My Handmade Muzzle Loader

[58limited]

I visited my aunt and uncle's ranch and I shot the rifle this weekend. My uncle has a single lane 100 yard shooting range that he uses to sight in his deer rifles. I fired two shots with a patched .495 round ball and 70 grains of Swiss 1 1/2 Fg powder. The shots were high but touched each other. My third shot was with a 275 grain mini ball and 60 grains of Swiss 1 1/2 Fg. It is the shot in the X-ring. Too bad deer season is over...

 

[44-henry]

It is a nice rifle, but the lock looks like a Siler which weren't around in the 50's.

 

[58limited]

I asked Ray about the lock - he said he replaced the lock sometime in the past. He originally built this as a flintlock.

I also mentioned to Ray that the round balls shot about 8" high. Turns out that he lines the front blade up with the bottom of the rear sight notch, I was lining it up flush with the top of the rear sight. Note to self: for round balls put front blade at bottom of rear notch, for mini balls put the blade flush with the top

 

[4v50 Gary]

What a rare bird. To have a hand rifled barrel. Wow!