LYMAN DEERSTALKER 50Cal. Whats my load?

[gregdaws]

Think I lucked out today. Picked up this Lyman percussion rifle in 50cal for $100 +taxes & shipping. Not sure what the bores like but figured I can't go wrong for the price. There's cleaning and then paper to kill in my future. Anyone here shoot a deerstalker? What are you loading with and what works best. I plan on shooting PRB but I am open to suggestions. Any advice appreciated. Thanks

 

[Bad Karma]

Maybe pick up a box of,.490 round balls and some .015 patch material or precut patches. I’m also a fan of .54 wool felt overpowder wads. 2f Swiss would be my first choice and I’d start with 60 grains, increasing 5 grains at a time until I saw something promising.
Btw, is it a 1-48 twist? Faster? Slower? You can shoot round ball from most any rifle but the faster twist barrel may need much lighter charges for optimal round ball accuracy. Conversely, slooooow twist barrels will most often return best accuracy with heavier charges. 1 in 48 is actually a,pretty versatile and useful rate of twist for .50-54 caliber rifles.

 

[deermanok]

Good deal for 100 bucks. 1/48 twist barrel I think. I'd say to get some .490 round balls. At least 2 different thickness of patches.
.015, and .018. Make sure they're 100% cotton. I lube my patches with good old spit or Crisco.
Start with about 70 grains of powder, 2f or 3f, whatever you can get. I think that about 80 grains would be the sweet spot.

 

[edmehlig]

Cecil Epp from PR bullets recommends
When I asked about my Deetstalker.

We shoot 300 Extreme Elite with 90 grains of fffg Goex in our 48 twist flintlocks.

 

[gregdaws]

So my $100 has been drilled for scope mounts. Does anyone have experience with scopes & sidelocks. I'm not a qualified gunsmith and I am very wary when people drill into barrels. I get that black powder pressures are lower than smokeless but does anyone here have their sidelock drilled and tapped for a scope?

 

[deermanok]

I presently have a rifle that was drilled and tapped for a scope. I bought it new and was factory done.
Not sure if yours was factory done or not but if it wasn't drilled all the way through the barrel then no problem.
If you mount a scope on a sidelock, you have to consider the scope placement. The eyepiece has to be forward or back far enough so that the hammer clears.

 

[gregdaws]

No scope for me, Lyman 575ML and 17AML if I can find them. I really like good old metal sights, buckhorn dosen't work for me because of my eyes but peeps are good though. I have a few rifles with scopes but the truth is I don't really shoot far enough out to need high end optics and I am not the worlds greatest marksman either. I know my limitations. Changing the subject I just picked up an old Winchester 69a with Lyman 57 & 17 sights. SO nice to shoot.

 

[deermanok]

These might be a good choice if you can find in stock somewhere.

 

[eekjellander]

View attachment 15533So my $100 has been drilled for scope mounts. Does anyone have experience with scopes & sidelocks. I'm not a qualified gunsmith and I am very wary when people drill into barrels. I get that black powder pressures are lower than smokeless but does anyone here have their sidelock drilled and tapped for a scope?

YUP I have a 54 I don"t have yet being done this week ,if you can"t see you can make noise but you will need a grocery store for meat/just sayin Ed

 

[Darktimber]

I shoot a .490 round ball and .015 ox yoke patch in mine with 70grs. Of 3f goex black powder. This load has taken 3 bucks and a truckload of does in the PA primitive arms season.

 

[Dwayne]

I have a deerstalker that is a flinter.
It is my number one goto gun on all occasions.

I shoot 100g of 2f that pushes a 325g REAL. Very accurate rifle. I shoot a 490 with .15 patch. Nice and tight with 75grains of 2f.

I bought mine years ago, and it is one heck of a rifle. Lightweight, easy to swing. If i remember right it had optic hard sights. I immediately took all fiber optic crap off of it. I do this with all my guns.

You cant go wrong with it. It even has some sling connectors, thus a lightweight sling works wonders with it.

 

[gregdaws]

So it arrived and at $140 U.S, taxes and shipping in I can`t complain. It looked a lot worse than it does in the pics but 0000wool and gun oil works wonders. The bore is brown and I am sure not great. With a bit of effort should be shootable (hopefully). If it turns out to be too bad then I would look at a replacement but all of the Lyman barrels seem to be Octagonal and I really like the octagonal to round. Any ideas where I could get a barrel made for this. I`d consider getting it bored out and reblued but I`m in Canada and don`t know of anyone who could do the work. Obviously I`m going to kill some paper 1st. Any ideas?

 

[deermanok]

I'd say to do the easy stuff first before you think about a new barrel.
Take the barrel off, plug the nipple as best you can, then fill the barrel with Evaporust.
Let it sit for about 5 or 6 hours.
Dump it out, then bore brush it and run a whole bunch of patches down. Later on you can smooth out any rough spots with cut strips of scotch brite pads.
You can also apply that Evaporust to the metal and it will take off the old bluing.
You could get a bottle of Birchwood Casey cold blue and redo the barrel yourself. It ain't hard to do.

 

[Waxxy]

Easy stuff first.... I like it.......

 

[MrTom]

Greg, round up some screw plugs for the open holes where the scope bases were so water or snow can't lay in them. A dip of Loctite will water proof them them so water doesn't seep in along the threads. Stop a problem before it starts so to speak.

That's a nice little rifle for the money. I bought a used one locally a few years ago that was in sort of tough shape and it cleaned up very nice on the outside and the barrel came around well with a little time and JB bore paste after running a bronze brush loaded with 4/0 steel wool down the barrel soaked with solvent a couple dozen times. I had one spot about two inches from the breech end that was rough but the powder charge kept everything important off that area when loaded and it shot very well. I used T7 fff and a Buffalo bullet, but of course the bullets are not longer made as far as I know but there are plenty of good lead bullets to shoot as well as sabots and pistol bullets.

Good luck with the new toy.

 

[gregdaws]

That's the method that I used for my Renogade except instead of the bronze brush I used a Jag, patch and 0000 wool lubricated with gun oil. That was Idaholewis's advice & it came up nice. Took a bit of doing though to get the Jag started & having a Tresco rod helped. I really like the feel of the Lyman & perhaps it's not such a bad idea to have a gun that shoots well but is a little rough around the edges. Thanks for the input.

 

[deermanok]

A rifle don't need to be a beauty queen. It just has to work good.

 

[gregdaws]

That's what I figure too. And, for what I paid I'm not complaining.

 

[Matthew323]

Worst case scenario is to send the barrel off to Bobby Hoyt if after scrubbing the bore fails to bring the barrel into acceptable accuracy. If the scope base holes were professionally done, then there should be enough steel left for a rebore out to .54 caliber. If not, and if you are willing to accept it, Bobby can do .52 caliber, which was one of the most popular bore sizes for Hawken rifles back in the 19th Century.

Ball moulds can be had to cast balls for .52 caliber bores, and one of our members had Tom at Accurate Molds create an Idaholewis I mold in .52 caliber.

https://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=52-450I

 

[Howie1968]

id start with 80 grains of syntheic black or real black powder oover the powder wonder wad some will use a .54 caliber in there 50 i just use a .50 wonder wad i love the hornady great plains .385 grains i never push them with more then 80 grains of pyrodex rs that combination works well in the 50s that i have