Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Received a Lyman Great Plains Trade Rifle, questions...

Alright ladies and Gents,

My uncle gave me a Lyman GP Trade Rifle. He bought an inline and wanted to give this away. I figure this is my first muzzleloader so I'll lear from this. This rifle has been at my dad's house, and we went down the farm to shoot with someone who knew BP. I believe we shot round balls, and we loaded the pyrodex (? correct me if I am wrong?), thse are the already formed power in a pyrodex box. What do you call this?

Anyway, the rifle did not look like it shot good to me, as I am a good rifle shooter, but this Trade Rifle seem to not be on target at 50 yards or 70 yards? I did not measure the distance, but I probably need to experiment with different loads and stuff.

Questions on this BP rifle:

Lyman Trade Rifle, is this a good rifle?
I think it is 50 cal, is this a good deer rifle?
What is the average distance shot at deer?
What would you expect accuracy-wise from a Trade Rifle?
The difference between a percusion and flink (?).
I am thinking ot taking this hunting this fall, because of longer seasons.
Whats the barrel length of the Trade Rifle?
I am a LH shooter, but rifle is RH, should I look for a LH?
Any website for exclusive BP shooters?
I shot this Trade Rifle, and cleaned the barrel good and the nipples and stuff. I had my dad bring it to me and noticed there are some rust on it, around the nieeple and where the barrel meets the receiver, how do we clean this?
Anyone know where I can order a Lyman Trade Rifle book to take the rifle apart and learn about it?
Anyone know of a BP shooter in Northern VA who could help a newbie?

Any help thrown my way, I will be grateful.

HOkey smokes lots of questions.

Here goes.

Lyman Trade Rifle is a good rifle. Have one in 50 cal, a flintlock.

50 cal is very adequate for deer. Shot one couple years ago with a 333 gr hand cast bullet. Used 80 gr FFg, got 36 inches of penetration. Shot him from front to back. Round Balls are also very good for deer and are much easier on the shoulder! I'm using that next time!

Average shot distance at a deer? Depends, on what type of cover you hunt, or open fields. I shot my deer in heavy cover at 40-50 yards or so.

I would expect accuracy to be 3 inches or less at 100 yards. 1-2 inches at 50 yards. I would suggest getting some FFg black powder. Better for accuracy and ease of loading as the fouling is softer during practice sessions.

A precussion will use a "cap" that is placed on the nipple. I believe that is what you have. A flint lock will have a "rock" attached to the hammer.

Barrel length? Get a tape measure and measure from the end to the Nipple, to give you a good idea.

I would definitely look for a LH rifle. The cap is pretty close to your face on a RH rifle shooting it lefty. Lyman makes them.

Take the cross pin out of the rifle, take out the ram rod and lift out the barrel. Unscrew the one screw on the opposite site of the Hammer and remove. Use solvent and a brush and get rid of the rust. Oil lightly.

As far as taking the rifle apart. the above directions just did it for you. Even if you are NOT mechanically inclined you can do this.

good luck!

The lyman Great Plains is an excelent "starter" gun.
There are two different Trade rifle models,,
the Great Plains Rifle; a slow twist 1:60 ,made for ball. and
the Great Plains Hunter; a fast twist 1:32 ,made for conical type projecitles.
That information, as well as caliber; either .50 or .54 should be stamped on the side of the barrel.
With proper care and a fair amount of practice(100 rounds or so) these rifles can reliably take deer size game out too 100yrds, with many experianced shooters doing much better. Sub 2" groups at 100 are not un-heard of.

Lymans are good rifles, for sure, and will shoot. One of the "secrets" to accuracy is consistamcy of loading the right patch-ball combination with the correct powder charge and load density. Make sure that you mark your rod when you find the amount of powder that the rifle likes, and just crunch the ball on top of it, don't slam the rod down on it as some do with a brass range rod.

In a .50 , I usually top out at about 110 grains with a hunting load, and about 50 with a target load. This all dependa on how the rifle will group a round ball .

I have never used Pyrodex, pellets or anything else, so can't comment on those.

I don't shoot anything but loose black and round balls out of traditionally styled BP rifles, so won't comment on the other things either.

Catnthehat

First thing you need is a copy of the Black Powder Handbook, by Sam Fadala. Read it before you shoot any more, as it is possible to hurt yourself with a BP rifle just like any other gun.

Actually, Lyman makes three main sidelock rifles. If you have the Trade Rifle, it is the one with only one trigger. It's a good rifle, but the Great Plains Rifle and Great Plains Hunter are better because they have set triggers. The GPR is designed for round balls, while the GPH is designed for conical bullets.

Whatever rifle you have, they're a lot of fun. And they can be made really accurate with consistent loading and practice.

another thing for accuracy, make sure your barrel cross pin is tight and holds the barrel in the same place each time.

well valad it's been 4 day's now since you posted,,to be honest I'm afraid to post a proper responce to ya here,someone will tell me it's wrong.And I chose not to participate in that.,yes there are a few really great sites for those that are interested in trad bp arms..and volumes of info from experianced shooters at your finger tip's,,PM, I'll point ya in the right direction if I may, best wishes to all,tacks.



p.s. of course you'll have to change to left. Why ask? You've delt with that all your life haven't ya? If you wanna left shoot a righty then go ahead,try a thing called a "flash cup",but you know what that's about,better than most of us.

valad & tacks
i never thought of a flash cup tacks. good one. that'll do the trick for sure. use some eye protection too valad and it'll be fine.
if you find you enjoy it then look around for a lefty.
or just have fun with what you've got.

Howdy,
I'm south pawed myself. Hunted with a Lyman Deerstalker for years ( a small version of what you have) in a left hand model. First, don't use the pyrodex pellets in a sidelock like you have, they are for inlines, use loose, regular pyrodex or actual black powder. I also tried the pellets and found they ruined accuracy. Second, I had my best luck with Thompson Center Maxi-ball bullets, (available most everywhere). You should be using 75 -100 grains of powder. Try different powder loads and bullets or balls and you'll find one that shoots. Lyman would most likely send you an owners manual if you contacted them. Have fun.

I put together a Great Plains Rifle from a kit back when the only model available was the Round ball rifle. I had no trouble getting 2" groups at 50 yards and good hunting groups out to 100 using no more than 80 grains of ffg or pyrodex from the same measure. Velocities were clocking 1800s with that level load and I did most of my shooting with 60 grains at 1300 fps range.

I found that with ffg, two shots would hit close together and the third would range a bit out of the group unless I ran a patch with either commercial bore clearn or spit down the barrel. Pyrodex did not build up fouling near that fast and I didn't have to swab as often.
I was completely satisfied with the performance and reliability of that rifle. A friend used one to hunt deer and killed one handily with the round ball load. I would advise sticking with either black powder or pyrodex powder and using ball if your barrel is 1/66 and one of the bullets if it is 1/30 something.

I still have the rifle but dont use it as much. this area is almost totally urban now and hunting is confined to crowded expensive deer leases where the hunters have to shoot cornfed deer from box stands. The small game has pretty much adapted to city life where the fireants have been controlled.

There are still a few places to shoot and I have pretty much gone to pistol shooting. The Lyman Plains Pistol handles ball and bullets about equally well and is very accurate at 25 and 50 yards

these groups were shot with pyrodex. Goex fffg produced less velocity but the same size group at 50 yards.

that's some fine shooting there. i put together a 54 trade pistol kit. looked just like yours but my groups sure didn't. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
also made a 54 lyman great plains rifle kit. very accurate. traded it off when i got my 54 Robinson. might even have traded both pistol & rifle for the robinson. details are sketchy... long time ago. nothing wrong with any of the lyman rifles and/or pistols.
they're as good as any and better than some. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

As someone pointed out, there is a rifle called the Lyman Trade Rifle. Made in .50 or .54 caliber, with a 1:48 twist, single wedge holding the barrel in, and a single trigger.
There is a somewhat different rifle called the Great Plains Rifle. There is no such critter as a Great Plains Trade Rifle. It sounds like you have a Trade Rifle. They are accurate, dependable firearms. You can get a lot of information on the Lyman website and can download some PDF's that can supply most of the answers you need. Here is a link.

http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/muzzle-loaders/trade-rifle.php

This is my Lyman Great Plains Rifle. These rifles can be very accurate if loaded properly and I consider them one of the best production rifles available.



if you are serious about learning the traditional way of muzzle loading visit The Traditional Muzzle Loading Association website.

carlos111 has the right idea. Way too many questions here for this venue.

You need a book. Or two. The one he suggested would be great. Look on Amazon.

Download the Lyman pdf linked above.

I own a Trade rifle and consider it a good starter.
It is a 1:48 twist that will shoot balls, sabotted pistol bullets, and some heavy conicals pretty well.
Balls and sabotted 240 gr. pistol bullets have proven the most accurate in mine.
I am not a fan of Pyrodex in these rifles - black powder ignites much better.

With the left hand issue and just getting started, I'd ease in to this with some affordable and quite capable round balls, 60-70 gr of BP, and test it out.

Shoot it a bunch to get comfortable, clean well, and enjoy.