Blackpowder rifle

[Camper]

I'm going out to pick up my first rifle today, a T.C. black Diamond. Any comments on this gun good, or bad would be appreciated.
thanks

[This message has been edited by Camper (edited 12-03-2000).]

[msiebers]

I just spent 4 hours this afternoon shooting my Black Diamond and I can now tell you I love that rifle.
I initially had some trouble getting it to shoot consistently, but I have narrowed that down to a bad scope.
I also went to the TC Black Mag sabots that Pat Eddinger recomended. They seem to work better than the green sabots that come with Hornaday XTP bullets and far better than the ones that knight sells. They are a bit thicker in the base than the others and also are shaped differently in the concave portion of the base than the others.
I shot 300 gn. XTP bullets with 130 grains of Pyrodex pellets and at 100 yards,I get around 2" groups.
I also noticed that it took a few times of shooting the rifle and cleaning it then relubing with Bore butter to get it "seasoned" enough so that today, I never had to clear a fouled barrel once. I shot the whole afternoon without ever cleaning the gun. :)
What a fun muzzleloader to shoot!!

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Mike

[This message has been edited by msiebers (edited 12-03-2000).]

[Steve in MI]

Well I am glad to hereyougot the bugs worked out. One thing that i cn tell you form speaking to knight and hornady is that some barrel's are bored some what larger than the spec. This can be caused by a dull reamer or poor quality control what ever the reason some times you have to go to the high presure sabot(blk) I have a knight that use's a green mountain barrel and I shoot 150 grn (3 pellets) and a grn sabot with a 240 grn hornady XTP. I have not found a bullet that will shoot better. Believe me when i say that i have mant many boxes of bullets and sabots that are collecting dust. I have heard from other knight owners that they have had the best luck with hornady bullet's and sabots. Now I am pretty sure that hornday is also offer the XTP package with the high presure blk sabot as well. I spoke to Hornady about the high presure sabots and the put me through to a tech. He told me " many muzzleloader's have small burrs in the rifling that cause's huge accuracy problems. They had a T/C there and a knight.At that time the T/C would not hit the target at 50yrds . They found that the sabot was blowing apart at the base, problem was over bored barrel and rough rifling. Now these where things that a tech would find can you see if the rifling is bad or rough with out a true bore scope , problay not. He told me that use of the normal break in 's used on rifles would work well for muzzle loaders also. Hee said to try j-b bore cleaner may work. I have no problems with my knight at all, neither did they. trying differant combinations may be what you are going to have to do. you said you shot all day and did not clean bore, How many bullets did you shoot??

[msiebers]

Steve, by my calculations of going through what I have left in my supply, I'd say I shot around 28-30 times this afternoon. I did spend a good deal of time talking "shooting" with another guy on the range so I guess that took up a lot of my time today. ;)
I really didnt notice the loading getting any tougher today as I had in previous trips to the range. As I said before, I only got of 3 or 4 shots the last time before the barrel needed cleaning.
BTW, what is j-b bore cleaner and where do I find it. I have been using old Number 13 solvent in between rounds and ocasionaly the Rusty Duck Black Off brand as well as good ole' soap& hot water baths.


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Mike

[This message has been edited by msiebers (edited 12-03-2000).]

You can't go wrong with the Black Diamond. The Black Diamond came out a few years after I purchased a T/C Firehawk and if I was to replace my T/C 50 it would be the Black Diamond.

[WEEZER]

You should try the CVA powerbelts. They are supposed to be better thatn sabots for accuracy. I am a solid believer in them just by looking at the reasoning behind them. Haven't tried them yet because I haven't found them in 54 cal.
The Black diamond looks like a giid gun but I'm not sure what the big fuss about it is!!!Must be the advertising. There are a lot of other good models out that don't get the attention that the Diamond gets.

[Pat Eddinger]

Msiebers,and the rest of you's guy's.
Both Knight and T/C use green mountain barrels.The difference in internal barrel finish is present in all production rifles,they vary from rifle to rifle coming off of the same assembly line.
J.B. bore cleaner is "Rare earth"(Basicly dead dinosaur) in a paste form that acts as an abrasive that wont cut steel,but will burnish it.Rem Bore cleaner is the same stuff but comes in a handy liquid in a squeeze bottle so ya don't get the gorp all over your hands and rifle as bad.
The stuff works great for removing plastic fouling left by the Sabot,and in centerfires for removing lead and copper deposits.
If your inline is suffering from excessive fouling it may need some lapping.Take it to your 'smith or get ahold of the guy's at NECO for a pressure lapping kit.
I use buffalo bullets impregnated with 220 thru 600 grit in progressive steps on the frosted bores,and 400-600 on bores that just foul a bit too much.Then they get a good "Boiling out" with hot water and a nylon brush.It works wonders to keep plastic and powder fouling down.The imported muzzleloaders almost always cut patches bad,and respond real well to lapping.
For general cleaning try the Pyrodex EZ clean.It's great stuff!No boiling water and associated messes,and no sulpher fart stench from the steam permeating the house either!
It could save a marriage! :)
I have yet to try the CVA belted bullets.
As soon as season is over I'm gonna tinker,it looks like a winner to me.I like it!Cheers!Pat

[msiebers]

Thanks Pat, now that I seem to have my bore seasoned real nice, I dont think I need to go with a lap job...Unless of course she's real cute. (sorry, I couldnt resist) :p
I will look for that Rem. bore cleaner though. I dont seem to be having any trouble now with loading after a few shots so I think I got this thing under control. ;)

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Mike

[Camper]

Thanks to everyone! First off I'll say that I did not see Yoda's earlier post...my apologies.
At any rate, I did buy the Black Diamond, and by the time we prepped the gun for first shoot were almost out of daylight. The first shot at 40 yards was close enough to go for our 100yard target. No time for paper, a plastic pop bottle would have to do. Two shots, two hits. Guess everyone gets lucky now and then. Going out for a couple of hours wed and thurs for a better shoot. If everything goes well I'll be using it saturday morning. If not, it's bow time. The dealer set me up with 240gr. MAG SABOTS and 150gr. PYRODEX pellets. I think I'll stick with this for now, and be trying some of your'e suggestions later. I had a great time even though it was only 3 shots, can't believe I waited this long to get one. Thanks again everyone and keep those tips a coming.
Good huntin to all.

[Slugshot1]

One of the problems I have when muzzloading is the pulling off of the percussion cap at the end of the hunt day. I usually use a knife and pry it off. This sometimes destroys the cap and makes me more than a little nervous. Does anyone out there have a nifty trick to pass on that makes it easier/safer to remove the cap?

[BEAGLEMAN]

TC usually gives you a plastic tool that works pretty well for loading and removing the percussion cap. If you don't have one most gun shops would have them ,they are really reasonable in price. Actually I know for a fact that if you call TC they will send you a few.

[Slugshot1]

Thanks B.! Do you look for my posts? Seems like you answer most of my questions here! BTW, what does the handle stand for? Are you a beagle trainer? If so, I have a little ground with lots-o-bunnies that needs to have them thinned. I beat the fencerows sometimes, but would rather hunt them with dogs. Last time we used decent dogs, we got 18 rabbits in 2.5 hours.

[BEAGLEMAN]

Slugshot1,
No I am not a beagle breeder or trainer I just love to hunt with beagles, I have all my life. I appreciate the offer about a hunt maybe I'll take you up on it someday. Right now I'm down to one beagle but I'm sure we could get a few good runs going. I don't hunt as hard as I used to I had a heart attack a few years back and I'm a little more careful about pushing it, But I still manage to get in several good hunts a year. As for your posts that is what I like about this site there is always someone out there that can help us.
Happy Holidays.



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