate all the chatter.  So I wanted to see if it would shoot with those rough lands.  No wiping or cleaning for all 16 shots, and the balls still loaded easily and shot well. The bottom number 4 was really the sixth shot.

Middle target was the same except Goex 3F. The low shot was caused by a patch too small to cover the ball.

The right target was the same components except the powder was Olde Eynsford 2F measured with an 80 grain Goex 3F measure, which held 84 grains of OE 2F.  (Couldn't find the right measure).  The .010 patch was too thin, 3 of the 5 blew.  But I was too cold to keep shooting.

This salvaged Green River barrel I believe will shoot as well as or even better than most barrels I've built with thus far.

Now, on to the next one(s)!

gusd, thanks. (He is referring to my article "A Utah Pronghorn Hunt" in the Nov-Dec Muzzleloader Magazine, the current issue).

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Nice rifle Herb, and good shooting.  I am curious:  what sight picture do you see when aiming at that inverted "V"?

[Herb]

The buckhorn sight has a round notch cut in it, and I hold the front sight at the top of the hole, then use a six o'clock hold level with the legs of the V.  It happens that the legs just sit on the sides of the buckhorn, and the front sight lines up with the point of the V.  It is easy to hold consistently. The maroon color is just because I have that paint left over from the wife's garden.  But it makes a better picture than black!