Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Load Suggestions: T/C Hawken 54 cal

Just got an unfired 54 cal Hawken and from all apperances it hates Hornady Great Plains bullets. My 54 cal. Renegade loves them. I tried the suggested 105 grains of Pyrodex select and was getting, at best, a foot group at 100 yards, where my Renegade will put 'em inside about 4" or so. 100, 110, 120 grains...no go as well. The Renegade, and every other T/C I have shot hates Maxi Balls, so I didn't try them.

Suggestions??? Thanks!

Forget those conicals!
All my traditional .54's like Patched Roundballs.
80-90 grs, of Goex FFFg
.015-.018 Oxyoke prelubed patch. I also use a deer tallow-olive oil patch lube.
Hornady or Speer rb's with a .530 dia. works for me.

Cheaper, less recoil and kills deer.

I just re-read your post. Question, What is the barrel's twist?
Normally, it's 1:48, which shoots conicals and rb's well. T/C had a slow twist barrel that was also available. Green Mtn. also has slow twist barrels.

Its a 1:48.....Really wanting to stick with conicals if I can....but may try your load. Thanks!

Some conical shooters also use a lubed felt wad between the conical and powder. It improves accuracy for some.

Can't hurt that much to try the 430 Maxi-Balls. That's what my Renegade likes.

I have a 54cal Hawken and it likes both 348gr and 405gr Powerbelts. I use good old fashion BP (FFg).

RH

I've got a .58 Renegade (custom shop) that won't shoot conicals in spite of the 1-48" twist and had another Renegade in .50 that wouldn't shoot conicals either.

On the flip side I had a .58 Big Boar that liked them fine; a friend has a .54 Renegade that does well with conicals.

The 2 that don't like conicals both have the QLA system, the two which shot them will did not. That's only a sample of two guns for each, so I don't want to draw a strong conclusion, but so far, I have not been happy with any TC with the QLA.

My current .58 does ok with patched round balls. I use TC's pre-lubed .58 patches and speer/hornady .570 round balls with 120 grains of Goex FFg for about 1.5" at 50 yards. Groups were improving as the charges increased. Since that's the max load in TC's manual, I decided to stop there in spite of improving accuracy.

My gun will go back to TC for inspection / repair at the end of hunting season. I bought it to shoot conicals. If it won't shoot conicals and they can't fix it, I'll trade it for a lyman .54 great plains rifle with the faster twist.

Tom

I shoot a 54 Renegade for elk. It would not shoot any of the conicals worth a flip and so the barrel came off to be replaced by a 28 twist green mountain that scares 1 inch at 100 yards with 535 No Excuses conicals.....

The factory tube did shoot balls ok. I sent it in for something else and they sent it back by mistake(they were supposed to keep it for other reasons as an example) with a target and letter claiming that the 4-5 inch 100 yard group with maxi balls was perfectly fine..... What a laugh. 4-5 inches you can get with a smoothbore and loose patched balls.....

My suggestion is if you are serious about conicals to buy a 28 green mountain and be done with it. That barrel is good on elk with irons to be deadly out past 200 yards, its accurate!

Jeff

Thanks Jeff....gosh this Hawken is a beauty, as is my Renegade...will check into the 1:28...Midway's got 'em.

I second the idea of a Green Mountain 1-28 barrel. I've had one for 5 years. My original TC Hawken .54 was a great round-baller, but when it came to conicals, I was never happy. The best I ever found was the larger .54 Buffalo bullets.

The Green Mountain barrel is finicky, but the lead Powerbelts ended up giving me a decent group gave me a good group at 50 yards, and that was all I felt I needed. I shoot Triple 7.