PA_RIDGE_RUNNER

I only shoot 80 to 85 gr of real bp in most all my front loaders. I did once kill a doe at over 80 long steps using only 60 grains of 2f powder and had a complete passthrough. In a modern rifle you would have to literally pound it down the barrel but in a muzzleloader they fit much looser than that so I would seriously doubt that there would be any problem with a bullet not exiting.

Hey is that you Huck. I do trust the advice of most of these guys. As an investment a rifle is chancy at best as no one knows what collectors will fancy in several years. Get the one you feel most comfortable with and have fun. Remember you cannot shoot arrows from any of them. Lol

I would add that the best gun is the deer size caliber that you can hit what you are aiming at. I really like the nosler partitions for their accuracy but that is my rifle not yours.

As I stated before I do not use bore butter. I only use real bp in my flintlocks, percussion, and inline rifles. I used bore butter for the first couple of years in my flintlocks and got some rusting everytime I did that. I then took to a real cleaning regimin. I probably take 30 to 45 minutes to thoroughly clean my rifles if I am going to store it for any period of time. First I had a real time cleaning that bore butter from the bore. I take the rifle down and clean with HOT soapy water till the patches come out clean. I then rinse in very HOT clean water I rinse till the barrel is warm enough to evaporate the water on the outside of the barrel and feel assured it is doing the same for the inside. I run a dray patch down the barrel and set aside till the lock is completely cleaned. I then use modern solvents on the dry barrel. Mostly use a foaming cleaner that is designed to remove lead, plastic and powder crud. It always amazes me what comes out of what should have been a clean barrel. I then coat the bore with a quality oil nearly to the point of it running out of the bore. I then reassemble the rifle and wipe the outside with oil and store in a humidity controlled gun safe bore down. I have stored front loading rifles for several years and never again had a rusting problem. When I go to use any of my front loaders I first run an alcohol patch and a couple of dry ones to clean out the oil. Use what you want but that is how I do mine.

Tried the bore butter buty had less than adequate results with it. Also found it was really hard to clean that stuff out to shoot from a clean bore. My barrels are steel barrels so they do not need cured like a cast frying pan. Since I started using oil to store my guns no problem. I have used CLP, G96, A very good household oil, Remoil and probably others and have not had any sort of rust issue. If I plan on a more long term storage I use more and wet the inside of the barrel and store barrel down with a folded cloth underneath. Most of my front loaders do not get all that much rest but none have any rust either.

Going to Kansas as I have for the last 7 or 8 years. Daughter lives there so I get there just in time for spring gobbler season. I may try to hunt again in Missouri with a good friend but that is a little up in the air.

Move over under that there rock I didn't know they were making them again either but seem to recall reading somewhere that they were going to do it.

Reading MGardiners range story made me think of a time when I was helping my Bro-in-law at a booth at a fair where he basically moved his Sporting goods shop there. We could not have modern rifles but did have some black powder rifles and pistols. A man approached me and said he had a very special request. He said his son was very enamored by flintlocks but had never seen a flintlock pistol and would I take just a minute and show his son a flint pistol. He then about floored me when he said that his boy was totally blind from birth and was 9 years old now so the boy would look with his fingers. I was a little apprehensive but said no problem bring him over. After a minute or so here he came pushing his son in a wheel chair. I introduced myself and held the pistol out to him and in a few seconds he had felt that pistol all over. I then asked him if he would allow me to explain how it worked and show him how it worked. I assured him it was not loaded. Oh man he just beamed so I explained each part by taking his hand and placing it on the part. In all I spent about 5 minutes with him. I acted just like he was sighted saying now we are going to look at the flashpan while guiding his hand to the part. He said a big thank you and they left. A couple of minutes later the father returned and could not thank me enough and even asked me if I worked with the blind to which I said no. He said I did everything like a professional and wanted to give me a little money to which I said no sir that boys smile was more than enough payment and that I enjoyed every minute of it. Wow what an experience.

To add to mag's post. If the ramrod exits before one full turn reinsert it and pull it out till the rod turns exactly 1/2 turn and mark it there. Remove and measure that distance and multiply by 2. That will give you the rate of twist also. For instance if it is a 24 inch barrel the ramrod will only be half way when it exits the bore. Most rifles will be pretty much a standard rate of twist such as 1:28, 1:32, 1:36, 1:48, and so on. Generally the 1:48 twist is the standard.

I have 2 bushnell Trophy 6 -18 scopes and both seem to be A ok. I have one on a 7mm mag and has performed well for me there. I just got the other which is a Trophy XLT and is a 50 mm objective which I have put on a 270. Havent shot it yet. I don't know if they come in stainless or not. I bought mine from Optics Planet online and their price was very good.

My son and I both shoot the knight bighorn which I believe is quite similar to your 93. We both get very good accuracy. At 50 yds I can shoot the 300 grain Hornady XTP in a Harvester crush rib sabot that the holes touch each other. We use real bp as our rifles are not coverted to the 209 primer. I am not an advocate of taking shots over 100 yds as it is still a muzzleloader and I have modern rifles for the long shots. My best group at 100 yds with this combo was around an inch and about 1 1/2 inches low. That is with only 80 grains of 2f Goex. I did kill a doe this fall in Kansas at a lasered 77 yds and she went down on the spot. As for the stock you might find one at a muzzleloader shop or online at a muzzleloader site like Track of the Wolf, October Country, Midway etc.

You can keep the wood one for looks but there is nothing wrong with going hunting with a ramrod that you have full confidence in. No matter what you get as a replacement be sure that the metal ends are pinned to the rod shaft. the ones that are only glued on can and will come loose. Especially if you use it for cleaning and it gets hot from the water and the glue softens of course you will not know it is loose till you push a patch all the way down and try to pull it back out and all that comes out is the ramrod. It is a real mess trying to get that out. I speak from experience on that one. I pinned all my rods just after that. It is easy to do be sure the end is all the way on the shaft and drill a very small hole all the way through find a nail or brad that will fit the hole and cut off the head then cut the other end so just a little extends from the hole. Take a hammer and place the nail on a piece of metal and tap it till it is flat to the hole and do the same on the other side. You should also have a range rod. This one should be a solid rod. By that I mean it should not be hollow it can be taken down for storage but all the pieces are solid metal. Use this rod at the range and to clean the rifle and save the guns rod for the field.

Strut what you have is a rifle designed to shoot round balls and you just may be able to drive them pretty fast. In a 1:48 you can only drive a round ball so fast till it starts stripping down the barrel. With a 1:66 that does not happen. If it is a 50 cal the round ball is from 172 to 179 grains. You might want to try Buffalo Ball-ets. It is shaped at the front like a round ball but does have a bit of a skirt. I will have to look at mine to see if they are a hollow base or solid base and their weight. You can try the tc maxi ball to see if you can stabilize it in that twist. I do not have much faith in the minnie ball as most times they just fit too loose for hunting as they do not engage the rifling till shot then the skirt expands to engage the rifling. The Maxi ball is Erics new favorite in his Lyman Deerstalker 50 cal because he got a doe on Friday. The maxi is a 370 grain chunk of lead. He got tremendous penetration as the ball entered the front shoulder and we found it in the back ham. Haven;'t weighed it yet but there was little expansion it did not hit any bone in the front leg but did break a rib right behind the shoulder and must have ranged back through the entestines and lodged in the back leg without coming out on the far side. We did not have much of a blood trail for about 50 yds but she did start to bleed after that.

Not only did you get a yote you saved some deer and turkeys, maybe next years trophy. Way to go.

50, 50 was so long ago it is a distant memory. 68 nearly 69 but feeling like 40, well for a few minutes anyhow.