A gift from my dad

[RyanR]

I was doing some electrical work on my parents house yesterday and my dad was talking about a muzzloader he wanted to sell. I vaguely remembered the rifle and thought he had gotten rid of it. He has never shot it because he hunts with his old TC Hawken he made from a kit over 30 years ago. He brought out the rifle for me to look at and I asked what he wanted for it because I thought I may want to buy it. He said I could have it. I didn't expect that!
I have never heard of this maker (Investarm) but, it seems to be well made and some of the parts look similar to a Lyman. It is fairly light and may have a little kick since it's a .58 cal. I am looking forward to making some smoke with it.

[Parnell]

Nice gift!  The Lyman kit I did is stamped Investarms.

[Hawkdancer]

.58s is fun!  Got 3 of them! .  They just use a lot of lead!  Check the rifling, if it is shallow, you can probably use either patched round balls or the various Minie bullets or Buffalo style.  A good starting load would be 60 gr FFg with an rb or a  Minie.  The service load for the Civil War era .58 Zouave was 60 gr FFg and a 600 gr Mimie bullet.  I use 30 gr 2Fg for target loads (25-50 yards).  Have fun and keep your powder dry!
Hawkdancer

[Eric Krewson]

Remember, if you shoot pydrodex you have to be extra meticulous about you cleaning procedure because it is so corrosive.

If you use real BP you still have to be meticulous about cleaning but won't run into problems down the road like you will with pydrodex or the other subs.

Here is a pydrodex shot barrel that wasn't cleaned properly over time.

[Hawkdancer]

As Eric said, "You shoot, you clean!"  There are a bunch of ideas on the best way to do that, hot soapy water, windshield washer fluid, commercial products, dish deterregent, etc., just keep her cleaned and lubed.  Definitely stop a deer or elk!  Start with a .570 rb and a.015 patch.
Hawkdancer 

[RyanR]

Thanks for the tips. I think I will stick with regular black powder.

[bjrogg]

Glad it stayed in the family RyanR.
Bjrogg