Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders 54 cal

Anyone hunt with 54 cal muzzleloader? What game do you hunt with it?

Deer (whitetail). I find it much more forgiving of different projectiles/loads than my .50's, but it just may be that particular rifle. It is a Cabela's Traditional Hawken - left hand. Usually shoot a 250gr. XTP over 100gr. 777, lit by a musket cap. It also shoots Great Plains 425gr. very well.

i like mine over the 50 cal because it bigger

I use 54 caliber cap lock rifles to hunt whitetail deer. My T/C Renegade gets the most use. I also use black powder and PBRs instead of any sort of conical or sabot bullet and BP substitute powder. The 54 works well.

I have a 700ML, Cabelas Hawken flinter, and a Great Plains rifle all in 54cal. I've killed elk and deer with them. For elk I use either a 348gr PB with 110gr of Pyrodex Select in the 700ML or a 405gr PB from the other two. It all works well and I have no complaints. The only issue is with components. I usually have to order bullets as no local stores carry 54cal stuff.

RH

I like the .54's, too. I do find they perform better with real BP and PRB's rather than beer in the barrel, though .

I prefer the .54 ..... Mine is a Lyman Plains rifle with a custom barrel on it...It is a decent killer of deer and elk.

Would 54 work on brown bear also?

Narrow Escape

One of their most harrowing experiences with a grizzly occurred on May 15, 1805, between the Milk and Musselshell rivers. Clark wrote:

'Six good hunters of the party fired at a Brown or Yellow Bear Several times before they killed him, & indeed he had like to have defeated the whole party, he pursued them Seperately as they fired on him, and was near Cattching Several of them one he pursued into the river, this bear was large & fat would way about 500 wt'

Lewis described the climax of the incident:

'The pursued two of them seperately so close that they were obliged to throw aside their guns and poucnes and throw themselves into the river altho' the bank was nearly twenty feet perpendicular; so enraged was this animal that he plunged into the river only a few feet behind the second man he had compelled to take refuge in the water, when one of those who still remained on shore shot him through the head and finally killed him'

When they butchered the animal, they found that a total of eight rifle balls had passed through him in different directions.

This account was from the Lewis and Clark Expedition

My main muzzleloader is a T/C 54 cal Hawken. A 425 gr Hornady Great Plains Bullet and 110 grs of Pyrodex RS works great on deer.

I also have a T/C 50 cal Renegade. A 385 gr Hornady Great Plains Bullet and 90 grs of Pyrodex RS work he same.

Four years ago I switched to a .54 after using a .50 for 15 years.My .54 is a T/C New Englander.I use round ball and either 80 grains of black powder or RS(pistol) Pyrodex.This is a very accurate rifle and a very accurate load.I do not use optics and with stock iron sights it shoots to point of aim at up to 100 yards.

Stan in SC

my main go to rifle is a custom 54 cal Flintlock Carolina gun made by H House back in the early 1970's . it has taken many Elk , Mule deer and black bear . i stopped hunting center fire in 1982??? somewhere there about and went strictly to muzzleloaders.
I did not go out looking for a 54 but when I came across the 54 by that maker , I bought it . I would have bought it no mater what .
Prior to the 54 I had a 50 cal . I killed more then a few elk and mule deer with it as well
I also have a 62 cal and a 69 .
I have taken elk with the 62 but I have yet to take the 69 out for big game .
I predominantly hunt only with PRB but I do use a conical for a couple of the areas I hunt in .

As to the Lewis and Clark journals . Im not sure what the point here is .
Much of the L&C issues were simply because they had little experience with these animals
There are a couple entries about buffalo as well .
Also Clark took elk with if I recall a 36 cal rifle .

But even today folks have trouble with REAL bears even when using magnum center fire rounds .

I forget right now what book its in but there is a grizzly bear that was taken that had �im thinking it was 6� old bullet wounds to the head and it still survived.
I remember I found it very interesting because it had something like 2 musket balls embedded in the skull , 2 or 3 pistol bullets in the bone of the roof of its mouth . Was missing part of its lower jaw as well as the bone around one eye .
I want to say it was taken in northern Canada or Alaska somewhere
Past all that , I have seen bull elk take repeated huts from 300 Weatherly�s and keep right on trucking

I do like my 54 though . It does the job well

I guess the deep down question every muzzleload hunter has to ask themselves...Am I confident enough to take out after an brown with my 54 cal? I have two 54's. A CVA panther and a T/C Black Mnt. Although I am confident they will overhaul any BG animal in North America, I would not actively persue, brown bears with either of them.
It's not getting off the first shot and delievering a mortal wound, it's just if the mortal wound isn't instantanous enough could I reload fast enough under the possible threat of having my head ripped off and being disembowled?
Now in saying that, if I was elk hunting with either gun and a dire self preservation situtation presented itself between me and a brown bear, then I would shoot the gun. And that situtation has happened to BG hunters no matter what equipment they were carrying.
A 300 win mag may or may not take out a brown on the first round, but it comes down to the speed in which you may have to deliever a 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th round.
I think clark was able to do a one shot drop on an old grizzly bear sow one time, but more often then not it was multiple firepower and men being able to reload on the run.
Just saying...

I have a 54 in a Lyman Great Plains percussion. It works well for Elk.and will work for smaller game as well. I also have a custom built 45 JP Beck Flinter built by Tim Mitchell that will and has killed as much deer as the 54 has. SO you need to really evaluate what you want to hunt with it and how much you want to spend for supplies versus what you would spend with a smaller caliber.

'54 in a Lyman Great Plains percussion'. Not to start an arguement but that 54 Lyman, is a super awesome traditional gun. I will not discuss my orignal from the factory 1-28 twist black mnt. It is devestation against the broadside of a barn, yet any target smaller, good luck. Yet that little cva carbine in a 54 has flat out slayed every whitetail it was pointed at, with giant gapping hatchet wounds straight through from 20 to 100 yards. cva makes those lead deer slayer bullets that just for whatever reason work perfect in my lil cva 54 cal. Seeing big whitetailed deer knocked off all four hooves being hit by a 54 cal freight train is quite unique. Excellent caliber.=!

Thanks guys

I can find no reason to hunt with a .50 cal over a .54 .