Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Lyman Trade Rifle 54 Cal Percussion

Very nice rifle! Love my 54 round ball shooter. Killed a nice buck with mine last year.Hope to repeat this year once it cools down

Nice! ^^

Only change I would make with your rifle, only when hunting, is use an unbreakable ramrod. Take a "possibility" out of the equation.

Yeah that seems like a sensible thing to do.

I have a 54 deerstalker in flint and a trade rifle barrel that i swap out on the same stock; I put rmc fiber optic sights on them and changed to an rmc vent. i have not done a lot of load work on them yet but the Deerstalker barrel one holes at 50 yards benched with 70 grains 3f goex with .530 .18/.20 patch. The trade barrel gets 80 grains but can go to 100 grains with excellent accuracy; these barrels need to fire about 2 boxes of ball before they start to show their outstanding accuracy. Best buy one the market at one time but now discontinued.

Well I put the first rounds through the rifle this afternoon. Only six shots. The gun seems to function well.

I've got some Hornady .530" round balls, and some pre-lubed patches in .010" and .015".

I started with a cap on an empty gun, got ignition, and a burst of air from the muzzle. All good.

For the first shot, I put in 60gr of Pyrodex P. Used the same charge on all the shots today. The Lyman manual says 100gr of Pyrodex P is MAX for this gun, using PRB.

For ther first loading, I used one .010" patch. It was too loose, the ball gave very little resistance loading. That shot hit low and right on the target.

Subsequent shots I used two .010" patches, and that gave a snug fit.

My target was only at 30 yards. I wanted to ensure I was on paper. Using a 6 oclock hold, my group was 2" high at 30 yards, and just slightly left of center. Group size for five shots was 1.5", with three touching.

Overall I'm happy with the first shots. Need to drift that rear sight right a touch. Next I'll move back to 50 yards and see where it's hitting. And chronograph.

Here's a few pics,

Measuring 60gr into a 45-70 case, via 30gr spout,


.530" ball, and two .010" patches,


RWS #11 caps,


Ignition,


Target,


Five into 1.5" at 30 yards. That's a double on the lower left.

Nice shooting MM!

It is fun to step back with these older style rifles. You're motivating me to get my TC Hawken out for some fresh air!

They sure are a lot of fun.

Being a southpaw, and shooting this right-hand caplock, I noted that I'm not getting any gas, sparks, cap fragments, etc. hitting my face.

I'm not mad about any of that......grin.

I moved back to 60 yards today and shot over the chrono. Velocity averaged 1328. Accuracy really fell apart, opened up to 8". Very random pattern.

This was the .530" ball, two .010" patches, and 60gr Pyrodex-P.

The manual that came with the gun indicated a .535" ball, patch not specified. I had these .530" on hand already, but looks like I need the .535", and at least a .015" patch. I'll have to work through that. May need to up the powder charge too, but I'll take it step by step and see where things go.

That’s the fun part in my opinion. It’s like hand loading only from
The front.

Yeah, I'm good with it too.

For me, the journey is often the destination.

Betting 80-90 grains and an .018 patch help.

If you can get some real black give that a go too. Good chance it will be more accurate than Pyrodex.

I know you’re diggin in your heels, but some Swiss black or similar might be real good to you. I was a pyrodex guy for awhile but using a spit patch to clean the bore and then either steamy hot water or some windex with vinegar sure makes life easy.

I know you’ll sort it out though. It’s a fun as hell.

I’ve been waiting to see one of our fellow Marines from Colorado with his BP rifle and a great buck or bull under it.

I was out on the weekend shooting my .54 flintlock, for the first time in about 18 months.

It works best with a .530 ball and denim patching - the start was a little tight when I built it, but I turned up a coning tool and just took the crown back to the groove diameter and it makes all the difference.

Best hunting load in this rifle is 90 grains of fff - I use fff to prevent having to carry separate priming powder.

I'd forgotten how much fun it is, and burned a pile of powder giving folks at the range a shot. Todays job is knapping the flints back to sharp.

^^^THIS^^^

Mine really liked 90 grains of REAL Black Powder. 🤠

Yep, I've seen originals that look an awful lot like a T/C Hawken myself. No, the T/C doesn't look much like an original Hawken but there were other makers turning out half stock muzzleloaders in the 1800's.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm not opposed to BP, it's just that the Pyrodex was easily available, and I had good results with it back in the day. But I will try some different patch/ball/charge combos and see what's what.

.535 round ball, .018 pillow tick, any cap that will go pop. 80 grains of RS. Dirty, but my deerstalker loved it. Killed several deer with that combo.

That's definitely the direction I'm heading.

I was checking the powder volume vs weight of my 60gr charge of P. My flask has a 30gr spout. That spout only holds 21.5gr by weight, per my reloading scale.

So, I'll also start putting three 30gr spouts per load, making 64.5gr by weight. See how that goes.

Just a coincidence, that amount (three spouts) fills a 45-70 case right to the rim. (I've been using the 45-70 case to measure the charge into, avoiding flask directly to barrel).