how i did it by Victor FrankenstEEn

[aeygarn]

ok.
it's a .50 cal t-c hawken kit from around 1980. got peep sites on it now,
i think the fronts a lyman 17a from a mossberg .22, and the rear is the stock blade with a wooden peep epoxyed on it, crude butt effective. i even painted it purple slightly around the edges, lol, looks ok to me.

guns worthless so karateing up the rear sight is no big deal. i can remove it all and touch up the browning and it'll be box stock.

use rem oil or pb blaster spray for storage, pull barrel, use carburetor cleaner to remove it at the range, dont get it on the wood, it'll remove most finishes, can use iso-alcohol in spray bottle too, you have to get all the oil out, then let it evaporate, or sometimes i'll hit it with the propane torch to dry. the iso's harder to evaporate

run a bunch of patches thru it, 1 carb cleaner then 2 dry, you want to end up dry and with a low friction dry patch burnished feel when swabbing back and forth , like a dry polish in the bore, THIS will help to keep first shot in the group , not low.

powder
fffg pyrodex . not recommended for rifles butt on side lock its fills out
the flame passage and is more reliable. dont load a max load of this in your
junko gun and blow it up - its pistol powder, my loads prob around 70
grains, using a 45-70 case cut down for a scoop

no good , shooters choice - citric acid powders, inaccurate .
anything thats old, it'll absorb moisture and shoot badly, yea i'll just
shoot this up, yea ok 18" groups next 6 trips to the range, down the
sink with it, opie

patches
doesnt matter as long as its tight, using walmart pillow ticking ,some was
.017 now its around .020. i have an old shift knob that fits over the
ramrod so i can beat it with my hand, you want to seat the ball around 40
lb force, i have wooden rods from walmart i sanded down to fit in the
bore i can hammer down a ball with, don't shoot the ball out if it's not
seated, and if its really stuck puller will just pull out of the lead ball.
worthless. you hammer it down with wood rods or goto gunsmith

i cut patches with a paper round guide , folding cloth 5-6 times , its not
critical , just not to big and not too small that its not covering contact
points. cutting patches after ball started is huge pain in the ass and you'll
cut up fingers repeatedly, doesnt help anything , i tried it
my patches are so tight that the 3rd one without cleaning needs hammer
to go down with spit lube

clean it every shot with windex, get it 90 % clean
then get dry burnished bore feeling back, like a dry polished bore. the
remaining powder residues help this acting like lube , probably about 1
windex patch, moist not wet, followed by 2-3 dry patches, done 2-3 times

you can run 1 patch down like tc says, butt you'll foul out around 12
shots .i see these guys at the range doing the one moist patch thing, it's
for being able to get off 5-6 shots semi-consistently, you still foul out
around 12-14 shots, they just dont get that. lol shooting 1 inch groups
with scoped inline gun, then all of a sudden cant hit target frame

cleaning it before firing to get dry polish feeling then cleaning 90% every
shot to get dry polish feeling IS FOR Consistency for point of impact, its
not low or high, around the corner

if your hunting you can 1 moist patch it for second shot and point of
impact will be good, butt if you have the 2 minutes do the 90% clean then
dry polish thing

don't foul out the powder chamber with too much liquid or grease or windex
thats whats important here, not the oil or cleaner type

use spit lube
it dries without leaving powder fouling oils or greases THATS whats
important , if you think your mineral oil in a tube seasons your barrel, you
been sniffing powder solvents in open powder cans too often.

if you have to snap a cap alot or are misfiring your getting too much liquid
oil or grease in the chamber . i never snap a cap , the initial carb cleaner
clean needs time or propane torch tho to evaporate

shooting round ball , getting 2 inch groups at 100 yards. most of the
time, ITS BECAUSE ITS NOT SLOPPY MESSY FULL OF GLOP OR BORE
BUTTER.. the set trigger is too light, i still set it off accidently once in a
while , lol , i adjust the trigger screw and it moves the trigger back and
forth butt still to light, whatever

cleanup,
i use windex at the range, at home usually in 12 hours, hot soapy
water for barrel, toothbrush w water for lock area, wipe everything down
water rag then dry it, then pbblaster or storage oil takes around half hour
to get barrel inside clean, 6 wet 15 dry patches, using rags.use very hot
water to rinse so barrel dries out