WTB Hawken style 54 cal muzzleloader

[Mountainrancher]

Looking to pick up a Hawken styled percussion cap fired muzzloader. It must be 54 cal or possibly bigger as I plan on hunting elk in co with a patched ball. Let me know what you got.

 

[RockAndSage]

If you're going to shoot patched roundball, be sure to look for barrel-twist rate of around 1:60ish. A lot of the Hawken styles, especially the TCs, had the 1:48 twist, which is great for conical bullet styles, but are pretty challenging to get decent groups with for the lighter patched balls.

Some of the better Hawken styles out there right now are coming from Pedersoli and Investarm. Both offer .54cal versions in percussion. I've owned .50 and .54 Hawken-style guns, and strongly prefer the .54 for any big game, especially elk. They carry a lot more energy, and they genuinely do "hit harder" - a lot harder. Shoot steel with the two and it's extremely obvious, especially on hanging targets that sway. The terminal ballistics of modern high-velocity rifle bullets are very different from old-school "slow-and-heavy" blackpowder or modern big-bore pistol cartridges, and the slow-and-heavy needs that extra mass to help guarantee deep penetration to vitals, especially with the soft-lead bullets used in muzzleloaders. The .54 seems to be an excellent sweet spot for velocity and mass. However, I wouldn't go any larger than .54. There are't a lot of .58s out there with twist rates good for patched roundball, but I haven't been impressed with drop, accuracy, etc. Absolutely love the .54s though. Good luck on your hunt.

 

[Mountainrancher]

Bump

 

[markXshooter]

Not a percussion, but I have a flinter

 

[Mountainrancher]

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[Mountainrancher]

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