Handsome Rob

Sweet leaping Jesus! I hope to God nobody's fallen for that, if they did I'm sure it'll be on the News fairly soon.

Nothing, to be honest, I just think that 300 yds is really pushing the limit of a 180+gn, 1900FPS projectile. If you're struggling to get an exit wound & blood at 100yds, what do you think the chances are of getting a clean kill at 3 times that range? Working on a 180gn bullet weight at that velocity, you'll have a bullet drop of nearly 45" at 300yds with a 10mph crosswind, you'd get about 20" of drift. To me that's just not precise enough for shooting at game. Just my opinion is all. I don't know you or how good a marksman you are, 300yds may be well within your capabilities, I just don't think it's within the rifle's is all.

You want to shoot a deer at 300 yds? Wait until rifle season. A Muzzleloader is not a long range firearm, you need to learn to limit your shots mate.

Go find your buck dude. Did you even bother to look for the deer or did you give up after you found no blood? It's quite probably laid there dead somewhere or worst case, it's badly wounded & the least you could do is spend a little more time searching through the woods to find it. You owe it to the deer. It's probably well within 100yds of where it was stood when you shot it. Drop 50gn off your load too. 150gn is waaay more than you need to take a deer at 100yds & the extra powerd is probably what caused your powerbelt to come apart. I shoot a roundball .54 with 90gn of powder & a .50 roundball with 75 & I'd be more than happy to shoot at a 100 yard deer with those loads. 150 is twice as much as you need & with the laws of diminishing returns, twice the powder doesn't mean twice the power. I've also heard a lot of pretty bad things about Powerbelts on game. Good for accuracy, easy to load, but often fragment on impact. The Hornady SST, on the other hand, returns nothing but praise. I really don't think the 'magnum' load will have helped either.

Remington 870, extra full choke, 3½" Magnum turkey shells. Handgun, it'd have to be a friend's Ruger Super Blackhawk with a shortened, 4" barrel shooting .44 +P loads. Not too bad on the hand, although not pleasant, but I've still got tinnitus in my left ear!

Sorry to be dumb, but what were the protesters, protesting against? If these were anti-War protesters, then shame on them. Noboby likes the war, but protesting at a funeral is in very poor taste.

Hmm. Thought they went back tomorrow night?

Did it contain all this stuff? A LITTLE GUN HISTORY In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control.. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. ------------------------------ In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1..5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. ------------------------------ Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated. ------------------------------ China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated ------------------------------ Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.. ------------------------------ Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated ------------------------------ Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. ----------------------------- Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million. I keep getting chan EMails with these 'statistics'

Jumped a nice doe from her bed at Owl Hollow this afternoon, popped a cap at her, but had my first failure with the GPR Patch was too wet & it contaminated the powder with lube, I reckon. Highlight of the afternoon......I was sat on the floor, under a small tree & had 2 squirrels fightin over which one got to sit on my foot! I also had a little grey fox come within 8 feet & take a poo. Poor little bastard nearly turned inside out when he got into my scent stream!

I have 2 diamond stones that I've been using for the past 15 or 16 years. One is a medium grit, no-name stome bought from a flea market, the other is a super-fine DMT flat stone (NOT the one with the diamond shaped holes) Every knife I've ever made & sold has been sharpened on these 2 stones, freehand. I would never let a knife leave the shop unless I could cleanly shave with it. Learning to sharpen freehand is a pretty handy thing to know. That said, I've been using one of these for the past year, on my own knives, with absolutely spectacular results! KME Precision Knife Sharpening System (Works for many broadheads too) It's far better than the Lansky/Gatco type, fixed angle sharpeners. The reason being that once you've 'locked in' your sharpening angle (which is infinitely adjustable from 17 to 30 degrees) the stone stays at that angle with no chanceof it shifting. If anyone would like to try out the KME, I'll happily mail it to you for a 1 week trial

Cheese & Crackers That had to have been pretty scary!

As a casual observer to this thread, with pretty much nothing constructive to add, could I please suggest everyone go bck & read Adam's posts. A few of you seem to have either misunderstood, or, misinterpreted what Adam has posted. 1. Derringer guy is not an employee at the restaurant 2. Adam & his buddies are regulars there & are known to the staff 3. Derringer guy was a patron of (and stranger to) the restaurant 4. Adam & his buddies complied with the request to quieten down 5. Unless you've had a gun drawn on you, you don't really know how you'd react, training or no training Adam stated that he never really felt threatened & therefore had no reason to draw & yes, while his friend may be in for Captain Retard of the Year award, I applaud him for not further escalating the situation & possibly getting someone killed.

Here's a look at the English version of the Ghost chilli, the Dorset Naga.......

Here's a quick looksee at what you're getting into...... Please bear in mind that this dude eats chillis for a LIVING!

't ain't a proper Tennessee chilli without possum, coon or both.

Guy walks upto a hotdog stand.... "Whaddaya want?" "I'd like a Bhuddist dog please" "What's a 'Bhuddist dog?" "Make me one with everything" Sorry.

Sorry chief! I didn't mean to preach to the choir! You may also wanna check out www.muzzleloadingforum.com

Gunbroker is your friend. Lots of caplock frontstuffers for sale there. I can highly recommend the Lyman GPR in .54 I find it shoulders & balances much nicer than any of the TC rifles. The .50 is nice, but a little muzzle-heavy. The .54 balances much nicer + it has a lot more whompability. Big medicine on anything smaller than a grizz You can buy real black powder from Bass Pro too. You'll need to ask at the gun desk for it (It's not allowed to be on display) It's much, much better in sidelocks than Pyrodex, 777 etc... Buy yourself a pound of FF & FFF, you'll find that your rifle will definately prefer one over the other. Get to the range & do plenty of load work too. Patch thickness & powder volume makes a hell of a difference in your accuracy (for example here's a couple of my targets, just to show what a difference a few grains can make......) If you buy new, you'll need to get at least 100 shots down the barrel before your accuracy really starts to pick up. They take a lot of breaking in. Don't worry about your load combo until then.

Anyone hunt deer with .243? What's your preferred factory load? I'm looking at 2 different bullet weights, one for varmints (55gn) one for deer (95 or 100gn) Would I be better doing this, or can I get away with a 'midde ground' bullet weight of around 75gn to do it all?

Not funny until he mixes the dressing & now I can barely see for laughing!!!

Tee hee hee.......

I took my first rifle deer with a little .357 Rossi last year. 100 yard shot with a hollowpoint. I couldn't tell you the bullet manufacturer or weight as it was from a batch of handloads I got with the rifle. I can tell you that it was a pretty light load, certainly not up to factory load pressures. The deer didn't take a single step. Pretty devastating round from a rile barrel!

I drove upto Big Timber via Livingston. The little guy on the right in the picture of the 3 of us, is the ranch manager/caretaker of the Brokaw ranch. I spent 4 days living in Tom Brokaw's guest house (Name drop, name drop ) Unfortunately, Tom & Meredith were in California at the time, mediating the Governatorial debate. I drove up through Jackson & into Yellowstone. I got to see Old Faithful do it's thing (something I've wanted to see since I was a little kid) & experienced the 'town Elk' in Mammoth (possibly THE coolest thing ever!) I came the longer way back, via Cody, to visit the Bridger museum & visit another good friend. It was a hell of a road trip (4000 miles + in 14 days) but worth ever mile & drop of diesel. I got to see & visit places I've been reading about in Western novels for 30+ years. I'll be back next fall to see a little more of Yellowstone & top up the freezer with more 'lope meat (BEST burgers EVER!!!)

.....Whompability & the .54 roundball Before I post this, I'll apologise due to the lack of pictoral evidence. I rarely carry a camera at the best of times & crawling around Wyoming in a ghillie suit, whilst carrying a 9lb .54 Lyman Great Plains Rifle + all the accoutrements is not condusive to lugging photography clobber around. Anyway, to the crux.... I just returned from 10 spectacular days in Wyoming & Montana. The reason for the trip wasn't really hunting, but I had a couple of Doe/Fawn Antelope tags in my pocket, just on the offchance. After visiting with some very good old friends & a few days of sightseeing I managed to slope off for a day's stalking. Man, hunting whitetail down here has really spoiled me Hunting the Western Praries at the foot of the Rockies is TOUGH! 12" tall sagebrush as the only cover, unpredictable winds, animals with good eyesight, I tell you, it ain't no walk in the park! I soon figured out that the only way to get within my comfortable range (50yds) of a group of antelope is in a ghillie suit, on my belly. It seems that I could walk upright to about 150yds of every group, as long as the wind was right, but inside of that they weren't hanging around to figure out what I wanted. I made 3 failed stalks on different groups before I figured that out. The fourth stalk went a lot better! I had seen a herd of 17 animals about 800yds from my hilltop & stalked upto 75yds. 17 sets of eyes were suddenly turned my way & I had nowhere left to go. I made a decision to take the last doe in the herd (the biggest) from my present, prone position. I've done plenty of shooting with my muzzleloader at 100yds+ & I know that I'm pretty much going to hit what I aim at, at that range. I'll admit I'm a LOT more comfortable at 50, but I figured that 75yds was no great shakes from a prone, rested position with little wind. I waited for a full broadside position & placed the foresight directly on the back of her shoulder, set the trigger & touched off.....click.....crap (must get a new nipple ) I recocked the hammer, re-set the trigger, whispered a hurried prayer & touched off the 90gn FFG charge. The .530 roundball flew to the exact spot I'd aimed for & dropped the doe on the spot! Joy of joys, oh happy day! My first game with my GPR. I got up to walk across the hill & claim my prize when I noticed a second 'lope, just over the brow of the low ridge my target had been standing on. She didn't look well, not well at all. I hurriedly re-loaded with thoughts of filling my second tag. I got the rifle mounted & ready to shoot when she toppled over. Figuring something was seriously wrong I decided to investigate & was utterly amazed to find her dead, right there with 2 broken front shoulders. Yep, you got it, I managed a twofer. The second animal was bedded directly behind the one I'd shot at, hidden out of my sight in the sagebrush. The roundball passed straight through the first, without hitting heavy bone & continued on straight through the second! Three things I learned from this; 1. Carry a freaking camera! 2. Be very, very aware of what's behind my target. 3. Respect the Roundball. Sabots & pointy bullets are for girls. If anyone's at all interested, I can take a photo of the inside of my new chest freezer...... There's over 100# of really nicely butchered meat in there (minus the roast that's in the smoker) Here's a few 'mood' pics.....

Well, thanks to Gregg, I've got myself fixed up with a really nice condition K6 Weaver (well, I will have once I get him a check mailed off)