I just ordered a Green Mountain barrel/ramrod that is supposed to drop right into my T/C Hawkin stock. It's in .58 caliber. If anyone has any experiences with these, I'd like to hear about it. Now I have to sell my Pedersoli Kodiak .58 double rifle to pay for it. Too many .58's!

I got one in 50 cal 1:32 twist and it shoots conicals very well.

I have a .32 caliber GM barrel for my Hawken, fun to shoot and very accurate. With that small bore and the same barrel thickness it weighs a ton though. The .58's got to be better for carrying.

I suspect you're going to really like that GM barrel daddy. I sure like mine. In my opinion the longer barrel really improves the "looks" of a TC Hawken. It's just more pleasing to my eye (heavy though).



The first five targes below are some I shot recently at 50 yards from a bench to get velocity readings with the same volume of five different powders. Though I weighed the charges for consistency, the weight was based on 105 grains volume loads from a TC U-View measure.

The last target is at 100 yards from the bench. If accuracy like that doesn't make you smile, nothing will.











[img]http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb264/NavZepol/Hawken%2058%20Targets/H58-009.jpg[/img]

semisane,
Nice targets! It seems to like Goex the best. Were you cleaning in between shots? Have you tried any conicals or T/C Maxi Hunters in it or is the twist too slow? Was it really a drop in fit? I hope mine shoots that well! Thanks.

My standard practice daddy, is to wipe the bore with one side of a patch slightly dampened with 91% Isopropyl alcohol between shots. That's what the "1S1AP" notation on the target means. Sometimes I use both sides of the patch if weather conditions seem to be causing a lot of fouling.

I've never tried conicals in this 1:70 twist barrel, and doubt they would shoot well. I know for sure they can't do anything that a 285 grain ball at 1500 fps will do, and the ball trajectory is better.

It was a perfect drop in fit with one exception. I had to trim about 1/16" off the rear of the underrib. No big deal and easily done.

Interesting. I've been using alcohol to wipe the bore between shots for many years, and have never run into anyone else at the range that has even heard of it. Works very well.

I will probably give conicals a try, because I'd rather use them. I've always preferred conicals over round balls for hunting and I like a big heavy bullet to stop the local hog population in their tracks, but with the slow twist you're probably right about them not shooting well.

Every Green Mountain drop in I ever saw shot like crazy!
it's the simplest way to get a decent shooting rifle , and a two gun combination as well.
Cat

An rb has a better trajectory than a conical?

Well, I need to clarify that. I was thinking comparisons of the two with the same powder charge and a 150 yard maximum range (my personal hunting maximum). You can get slightly better trajectory using a maximum charge under a 555 grain MaxiBall. But who the heck wants to shoot that? I've done it a few times and it tends to take some of the fun out of shooting.

The main point is, for typical hunting situations (excluding grizzlies) a .58 ball will do anything a .58 conical will do, which is a .58 hole in one side and out the other.

I wouldn't want to get hit by either. Lately, almost all of my shooting has been with the heavy conicals. Some people do some amazing shooting with them at long distances (to me that is anything over 100). The rainbow trajectory is very repeatable and once you got it you are set. I think the downrange energy of a heavy conical is a factor to be considered. By heavy I mean 460 grains plus. I am sure for most anything you are hunting the round ball does the job however. In my opinion barrel twist is the determining factor in bullet choice.

semisane...ever tried .570's in your Green Mtn? I have a Renegade .58factory barrel that shoots the .570's tolerably well, wondering how accuracy was in your Green Mtn barrel was if you did try both the .570's & .575's.

i just stuck a .58 Green Mtn barrel on my other renegade... plan on seeing how it compares with my 1-48 factory .58 barrel.

if my 1-70 come anywwhere close to your groups i'll be giggling like an idiot; good shooting on your part.

Well, had a problem with my new barrel. I found out after I ordered it that it wouldn't fit my stock - 1" barrel, 15/16" tang (the original Hawken was .45 caliber). My own fault for not doing more research, Live and learn. But, after a lot of looking over the last three weeks, and one bad experience with Ebay, (buyer beware!), I've got a .54 caliber Renegade coming to put my .58 caliber barrel on. Finally!!! The rifle will hopefully be here tomarrow or Friday and the range is open this coming weekend, so, with a little luck I'll be able to shoot this thing in a couple more days. Looking forward to smelling some smoke!

Yes I have FyrepowrX. I got pretty much the same accuracy and they are a smidgen easier to load. But I HATE buying balls and Lee doesn't make a .570 mold.

The renegade got here today and it's beautiful. Very nicely figured stock and looks almost like brand new. It's got a couple little dings, but it'll do just fine. Hopefully, if the tropical storm hanging out over the Bahamas doesn't rain everything out, some .58 caliber balls will be flying this weekend.

daddywpb...ya cant tease us with only descriptions, especially if there is some good timber on there, we need pix!

I kmow it's wrong, but I can't get pictures to post. I've tried. Technologically impaired!! I'm taking it to the range today.

Well, I finally got to the range and I've had a silly grin on my face every since. Groups at 50 yards were just like the ones in the pictures that were posted by Semisane - one big ragged hole. I couldn't shoot at 100 yards - that distance was not available. I played around with the load, but settled on 100 grains of Goex FFg, Hornady .570 ball, and a .018 pillow ticking patch. It's tough to get down the barrel, but it shoots great. I love this rifle.

sounds like i'm going to be a happy camper with my .58 green mtn gun.

you deer hunting with this one come fall?

Those Green Mountain barels really shoot. I bought the .50 for my T.C. Hawkin as a replacement for the original barrel. What a difference. I used the 1:48 twist so as to shoot both the roundballs and conicals. Either will group like the pictures above. Nice product, good company.

I don't deer hunt much anymore, but the hogs are in for some trouble.

Some of those earlier renegades had some real nice wood. My buddy has one and its got nice grain.

I put a GM 54 roundball barrel in my investarms hawkin and LOVE it. Great shooter, knocks em flat @ under 75 yards (so far) and is nice and long (better sighting immo).

Man, a 58 GM in a TC stock ought ot be a nice setup. Hogs beware!

This is all pretty interesting. I have a .58 custom shop renegade that does ok-ish with round balls but sucks balls with conicals in spite of the 1-48 twist ... same as a "Big Boar" I used to have with the same twist that shot them great. I've been thinking about keeping the .58 barrel for round ball use and picking up a faster twist .54 green mountain for the days I want to shoot conicals.

I wish GM offered a faster twist .58 ... I'd be on that like flies on stink.

It has a very nice piece of wood. I wish I could post pictures! Just as a side note, I started out at the range with a .015 cotton patch. Groups were around 3" at 50 yards. After 10 shots, I switched to the .018 pillow ticking patches and groups shrank down to one big hole. Big difference that .003 makes. I found some .020 pillow ticking, but I'd have to stand on the ramrod and jump up and down to seat them. Next time I go I'm going to try some T/C Maxi Hunters just for fun. not expecting much from a 1-70 twist, but you never know!

T_O_M - there have been a couple Big Boars on Gunbroker lately, bringing $600 - $700. Amazing. I tried for one, but it quickly went out of my price range. I think I like the double set triggers on the Renegade better anyway.

I like the double sets at the range, I'm not as fond of them when I'm hunting. I still hunt and that slows me down a lot. The "set" on my rifle is pretty good, but unset it is pretty nasty, 8 to 12 pounds I'd guess. I'd worked over the single trigger on my Big Boar so it was pretty decent, 2-1/2 pounds maybe, and smooth. I don't know if the double set is throwing me off or if I'm just getting more careful, but I can't get this double set's mechanism "nice" in the unset mode.

One other thing I preferred on the single trigger gun was the trigger guard. The old single trigger renegade and the "big boar" had a pretty smooth trigger guard. The double set trigger rifle has weird hooks 'n' such sticking out which are ok at the bench but snag a lot of stuff in the field. I'd like simpler and more focus on function, less on frippery.

Holy cats, man, that's a lot of money ... about double what I paid for mine.

Tom

The "unset" pull on my Renegade is not bad as it is. Probably about 4 pounds, but pretty crisp for a factory trigger. I like the set at the range though.

I don't understand the prices for the Big Boar, but I guess anything is worth what someone will pay for it at the time. If you've got one, now's the time to sell it.

I wish I still had mine. Other than that misfiring thing, which I understand and could fix, it was the best TC ML I ever owned.

For whatever reason, they are very popular and commanding big dollars right now. Seems like every time an auction for one ends, someone posts another "like new" one for sale. I've never had the opportunity to shoot one of the Big Boars, but I would like to very much. I understand that they were popular with moose and elk hunters, and probably with good reason. The ones I've seen for sale all had the same story - owner bought it, quickly found out that it was "too much gun" and stuck it in a closet. My .58 really doesn't kick much at all, but everyone has a different tolerence level.