My new .45 Cal Rice Barrel, and a new personal best Shoot with OPEN/PEEP Sights & Muzzleloader I fell in love with my 1-24 Twist .50 Cal Rice Barrel, And of course my 1:20 Twist Rice as well. In short, My Rice Barrels are my TOP DOGS 👍 I ended up ordering a .45 Cal in 1:17 Twist to go with them, A dedicated “Long Ranger“ The Barrel Showed up Friday Morning, I installed a Lee Shaver adjustable front sight, And fitted the Barrel in the same TC Hawken Stock that the 1:24 Twist .50 Cal Rice Rests in. I group shot it Saturday Morning with 2 of Favorite Long Range .45 Cal Bullets, Both BACO Ellipticals (Paper Patch, and Grease Groove) Both bullets Shot AWESOME, about 3/4 to 1” at 100 Yards. I loaded up Monday morning and headed for 1,200 Yards



The Video


After getting everything setup the Fog Rolled in and had me at a “Stand Stil“ I waited for nearly 2 Hours, it finally lifted and turned out to be a really nice Day






The Bullet i chose for this outing was my BACO .453 Elliptical, Lubed with my “Modified“ Bullshop’s NASA Lube


Barrel stil in the White, Has a total of 8 Shots fired through it at this Point (From Sighting in at 100 Yards Saturday Morning) It’s 9th Shot was at 1,200 Yards 👍


After the Shoot i came home and Cleaned the Barrel Good, Removed the Front Sight, Under Rib & Thimbles For Engraving & Hot Blueing, I just now got back with it from Engraving, Pictures aren’t the Best here and do it NO Justice, Engraving turned out AMAZING 👍 The Barrel goes for Hot Blueing in the Morning


With it‘s 1:17 Twist This is a TRUE “HOTROD Hawken“ 🙂 I decided to Name it “Eleanor” for the Shelby GT500 from the Movie “Gone in 60 Seconds”






And lastly, Here are the 2 Bullets from Both Shots in the Video above, The bullet on the left is the Shot that hit Left, it was Damaged badly on the underside from a Rock, and the Bullet on the Right is the one that Hit the Steel Plate, If anyone thinks that these BIG Lead Bullets have NOTHING left on them at 1,200 Yards, You better Re-think that 🙂 BIG Lead continues to be BAD @SS Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay Out there, Smashed Flat as a Razor, That is the Bullet Base you see, even the Sprue Cut 🙂

good stuff

Thank you, I enjoy doing this stuff 👍

Hell of a job IL, and yes great fun, you do have to make a video and show some, they wont believe it just by telling them!

Did you ever sell that big Navy 58 cal Hawken?

you are driving me crazy with your location pictures! the rest of the pictures just get me itching to burn some black!

Thank you, This Long Range Shooting with Sidelock ML’s and Open/Peep sights is true a passion of mine, I live for & love the Challenge 👍

I did end up selling the Big 58 Cal Navy Arms Hawken Hunter, It went to a Guy in Oregon

This is up toward Priest Lake, Just across the Mountains from you, I do most all of my Longer Range Shooting up that way. The State is Hell bent on Logging every Square inch of State Land here, It looks like Crap, but opens up the Country. It is EXTREMELY tough to find 1000 Yards and Beyond here in this Thick Timbered/Brushy Country

Dang....

That's some shootin'.

Awesome shooting buddy. That is seriously neat stuff.

gunner he has some you tube vids. out . good stuff for shore I enjoy them

Wow, very impressive.

Thanks everyone, These Old Sidelock Muzzleloaders are EXTREMELY Capable, and then Some 👍 Even the Stock 1:48 Twist, just the way they came from TC Years ago, I have some Videos out of Testing the Stock 1:48 Twist in .50 & .54 Cal, TC Renegades/Hawkens, In short, They shot about as good, and in many cases EVERY BIT as good as my dedicated Bullet Barrels (Fast Twist) The MAJOR key to success is Feeding them the Right Components, And obviously doing your Part as the Shooter

And obviously doing your Part as the Shooter Quote.

this is the part i have trouble with!. my neighbor heard me banging away yesterday. i sold him a 54 hawken mid winter and he hadn't fired it yet.
he came up and i set up 3 of those splash targets on a 3x3 foot cardboard.
i took the left, he took the right 2. after a dozen rounds his were all yellow. mine was still black. i loaded up his rifle with a buffalo bullet co ball-et and let him shoot it.
at my target.
bulls eye. told him to go home. he left petting his "New best toy". i burned the targets.

he is younger! thats my story and i'm sticking to it!

Another great video.
You know those guns aren't accurate to a 100 yards don't you?
Know ya know why a patch worm is always part of the basic kit.

10-4 on the Big 58, and yes, naked eye, iron sights, good light, black powder, big hunks of lead at pedestrian velocities, these are the real challenges in marksmanship for me too, a good bolt gun with range finder 22X scope and a weather station are fun too, but entirely different in the challenge, for example, i held near 8 feet into a quesstimated full value 12-15 mph East wind shooting dew North with an old 152 year old buffalo rifle to hit a 3x3 foot steel gong at 700 yards, the front sight completely off the gong but seeing it in peripheral to keep the front sight level with it's center, bullet landed a foot right and a foot high, that's okay, still a dead Buffalo ; ] it's simply a blast!

Thanks 44, our buddy Pacecars posted those up for us.

This is just a small sample of what the old Sharps rifles are capable of. I was testing a 720 gr. paper patch bullet several years back and I fired these ten rounds from 1000 yards. If you look closely you'll see an inner 20"diameter steel plate inside the overall black bull which is the size of the ten ring. I was testing this load of 116 grains KIK 2F strictly for vertical dispersion. Had I taken just a little left wind the entire ten shots would have been inside the ten ring plate. The overall vertical spread was a mere 8"!

1000 yards 50/90 PP by .com/photos/61286670@N08/]Sharps Man, on [bleep]

Interesting to study the base of the projie on the right and see what is really going on in the base of a cast projie.

I really enjoy these videos.

NO place like that to shoot around here.

That's some great shooting and I definitely need to check out the videos. I've shot Sharps rifles for years but the long range muzzleloader game has intrigued for some time now. I recently bought a Pedersoli Gibbs rifle and have been rounding up molds and other supplies to get ready to shoot it. Obviously a lot to learn to be proficient with these rifles.

JG to me he is a guy that you would like to hang out with .no bragging or bs just a good all around guy is my take of him

^^^^^^^^^^^I feel the same way 44, around a real fire with us here, i'd bet some good drink, smoke, and 50lbs of pork loin would disappear from the grill post haste, as well as enough good natured fertilizer flung to keep us all in tomatoes for the rest of our lives.

It would be neat if you'd make you a false muzzle for loading the bullet! Order the barrel about 4" longer, cut 4" off and use that for the FM. Getting the bullet perfectly aligned with the bore is highly important.

Dang - wish I'd seen his videos before I spent all that money on Pedersoli rifles (bought 3 in the last couple months). Sounds like all I needed was a Rice .451 barrel for my Lyman GPR!

That sounds like a grand idea!

This is a good thread . I watch Idaho on YT and it is freakin awesome what He does.

Dang that's cool. Did you have much issue with the mirage or was it just more noticeable on camera?

That seems like the “easy way”, if there is one, except for one’s wallet!

I don’t think you’ll regret what you spent on any of them, once the initial shock has worn off. They make really nice stuff and there’s a reason why they continue to win medals in competition.

Whose manufacturer rear sight do you have on your T/C .45 Hawkin?

Very ...very impressive shooting by the way.