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Jerry Thompson

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hello my name is Jerry Thompson, I use to own a cva 50cal years ago but sold it in 1999. yea I know it was dumb.. lol but many moons later I decided to get back into black powder, and went out and bought a Thompson renegade, 54 cal. I went into a local gun pawn shop here I Boise Idaho looking for a .54 cal black powder. the first 3 I picked up were real pretty, but long and nose heavy. lot of brass, then I picked up the last one, oh man she was gorgeous. its a well balance rifle, i could hold it up with out the barrel drooping. one it is a renegade, two, my last name was stamped on it, (THOMPSON) and the big kicker was it was left handed. it was real dirty from build up in the barrel, the nipple was bad, the ram rod looked like grease smears, i fell in love with it, bought it, got it home and gave it a bath. lol took nipple out, took barrel off of the stock, used bore blaster cleaner down the barrel and in the nipple hole. ran the bore brush down it a few times, then gave it a real bath. bathtub and dawn dish soap. man did the bathtub go black. lol my wife gave me the look of death. but I'm still alive. haha. ran the bore brush a few more times till water was clear, took it out ran more cleaning patches down it till it was clean. put a light down the barrel and it was like a mirror down there.. clean... ran oil patches down to keep barrel from rusting, then I tackled the ram rod. from what I thought was a dirty wood ram rod turned out to be brass, and it shined like new. wow never have i seen one on a black powder. they were all wood on the ones I have ever seen.
now that i have got most of my supplies, now I have a few questions,
when i had the 50 cal I would target practice with 50 grains and hunt with 90 grains. now on the renegade 54 what would be a good start out grain for target, getting the feel of the gun, and what would be a good hunting load?

I'm kind of new, but I was told the only dumb question was the one that was never asked. and I'm always open minded to learn new ways on doing things.

and man are there many choices of balls out there.. maxi, mini sabots.. just to start. i bought the .530 ball from Hornady, and i see that i need to use a .010 patch. what is a safe load to start with? for target shooting?

and I'm also curious is there any members down here in Boise/Nampa Idaho? i would like to get with you and pick your brains sometime.

thanks again

Jerry Thompson
 
Welcome to the Modern Muzzleloader Forum Jerry :lewis: If you scroll down to the Sidelock Section there is LOTS N LOTS of info there about your .54 Cal Renegade, From Cleaning/Care, Sight Systems, to Powders & Projectiles.

I also have a YouTube Channel (Same name as Here) with a Good Bit of Shooting Different Bullets through the Stock 1:48 Twist .54 Cal TC Renegade, They can be VERY accurate when given the Correct Components.

Enjoy the Forum, and ask any Questions you may have :lewis:
 
Welcome from Oklahoma. I had a 54, years ago. If I can remember, I think I loaded up with about 80 or 90 grains of 2f Goex and a patched round ball.
 
Thanks for the info.. idaholewis i did check out some of your videos... i was like holy smokes.. on the big grain bullet.. i believe you said 600 grain? i watched it and seen the paper turn into a great BIG hole....lol. yes i am going to enjoy this hobby very well.. stay safe and most of all have fun..
 
I don't know about sidelocks, except what I read hear. But I am just around the corner, in Middleton, and like to hunt unit 33 & 35 with ml when I can draw.
 
Jerry, a lot of what you ask will be determined by barrel twist. My .50 cal T/C is a 48 twist and shoots just about everything well, but you gotta watch it a little. Like big league pitcher throwing a baseball, the more spin, the more it moves around that would be with a round ball. Longer, heavy bullets require more rpm’s to stabilize, which translates to higher muzzle velocities or faster twist rates on barrels, as a general rule, while shorter bullets like a few less RPM’s resulting in lower powder charges. If you really pay attention to Lewis’ videos, you’ll notice that, the shorter the bullet he’s shooting the lower the powder charge is apt to be.
My advice would be to hunt with the load you’ve practiced with. The difference in impact point on a certain projectile can be very large when varying the load by 40 grains of powder, but trigger time is trigger time, and you may find a hunting bullet that on top of 90 gns powder may shoot relatively similar to a plinking bullet on top of 60-80 gns. My .45 1:20 twist White shoots a 460 grain bullet atop 90 grains powder almost identical to a 385 grain bullet on top of 70 grains of powder out to 200 yards. So if I were just after trigger time, I would opt to shoot the lighter less expensive load, however, I would sight in for the hunting bullet and not change my sights for the lighter load. Just concentrate on getting decent groups and making good shots, the type where after the gun goes boom, you don’t find yourself saying, crap I pulled that shot.
Lewis is probably your best resource when it comes to traditional T/C rifles. He’s tried about everything out there and found a way to get excellent results.
 
Jerry, a lot of what you ask will be determined by barrel twist. My .50 cal T/C is a 48 twist and shoots just about everything well, but you gotta watch it a little. Like big league pitcher throwing a baseball, the more spin, the more it moves around that would be with a round ball. Longer, heavy bullets require more rpm’s to stabilize, which translates to higher muzzle velocities or faster twist rates on barrels, as a general rule, while shorter bullets like a few less RPM’s resulting in lower powder charges. If you really pay attention to Lewis’ videos, you’ll notice that, the shorter the bullet he’s shooting the lower the powder charge is apt to be.
My advice would be to hunt with the load you’ve practiced with. The difference in impact point on a certain projectile can be very large when varying the load by 40 grains of powder, but trigger time is trigger time, and you may find a hunting bullet that on top of 90 gns powder may shoot relatively similar to a plinking bullet on top of 60-80 gns. My .45 1:20 twist White shoots a 460 grain bullet atop 90 grains powder almost identical to a 385 grain bullet on top of 70 grains of powder out to 200 yards. So if I were just after trigger time, I would opt to shoot the lighter less expensive load, however, I would sight in for the hunting bullet and not change my sights for the lighter load. Just concentrate on getting decent groups and making good shots, the type where after the gun goes boom, you don’t find yourself saying, crap I pulled that shot.
Lewis is probably your best resource when it comes to traditional T/C rifles. He’s tried about everything out there and found a way to get excellent results.


i agree on that. im going out tomorrow to horseshoe bend with some friends to get the feel of the rifle, see what she does. and most of all to have some fun. thanks for the pointers. i am glad to have a place to where i can go and pick some brains for the questions i may come up with. thanks again
 

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