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

Yes it's nice when things start coming together. The mod I did on the stock comb is working well also. Got the comb off my cheekbone.

On the last target pic I shared, those four holes marked in circles, was my 60-yard 'pattern' using the .530" ball, two .010" patches, and 60gr powder, by volume.

Night and day difference in making some adjustments.

.530" ball, .018" pillow ticking patch, 90gr (volume) Pyrodex P, 50 yards. calm wind. 1.8" ctc for the best four. Flyer up high was first shot.

.530 RB, .018 patch, 90gr (volume) Pyrodex P.

Chronograph velocity 1540 FPS.

I'm going to use this load to get my sights dialed in for windage. I need to do it on a cloudy or overcast day though, to minimize glare on the sights.

At the moment the load is hitting about 2.5" high at 50 yards. I'm not going to mess with elevation adjustments, as this should be pretty close to dead-on at about 100 yards.

Just for S&G,

Comparing two ball/patch combo's at 50 yards today. Temp was 26F, wind chill 19F. Both loads used a 45-70 case full of Pyrodex P (64 grains by weight).

I fired the three shots with each combo alternately, at the same aim point. I marked holes with circle, and triangle as I went along, to keep them identified by ball/patch combo.

The .535" ball with .015" patch (marked with triangle) turned in a nice 1" 3-shot group, about 1.25" above aim point.

The .530" ball with .018" patch turned in a 2.5" 3-shot group, but the first shot (clean bore) was the highest one on the target. The other two fell within 1" of each other, right at the point of aim.

Both ball/patch combo's look pretty good, and load with equal resistance in the bore.

Looks buck or deer worthy to me! Nice shooting.

Thanks, definitely good to 50 yards. I need to prove this load at 75 yards, and 100 yards. I'm going to go ahead with the .535" ball and .015" patch combo.

That 2-inch wide blue painters tape makes a fairly good (visible) aiming point.

I saw that. I might try that for my Sharps as well. Been using a paper plate on a brown backer that seemed good. That painters tape looks like it could work as well.

You’re making me want to dig out the box of accessories and get my dad’s TC 45 Flinter out. Spent a good bit of time trying to find a fit about 12 years ago. Similar journey. Never did get down to that accuracy you found but was satisfied.
It’s an enjoyable afternoon at the range for sure.
Big fan of Blue tape at the range. It’s easy to see on cardboard and can be cut shape for whatever target size is needed.

Tried a .535" ball with a .010" patch today. It loaded a little too easy. 50-yard accuracy was not as good as the .015" patch. The fired patches were in shreds.

Barrel clean up easy? Those rifles seem to be a great rifle for the money, especially if you're handy at all with a few tools.

After the test above, I moved back to 75 yards, to check the accuracy at that distance with the .535" ball/.015" patch, over 64gr of Pyrodex P.

Wind was nearly calm. Temp about 35F. Accuracy for the best four was 1 7/8" at 75 yards. The flyer up high was shot number 2. Probably my fault. Anyhoo, this is going to be the load for this rifle.



We have the Heritage Season in a couple weeks, and I have a deer tag, so hopefully we will put some meat on the ground with this rifle.

Yes it's cleaning up very easy. I have been cleaning it with Bore Tech Eliminator. I know, not the traditional hot soapy water, but It's convenient, as I use it on all the rifles, and it cleans up the powder fouling real nicely with just a jag/patch, no brush needed.

Nice, Bob (MagBob) on here turned me onto Windex with Vinegar. I got one of those little tupperware containers, wadded them in there and dumped a bunch in there. Nice to have to clean that stuff up. Then Gunner directed me onto using plain old olive oil to lube the bore and such. In my Sharps both of those has made clean up a snap.

And damn good shooting at 75 yards in my opinion. I believe you are hammering now.

Good info on the cleanup/oiling.

Yeah, I'm real happy with the 75-yard accuracy.

I didn't need to make any adjustments for elevation. It's about 2-3" high at mid-range, but I don't mind with these sights, I can do a 6-o'clock hold pretty easily. I only needed to make a couple small windage corrections by drifting the rear sight.

Yeah, I'd be plenty happy with that myself. That big ball has to make a heckuva wack!

I put my cardboard target in front of a AR500 steel target. It does hit that steel good and hard.

That is great shooting. I'd be happy with that!

Great groups and perfect elevation.

I run "P" powder in all my guns, here in Idaho. One thing I've added to the load, to make it run the same in subzero temps, is a little 3f swiss black powder under the pyrodex. Just deduct how much you use from your current load. 20 grains of black is what I put in my 54s. The ignition, report and recoil are almost "centerfire like".....and it does burn clean.

If you start getting delays in ignition, when it turns cold, you may want to give it a try.


Andy3

Good info, thanks!