Safety ? About Hawken Rifle

[Joshboyfutre]

Just bought an Adesa Hawken style rifle in .50 cal and don't have FFg powder. I'm wondering if it would be safe to shoot FFFg of hodgens 777 if I keep it under 60-70 g? I plan on buying some FFg this weekend but want to go try my rifle out before then.

 

[AJumbo]

You'll be fine with 3f. I use it in all my rifles for target and light game loads. With the 777, you may not need to go as heavy as 60 grains. Stay around 50, see what you get from it.

 

[Joshboyfutre]

Okay I'll do that. Hey Jumbo all you guys have been great with all of the questions I've had since getting into black powder and joining this forum, it's very much appreciated. Just wanted to make sure I didn't come back with pieces of metal sticking out of my forehead lol

 

[4v50 Gary]

Like Jumbo suggested, reduced charge.

 

[Noz]

You will find that the maximum loads that the magnum lovers push are not the most accurate nor the most efficient.
I found with my 50 cal that anything over 85 grs of FFg created more problems than it solved. Group size began to open rapidly. That's with a 1/48 twist and a TC Maxihunter.

 

[Joshboyfutre]

Yeah I'm not gonna shoot a whole lot with FFFg anyway, just enough to make sure it works. Once I get some FFg im gonna start at about 65-70g and work up to my best grouping. 70-80g seems to be the best accuracy from what ive read.

 

[Noz]

But don't you know that unless you use 3 to 4 pellets of 777 and a jacketed bullet in a plastic sabot, the bullet will bounce off of the deers side?

 

[J-Bar]

Even with hearing protection, you should be able to tell when the projectile goes supersonic; the report changes from a flat boom to a sharper "crack". So you can have an idea when your ball reaches 1100 fps. I suspect you will hear the change around 70 grains or so, but it will vary of course.

 

[frontiergander]

Ardesa makes the Traditions guns, and they normally allow the use of 3fg in their rifles. My traditions kentucky has a max load of 105gr 3fg black powder.

 

[Joshboyfutre]

Well I got to go try it out today and my 70 yr old uncle had some old pyrodex RS. I used it and put a nice light load of 60g seeing as I've not fired this rifle. Well I get set and... CLICK... nothin! Tried again... Click... And again... Click. Was very disappointed. Shot some of my other bp guns and got to thinking "that stuff is probably as old as me (36), and it seemed overly coarse. So I put a little of my 777 in the nipple and got a whoosh bang! After that I put 10g of fff in on 60g of the old stuff and it fired no problem. Whew!! Very relieved and happy as hell. By that timr I was cold so I called it a day... What a day lol.

 

[AJumbo]

Just a thought- If you chosen powder costs $X per pound, and you get the same performance from a smaller charge of finer powder, then why hot use that powder and get more shots per pound? When I was shooting a lot I bought 3F or Pyrodex P for me .50s and .54s, and 2F for my 12ga, which wouldn't consistently ignite RS. Since I shot my rifles and revolvers more than I did my shotgun, this reduced my logistics train considerably.