50 cal Muzzle Loader Rifle

Muzzleloading rifles are a different kind of fun. It is true that I got one because of the local laws, but I definitely have caught an ML bug since.

Warning: Proceed with caution, follow manufacturer recommendation as it is possible to blow up your rifle (hands and face) with an incorrect bullet and powder selection. For example, too little powder with too big of a bullet can create a lot of pressure. Generally, the "magnum" rated rifles should not take more than 120 grains of loose black powder or 150 grains of pellets -- there is no need for more as the powder will have no time to burn. There is a very small chance of harm by overcharging with black powder substitute. The projectile, however, has to sit tightly on the black powder load there should be no air space gap (however pellets have an empty core, so no need for the paranoia).
Smokeless should not be used in the muzzleloaders because the smokeless powder should not be compressed.  In addition keep in mind that most of the modern smokeless loads take 15 (cowboy) to 60 grains (in 30-06 max) of powder in comparison to 70 grains of black powder in 45-70, the 7.62x54R has 64 grains capacity so substituting powders would blow up the gun.

It is an interesting question how the above apply in the case of CVA Optima breech plug for the loose Blackhorn 209 powder as it is possible to put black powder in without compressing it. I did not try it and I do not recommend doing so, but a small amount of TrailBoss, without compression should not harm the rifle. Do not try it.

Powder: You can load your muzzleloader with a "gallery puff" load of few grains of black powder substitute, 30-grain rabbit loads, 80-grain deer loads, up to 150 grains magnum load. The 50 grains is usually listed as the minimum starting load, so use your own judgment.

You could achieve such a variety if you hand load 45-70 Gov, but realistically most people do a single "sweet spot" deer loads.

By comparison, the most popular "Western" load was 40-40, with 40 grains of black powder. The 32-20 is a small game load using 20 grains of black powder. The "buffalo" round used to be 45-70 gov with 70 grains of black powder.

Projectile: You can use 177 round lead ball (50-caliber), 250-grain copper sabot (45-caliber), all the way to 400+ solid-lead muse loads. The selection of the projectile will be dictated by the rifling twist rate:
- 1:30 is fast for magnum hunting with sabots
- 1:50 is medium for versatility
- 1:70 is slow for lead balls

I use 1:28 and I enjoy plinking with round balls, shooting lead slugs and modern aerodynamic bullets this rifle was designed for.

Recently, I have been shooting 150, 100, 50 and 30-grain loads one after the other and decided that I need more "scientific" approach to "zeroing" and shooting a variety of loads.

The problem is that once you "zero" your rifle scope to the bore, all these loads will shoot differently, above or below the target.

Distance: Most of my shooting happens in the woodland, with 75 yards of maximum distance. Occasionally, however, I venture to the openings where I should know my ballistics up to 200 yards.
The fields are often 250-400 yards wide, but at that distance, I would recommend 308, 30-06, 270 Winchester, 7mmRemMag, 6.5 Grendel, or some other flat shooting rifle.

Target: I am interested in the vital area of about 3-inch in diameter (a 6-inch circle).

The math: I have looked up the ballistic coefficients (BC) of the projectiles I will shoot and their muzzle velocity, the BC is somewhat "black magic" estimate that is often inflated by the manufacturer.

- .50 caliber round ball 177 grain has .070 BC
- .50 caliber 250gr AeroLite Powerbelts have .174 BC
- .50 caliber Remmington 250 grain sabot (.451 cal) has .210 BC
- .50 caliber 270gr Platinum Powerbelts have .220 BC (1616fps/100gr, 2000fps/150gr)

Be aware that the speed of the bullet is influenced by:

- the fit of a projectile to barrel (or round ball patch thickness)

- the length of the barrel (longer is better)

- the powder burn rate (WhiteHots are faster)

- the weather (temperature and pressure, hot weather higher pressure)

- the elevation (air thickness, higher you go - less resistance)

I had to look up the velocities as I shot thru my Chrony and I did not get to replace it. I had to generalize them, otherwise, the exercise gets exponentially more difficult:

- 50 grains of powder - 1500 fps

- 80 grains of powder - 1600 fps

- 100 grains of powder - 1750 fps

- 150 grains of powder - 2050 fps

From there, I was able to calculate the estimated trajectory (quadratic function, yeah nerdy):

- yellow for round ball
- blue for 100 grains of black powder with 250-grain bullet
- red for 150-grains of black powder with the 250-grain bullet
- gray for 150 grains of black powder with 270-grain bullet

in the future, I will add lead slugs such as T/C maxi-hunter and Great Plains.

After some try-and-error, I concluded that if I set zero at 50 yards to be about 2 inches high, my "Maximum Point Blank Range" or MPBR will be correct for MOST possible load combinations.

In other words, with zero set at about 20-yards, or 2 inches high at 50 I can shoot my rifle without scope adjustments, or "holding off" the elevation.

Depending on the load my MAXIMUM MPBR distance would be:
- 110 yards for round lead ball over 80-100 grains
- 160 yards for 250-grain bullet over 100 grains
- 180 yards for 250+ grain bullet over 150 grains

Furthermore, if I hold 6-12 inches high, my range goes up to 150, 210 and 240 yards, respectively, for the metal gong shooting.

Your mileage will vary, if you have questions, please comment.

Lever Action Rifle Calibers

Recently, I have been thinking about a new lever-action rifle. The appeal of these late 1800 models is that they are great, very light (5lbs) for backpacking and pack enough punch for anything you need in the woods/bush. Lever action rifles, comparing to heavy (~8.5lbs) bolt action calibers (.30-06, 7.62x54R) we normally shoot are far more maneuverable in the thicket and honestly safer with the heavy animals like a boar, elk or moose because of their  10+1 capacity and rapid fire ability.

I have been thinking about the caliber I would like to pick up, here are the options I considered. Please be aware that I reload my ammo and I am not planning to pay $2 per round of Buffalo Bore. Also, I don't like revolvers so there is no appeal for me of carrying a matching hand piece, I like my 1911 .45 ACP just fine for "personal" defense.

• .38 Special / .357 Magnum - while it would be a great caliber for fun plinking and smaller game and home-defense I decided that I need to rule it out because it is definitely not a boar caliber, an important criterium for me.
• .44-40 Winchester - this is the grandpa of all lever-action cartridges and while it is plenty powerful and honestly cool, it is not recommended as a boar load.
• .44 Special / .44 Magnum - this combination is easy to buy (or reload) with many options available (305gr.@1,325fps/1,189ft-lbs.). The .44 Special is a great round for plinking and self defense, .44 magnum is designed for hunting and it is a good boar load (deer and everything else smaller).  I have a feeling that this combination is the best for lever action rifle. 
• .45 Colt - honestly I wanted this one the most, especially that I already reload .45 ACP which share similar tooling. The .45 Colt while most of the time weak, can have very powerful +P options from DoubleTap (335 gr.,1605 fps, 1916 ft. lbs. in 16 inch barrel).
• .454 Casull caliber that does all that .44 and .45 Colt can, but on average has much more power (360gr.@1,425fps/1,623ft-lbs.), the cartridge is still SHORT enough in length so you can carry many of them. What is most important you can shoot .45 Colt out of .454 Casull chambering rifle, all you have to do is clean the chamber after you do to wipe the carbon deposits before you use .454 round again. I would have to make some extra-light loads (250 gr. & TrailBoss@1,100fps) for it for plinking and I would have the LIGHT, MEDIUM and HEAVLY rifle in one package. This way I can shoot regular load .45 Colt for 80% of my needs and have .454 for boar hunting and for the Yukon/Alaska trip I dream about.
• .45-70 Government - It is definitely plenty of gun (430gr.@1,925fps/3,537ft-lbs.) for ALL dangerous animals in the back country (boar, bear, moose, bison, mountain lion). The problem with this round is that it is HUGE and takes the valuable space in the magazine tube of the rifle
• .30-30 - This is a great and proven lever action rifle cartridge, but similarly to .45-70 I feel that it is too long and takes too much space. 

Rifle Models I like in order of my preference:

• .454 Casul R92 Carbine Lever Action Rifle, 16" Round Barrel, LOA 34", 4.8 lbs, 8+1 tubular magazine, $742.20, 0 available, #R92-68016
• .454 Casull Rossi R92 Blue Lever Action Rifle, 20" Round Barrel, LOA 37.5", 10+1 tubular magazine, $665 - 0 available #R92-68001 
• .45 Colt R92 Large Loop Lever Action Rifle, 4.8 lbs, 16" Round Barrel, Blue, LOA 34", Saddle Ring, 8+1 tubular magazine, $635.08, 7 available, #R92-57006
• .45 Colt, 16" Round Barrel, 8+1 tubular magazine,  #R92-57008 $624 - 15 available
• .45 Magnum R92 Carbine Lever Action Rifle, 16" Round Barrel, 8+1 tubular magazine, LOA 34", 4.8 lbs,,  $624 - 22 available l #R92-55008

• Marlin Model 1894 20" barrel 6.5 lbs $729.19 - 0 available

• Marlin 336C 30-30 6+1

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Hand-loading 16 gauge shotgun

The 16 gauge is a traditional upland game shotgun (for birds and rabbits). It is an excellent mix of power and light weight, especially in single-shot, break action configuration for the mountain hiking, my Springfield 1928 model comes apart into less than 20 inch pieces in 5 seconds.

The shells are however hard to come by, even in lead loads (usually shot #6) they are rare. In most of south-central California we have "lead-free Condor zone" so every time you hunt and leave animal internals behind, even when buried, you would be leaving potentially dangerous lead behind. In any case I find it 1) necessary 2) cheap 3) fun to reload my own shells.

*** Reload at your own risk! ***

To reload a shotgun shells the only new "tools" you need are:

• long nail
• wooden dowel in diameter smaller than the shell

In addition I use:

• rubber mallet and hard flat surface (white cutting board)
• small scissors and paper cards 
• IMR HI_SCOR 880-X smokeless powder
• Winchester W209 shotgun primers
• Claybuster WWA16 replacement wad CB0100-16 (optimum load 1 oz. lead shot) 500 pack
• Steel 1/4 shot (kind you buy for slingshot) - I have to get per pound to save money

• I've cut a small piece of wood dowel to serve me as a guide to primer pocket, then I nailed thru it as shown in the picture. 

Note that the wood dowel is slightly tapered to allow for the thickness of plastic wads.

I use plastic LEE 2.2cc scoop which measures about 20.1 grains of "IMR HI-SKOR 800-X" powder. See UPDATE below.

I cut the top of the crimp

I put 20 "steel ball shot 1/4 inch size", they fit in neat layers of 4, each is about 1 gram in weight which give me about 310 grains total

lead equivalent - one (1) ounce is 437.5 grains, about 28 balls, but they would not fit in there with plastic wads I use, I will try to find traditional flat wads (packed felt)

I cut and use simple paper card disks in size a little bigger so they form an crimp when pushed in

I use small amount of wax to seal it, then wait to cool down, then add more wax to reinforce it

UPDATE: 

I've shut the 2.2cc (cubic centimeter) scoop loads, which were sweet and gentle* and shooting well at 40 feet (9 holes on the top of the paper). The spread of the shot is due to my shorter barrel and no choke, which is fine with me and still makes it an effective rabbit/upland bird gun.  

This load, however, is significantly LESS kicking than the factory 1 ounce (437.5 grains) solid lead slug -- which tells me that I could go to the next scoop size about 24 grains of 800-X.

* gentle - definition derived after shooting: solid shotgun slugs, 7.62x54R and .45 ACP P+ rounds

Mosin-Nagant: from tragical to tactical: 7.62x54R bush rifle

Mosin-Nagant 7.62x54R is a dependable war rifle that served mother Russia longer than our .30-06 served our great nation. They made about 37 million of them and now you can buy a surplus for $100-$250 in any gun store, including online and at great retailers.

When I got one, at first I refinished the wooden stock and cherished the antique, but soon the iron sights were not enough so I put on a scope and so the story of modifications has started...

Soon after, I got a synthetic stock to improve accuracy on the range.

After hiking in rough Sierra Nevada mountains with this full length rifle, I realized that is it simply not practical in the thicket, boulder-and-sand, super steep mountains, so I decided to go one more step and cut it to usable size.

Many of people will cry wolf why should I cut an antique rifle, but after consideration I think that once modified, this rifle can have another lifetime of service, if left on original state, it has little value.

To all the sniper-wannabess, this rifle is NOT meant to be a long-range hitter, for that I would get a 7mm that shoots much flatter. This rifle is meant to be a handy, inexpensive gun to take to a really rough country and be able to shoot (hunt or defend from) any creature out there ( with a 203 grain soft lead bullet). To achieve that it has to be SHORT and light which the original M91/30 at 48.5 inch was not.

A list of modifications:

- ATI synthetic stock

- Timney very light and crisp trigger (had to modify the stock with Dremel tool)

- Harris Ultralight Bipod Series 1A2

- the gun was polished with hand file and sandpaper

- polished action with soft Dremel tools

- cut 18.5 inch barrel (hand finished crown)

- Birchwood Casey Super Blue finish

- reloaded ammo for light loads (target and small game)

- Brass Stacker rail (no drilling required)

- NCStar long-eye-relief scope (good scope until you want to adjust elevation)

SURPLUS AMMO:

The surplus silver-tip ammo can be both for as low as $0.18 (18 cents) per round, that puts it in .22LR range! However be careful, that ammo is a steel core bullet and it WILL CUT thru a 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) STEEL plate like it was butter at 50 yards, I learned that the hard way when I purchased my new steel gong target. If it goes thru steel plate, it will go thru wood walls for sure. At 1,000 yards it still has more knock-down power (445 fl-lbs) than .45 ACP pistol at 2 yards.

The chart below is specifically for my (short barrel) gun and it does NOT apply to original 91/30: