turkey gun

[mark hay]

mornin' TURKEYBUSTER
i picked up that little trick from SAM FADALA, in one of his books on MUZZLELOADING.
He claims that many ol' timers would put several layers of the hornet nest(the outside paper like shell of the nest) between the powder and the patched ball to prevent the powder nearest the patch from being rendered useless by the LUBE. Now in the event that the rifle is loaded for target this practice is not necessary , with exception to my rifle. i have a Lyman 50 cal. plains rifle that will consistently shoot smaller groups if i put some nest or a folded dry patch between powder and ball. i've experimented with .490 & .495 balls and the .495 is the size my bore prefers. my tests were also done with 2 different patches of .010 and .015 pillow tick.
I'm sure my rifle is capable of smaller groups when being fired by someone with a steady hand and YOUNGER EYES. for target I need a quality PEEP SIGHT and a bright sunny day with the sun behind me.but for hunting , with this rifle , i'll stay with the wider sights.
braggin' rights,,,, best shot to date ,,,,2005; 80 yards; aimed for the heart and hit it; 2 yr old buck. 
 thanks for askin'             m. hay

[allaboutshooting]

Hey Mark,

I decided that I'd clean up that old Topper and as soon as the weather clears up, I'll see what kind of "modern" loads it likes.

It's still very tight but apparently the last time(s) I shot it, I did not clean the bore, so I'll spend some time on that.

I think it might be a lot of fun to become reacquainted with the old gun and take it to the turkey woods this spring.

Thanks,
Clark

[grizzly]

after shooting just about every load thinkable threw my topper i fond that remington nitro pheasant patterns the best believe or not. that's 6 shot in a full choke it's a 20 gauge

[allaboutshooting]

Hey Wayne,

Thanks. I'll add that shell to my list.

Thanks again,
Clark

[Turkeybuster]

HI MARK
 
That makes sense to me now all I need is a HORNETS NEST!
I know where there is one saw it the other week while rifle hunting and will be in the same area
Flintlock hunting on Friday.
I use basically the same load you do in your flinter only I use 2f in the gun and 4f in the pan.
90gr. patched ball tried some 3f though and it seemed to work good for me also.
Nice shot on the buck you definately have bragging rights on that one!
 
Turkeybuster