Yard sale find

[flipajig]

Me and my wife were hitting the yard sales this weekend and I was able to pick up a CVA Hawkn 50 cal made in spain rifle
It came with around 100 round balls size .535 about 1 lb of Triple 7 and about 200 size 11 caps
All this for $60.00
Now what would be a good starting point for a powder charge
The rifle has been taken care of and is in good shape
Any help I would appreciate

 

[4v50 Gary]

Wow!

 

[arcticap]

Now what would be a good starting point for a powder charge

A good low starting point for working up a target load for shooting at 50 yards is one grain of powder equal to the caliber which is 50 grains of powder.

A powder charge equal to 1.5 times the bore size may be closer to a hunting load or longer distance target load which would be 75 grains of powder.

Increase the charge in 5-10 increments until you're happy with the performance at the chosen distance.

Find a load that's comfortable and accurate to shoot and potent enough for the intended purpose, whether that's for target, hunting or plinking.

The maximum load is usually about 100 grains of ffg, or 90 grains of fffg or Pyrodex P.
If using 777 powder, load 15% less volume to equal any other load of black powder or sub powder.

Here's a PDF copy of the CVA Sidelock owner's manual:

http://stevespages.com/pdf/cva_sidelock.pdf

 

[MutinousDoug]

First of all, I would try to find some .495 or .490 dia balls to shoot in my 50 cal Hawkn. Then Id start at 50-60 grains of triple 7 or less If I was just shooting paper.

 

[frontiergander]

.535" = 54cal Might be a TIGHT fit LOL

.490 round ball - .015" - .018" patches and anywhere from 70 to 90gr Pyrodex RS will get it done. Triple 7 will burn up your patches and give you poor accuracy unless you use a filler wad on top of the powder charge to protect the patch.

 

[Cult of 1858]

Nice find!

 

[Jaymo]

Total POS, you should send it to me, post haste, for disposal.
I'll save you from the super-addictive BP shooting.

Seriously, nice find. Congrats. I like when shooters find the good deals, and not the pawn shops.
Are you sure it's a .50 and not .54 cal rifle?
I'm not doubting you. I just find it odd that the previous owner would have the wrong sized balls for it.
Who knows?
Have fun.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

That is a Winner all the way! Congrads!

 

[flipajig]

It is a 50 cal. The previous owner had a 54 cal also and I was not familiar with what the bullet size was. The man was a compleat gun nut I mean he had more gun stuff than I would ever have and I have a lot. I used to shoot BP
And got away from it (other interests in shooting)I just love the shooting sports
Thanks for the help.

 

[Jaymo]

You made out just fine.
I forgot what else I was going to say.

 

[dprice3844444]

get yourself some 45lc 255 lead heads and plastic sabots

 

[longrifle346]

Yep, that's the ticket! Make everything more modern! Forget tradition! Then you can spend another hour cleaning plastic out of a bore designed primarily for a patched roundball after each range session.

I don't understand the need to reinvent the wheel. People have used a PRB to hunt and successfully harvest virtually every game animal on the planet. What more does it take for folks to understand the effectiveness of a large bore-sized hunk of lead traveling at high speed? But hey, let's wrap a smaller piece of lead in plastic and use that instead because they kill better???...NOT.

 

[Pancho]

I'm all for experimenting but I've got to agree with Longrifle. Shooting sabots in a sidelock is not something I would do because you can't really inspect the bore when you are cleaning it.