Hunting with cowboy guns

[Wallaby stew]

I hunt or shoot nearly every day on the farm and have a passion for the old lever guns, I use a 44/40 model 1873 for pigs, a model 1886 in 45/70 for feral bulls that jump the fence to fraternize with the girls, a 30/30 in model 1894, and a 25/20 in model 1892 for anything small. All of my hunting rifles have tang or reciever arperature sights.
All of my loads are cast and shoot very well and I try my best to make fast kills in fact every scrub bull I've shot has been dead before it's hit the ground thanks to the model 86 pumpkin launcher.
So I am wondering do many of you guys hunt with these old style rifles or have the high powered gramophone needles taken completely over.

[No1Mk3]

Mate, until my health went South I would occasionally use 45 and 58cal muzzle loaders! The Win 94 in 30/30 was my deer and pig gun for decades even after I bought a 308 if I was going into scrub I'd grab the Winnie.

[Wallaby stew]

Mate, until my health went South I would occasionally use 45 and 58cal muzzle loaders! The Win 94 in 30/30 was my deer and pig gun for decades even after I bought a 308 if I was going into scrub I'd grab the Winnie.

I'm tempted to give black powder a go but the thought of using water to clean my barrels doesn't sit right with me, but I'm still thinking about it, I'd love to see the clouds of smoke drifting through the trees.

[bigpete]

I used to till I realised I'd much rather use a bolt action or a muzzleloader

[bladeracer]

Mate, until my health went South I would occasionally use 45 and 58cal muzzle loaders! The Win 94 in 30/30 was my deer and pig gun for decades even after I bought a 308 if I was going into scrub I'd grab the Winnie.

I'm tempted to give black powder a go but the thought of using water to clean my barrels doesn't sit right with me, but I'm still thinking about it, I'd love to see the clouds of smoke drifting through the trees.

I don't use water, I use Hornady's muzzleloader spray bottle stuff. If I were cleaning it a lot I'd probably prefer to use water.

[Oldbloke]

I used to till I realised I'd much rather use a bolt action or a muzzleloader

^^^^^^^ This.

[bigpete]

Mate, until my health went South I would occasionally use 45 and 58cal muzzle loaders! The Win 94 in 30/30 was my deer and pig gun for decades even after I bought a 308 if I was going into scrub I'd grab the Winnie.

I'm tempted to give black powder a go but the thought of using water to clean my barrels doesn't sit right with me, but I'm still thinking about it, I'd love to see the clouds of smoke drifting through the trees.

I don't use water, I use Hornady's muzzleloader spray bottle stuff. If I were cleaning it a lot I'd probably prefer to use water.

Nothing wrong with warm water

[bladeracer]

Mate, until my health went South I would occasionally use 45 and 58cal muzzle loaders! The Win 94 in 30/30 was my deer and pig gun for decades even after I bought a 308 if I was going into scrub I'd grab the Winnie.

I'm tempted to give black powder a go but the thought of using water to clean my barrels doesn't sit right with me, but I'm still thinking about it, I'd love to see the clouds of smoke drifting through the trees.

I don't use water, I use Hornady's muzzleloader spray bottle stuff. If I were cleaning it a lot I'd probably prefer to use water.

Nothing wrong with warm water

Except finding it in the paddock, I just find it easier to carry a spray bottle with me

[Wallaby stew]

That' settles it, you've talked me out of using black.

[Noisydad]

If you’re using the right bullet lube in a BP load you can get many if not dozens of shots without cleaning. You absolutely don’t need to clean after every shot.

[bigpete]

Except finding it in the paddock, I just find it easier to carry a spray bottle with me [/quote]

Why do you need it out in a paddock ?

[bladeracer]

Except finding it in the paddock, I just find it easier to carry a spray bottle with me

Why do you need it out in a paddock ?[/quote]

Because I don't want to have to come back to the house to clean my rifle, the only water up at the sheds is a trough reticulated from the dam for the cows, and handy for dipping stuff when you're welding.

[bladeracer]

If you’re using the right bullet lube in a BP load you can get many if not dozens of shots without cleaning. You absolutely don’t need to clean after every shot.

I generally get eight easy ones, the ninth can be painful to force, even hammer, down the bore. But it seems to me the build-up of fouling with each shot must change the bore significantly so the ideal I would think would be to clean every shot for consistency. Out to 50m it's probably not significant though.

[JohnV]

Are you still driving a T Model Ford around the farm ? I bet Not !

[Oldbloke]

If you’re using the right bullet lube in a BP load you can get many if not dozens of shots without cleaning. You absolutely don’t need to clean after every shot.

I generally get eight easy ones, the ninth can be painful to force, even hammer, down the bore. But it seems to me the build-up of fouling with each shot must change the bore significantly so the ideal I would think would be to clean every shot for consistency. Out to 50m it's probably not significant though.

I wish, I need to clean every 3 or4.

[Wallaby stew]

I'm guessing you use soft lead a couple of thou under bore diameter.

[Oldbloke]

I'm guessing you use soft lead a couple of thou under bore diameter.

No mate.
Ball with lubed patch

[bladeracer]

I'm guessing you use soft lead a couple of thou under bore diameter.

.440 soft lead round ball on a .005" pre-lubed patch for me. On 50gn or 70gn of FFFg.
I did test the Lee REAL bullet but they went sideways so I don't think I have the twist rate for those.

[Fionn]

So I am wondering do many of you guys hunt with these old style rifles or have the high powered gramophone needles taken completely over.

Old style is hunting, where the hunter skill matters more than the rifle they are carrying. These days many make up with lack of hunting skills with equipment they use.

[Wallaby stew]

So I am wondering do many of you guys hunt with these old style rifles or have the high powered gramophone needles taken completely over.

Old style is hunting, where the hunter skill matters more than the rifle they are carrying. These days many make up with lack of hunting skills with equipment they use.

And I doubt whether 5 percent of blokes that take a rifle into the field to hunt have their rifle sighted properly . It takes skill and patience to zero a rifle so that the hunter can make the shot as humanly as possible. I doubt if most bother from what I've seen. I've got rifles that I've bought that are a hundred years old that aren't sighted in, in a hundred years no one sighted it in, all my second hand rifles I've bought have been the same.

[bigpete]

I'm guessing you use soft lead a couple of thou under bore diameter.

No mate.
Ball with lubed patch

Technically they are under bore diameter, 5 to 10 thou, with the windage taken up by the patch...

[JohnV]

Lever actions I like but black powder not so likey likey . To me a muzzle loader is something you hang on a wall and only use it if you can't buy any cartridge ammunition . When I went to the range if the black powder boys were there I would turn around and go home . The smoke (pollution ) really affects me and it accumulated in the confined BR range .