Lyman great plains rifle (54 caliber)

You have an excellent rifle of excellent quality.
Read this. All of it.
http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/muzzle-loaders/pdfs/lyc-ml-general.pdf


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

LOVE mine, great quality and style. Try about 80 grains of 2f with a .530 round ball.

Great rifle from a great company. A Lyman, regardless if its a revolver, pistol or a rifle like yours, is worth cherishing. Shoot, clean and repeat as often as necessary, she's built to take it.

And good luck!!

Plains rifles are style of rifle developed to meet the need of trappers and hunters venturing out onto the high plains and mountains of this country in the 1820s.

They needed a rifle capable of being carried on a horse. It needed to be large caliber and capable of shooting heavy loads to deal with Buffalo, Elk, and Grizzly Bears. Most were un-decorated and had solid, heavy half stocks, as opposed to the delicate full stock Pennsylvania and Kentucky rifles.

The eastern style long rifle didn't work out west.

The Hawken rifle was one of many developed to meet this need and the Lyman Great Plains rifle is a valid representative of that style of gun.

I have taken antelope, mule deer, and elk with this 54 cal. reproduction of the Medina Hawken. You have one fine hunting rifle with the LGPR.

The LGPR is as close to a mass produced custom plains rifle as you can get.

Good shootin'

Lyman Rifles are made with one of two barrels, the twist rate of the rifleing is diffrent in each. One barrel will shoot Patched Round Ball (PRB) best and the other will shoot a cast bullet better so do as your friend said and shoot the PRB as he should know, and you might ask him if the rifle likes a .530 or a .535 round ball as it could make a diffrence. Jim

I just echo what has already been said. Sage advice from all of the above.
LGPR is one of, if not the best, reproduction of a true mountain man's rifle.

My .54 rifle shoots well with a .530 round ball and .015 patch. 70-90gr 3f of black.
Best wishes pilgrim.

For an across the counter mass produced rifle, they rate pretty high as to quality and accuracy. At 100 yards and under, (closer is better) the .54 RB will kill most any big game in North America. For a patched RB I would start with 80 grains of 2f BP then go +/- to suit. Knowing very little about them, I will let others address the modern wannabe powders. Wet spit patching is OK for quick repeated shots at paper etc., but oiled/greased patches for extended times between shots as for hunting & etc..

Water cleanup is a necessity for BP, one can spend $ for bottled mixes, and they will work almost as good as plain h2o.

just take good care of your squa.......I mean mrs.cpt-t. lol
As far as being new to black powder shooting:
If you like fumbling around with old guns, cleaning much, shooting less....
If you like making your own homemade gear....
If you enjoy history....
If you are cheap...
If you actually enjoy stalking your game to within shooting range instead of sniping at animals from 1/4 mile plus....
If you like to hunt with/shoot inferior weapons....
If you feel the need to pack a purse full of shooting gear...
If you like to wear animal skins on your head or shoulders...
If someone says lock, stock and barrel...you actually know which lock, stock, and barrel is best....
If you feel the need to start a fire with flint and steel and an old birdnest...
If you have difficulty throwing away scraps of wood or bone or antler that could be used as knife scales.....
If you think carrying a pound of highly explosive powder in a highly frangeable cow's horn right over your liver is acceptable....
If you like to buy shirts made of tightly woven cotton of about .015" thickness....
If you like fringe...
If you would rather sleep in a tipi than a 5-star hotel......
If you prefer to make your balls and your coffee over an open fire....
If you would rather wait until the smoke clears to see if you actually hit your target....
If you like to drink water from a gourd or whiskey from a flask.....
----Then you may join us---
If you dont enjoy ANY of the above listed items.....
Just box up that Plains Rifle and send it to me or any of the above posters and save yourself some grief. Any of us would be happy to adopt your rifle.

I surely forgot some things, but that's a rough outline of a b/p addict.

I wholeheartedly agree KB!! That's us in a nutshell!

As Kbailey said, It can lead to this.





It's a terrible addiction.

My Lord Iggy....
I sure wisht I coulda joined you guys for those. Looks like shinin' times to me! Do they still continue with those rendy's ? I was lucky enough to stumble into a club gathering at West Yellowstone once. Just one time I'd like to be at a Rendy at the original "hallowed ground" site.
Tham
Thasnks for posting those pics brother, I am getting the fever again.
I almost bought a really nice meadow next to a medium sized stream, perfect place for a rendezvous, but I had already bought some expensive farmland...and I had to let it go. I had dreams of hosting a rendezvous there, complete with a canoeable stream. oh well, maybe next time.

.
Lyman's Great Plains is capable of superb accuracy:

50 Yard:


Unless something's changed it has a 1-60 twist which is perfect for 54 patched-ball.

As you can see it likes 0.535" balls (self-cast or commercially-swaged) along with 0.018-20 pillow-ticking. Lube is up to you but I recommend 7:1 water:NAPA cutting oil -- or plain ol' spit.

If your eyes are good, shoot w/ the stock sights. If not (like me) install a Lyman 57GPR aperture (gun's already drilled & tapped)
http://www.buffaloarms.com/Lyman_Receiver_Sights_it-160901.aspx?CAT=4070

kkbailey,
That was the national ronyvoo held up on Togwotee Pass t'ween Davy Jackson's Hole and Coulter's Hell back in 1980 or so.

Don't know if they still do the nationals thing or not.

I held a few little ronnyvoos out on the ranch, but that was 20 years ago.

My horse packin' and tipi creepin' days has about run out.

Here's a little readin' material.

http://home.bresnan.net/~buflerchip/iggystory.html

Now back to Lyman Plains rifles.

Iggy said:

As Kbailey said, It can lead to this.





It's a terrible addiction.

Click to expand...

And this.

http://hstrial-rchambers.homestead.com/untitled1.html

http://hstrial-rchambers.homestead.com/Index.html

I took the time to see Iggys attachments. Yours too palehorseman. That stuff is right down my alley boys. I was in the horse ridin business right up til a couple years ago when I had to put three good'uns down. I haven't got back in. My sis still has a barn full just a mile away. She has ridin mules though. Travels all over showin em too. Was in Denver at natl stockman not long ago.
I still have my good saddle. If either of you ol boys need a trail pard.

Yup.........back in '91 I qualified as NRA Marksman on a Lyman Great Plains Rifle .45cal ....it was a good accurate rifle back then.

Congratulations! While not a dead-on Hawken repro, it's way more Hawken-like than most other 'Hawkens,' for sure. I've never seen a Great Plains that wouldn't shoot center.

Palehorseman,

Enjoyed your picture pages. We were at Kalispell too. Shinin' times they was!!

cpt-t

As you can see, you are skirting on dangerous territory. Dinna let that LGPR rifle drag you in. I'm sure we all got started with the rifle, then readin' about the old boys that carried them sucks you in.
You'll find the rifle and fixin's is just the start and the cheap part too.

http://home.bresnan.net/~buflerchip/itchysname.htm

This was 40 years ago, but you can see where a simple rifle can lead you.

I think I am going enjoy shooting with this Black Power Crowd.

Click to expand...

Its powder brother.
dont forget the "d"
It's something else entirely without it.

LOL
Welcome

It's too late!!! He's doomed!!!

Ask away, Skinners are known for havin' all the answers.
If they don't have one, they'll think one up.

It has been sed that Ol Iggy would tell you a story three differn't ways afore he'd tell you a lie.

I built a GPR about year or so ago, believe me it is one beautiful specimen of a rifle, now all ya got to do is take it out and shoot it, then it's just a short time thereafter and you'll be addicted to the "holy black" and become a "sootlord" .

Myself, I've been in it for over 40+ years, although lately I do prefer the Flintlock over the percussion.