Well I bought my step son a Black Power 44 Cal pistol for Christmas, and it look like so much fun I traded a pistol for a Hawkins CVA 50 Cal Black Power Rifle. Oh My God this is a area I'm learning about on the run. Now remember get it right....Powder, wad, ball....Powder, wad, ball !!!!!
This is a whole new world in weapons for me. First of all Black Power is highly corresive, so you have to clean...clean...clean after shooting. Oh and make sure the igniter cap nipple is clean or no fire to the powder which means no Boom.....henceforth no ball out the barrel....and no game down!
Let me say I have a new out look on the days of old, when this was considered a high tect weapon. I mean if you are in a fire fight ie.......Alamo against the Mexicans your screwed unless you are a fast loader. They say (who ever They are) a good Black Powder shooter can get 3 rounds off in a minute.
Anyway anyone out there with experience in this Black Powder world of shooting please pass along your experience.........Please
Thanks, and have a safe New Year

The Black Powder Dragon

That CVA smokestick is a knockoff of the Thompson Center Hawken. It should be fairly easy to clean if it has a hooked breech like the TC. If so, just remove the wedges and the barrel can be removed and cleaned with hot soapy water. Oil it up after cleaning, slap it back on, and you're good to go!

Should be accurate out to 100 yards, at least, depending on how well your patch and ball fit.

BP is great fun although I haven't done it in decades..

Enjoy!

Thanks Rexbo ....the dude that I traded my pistol for said the gun was won in a raffel and never fired. OK being a cherry boy in this area I just took his word for it. Well I had some some problems lighting off the powder, so I broke down the gun completely and clean and lube all parts. Well the breeck plug in the end would NOT come out....I'm thinking someone forgot to put a bit of lube on the threads last time. With the barrel in a vice ...of course I broke off the tang (that fits into the wood stock) right off, so now I'm drilling a hole and using an eazy out in an attempt to remove the plug, and broke off my wrench, so now......I'm ording a barrel from e-bay.
So far I'm not a happy camper with the world of Black Powder.
Dragon

I love black powder Dragon old mate ..When I was in upstate NY i shot a fair bit of black powder and even used that exact rifle to drop a couple of foxes..I have a few old black powder pistol that are bloody good fun to make smoke and noise withMate it aint a easy way to hunt but if it was every bastard would use the old bastards..Patience you DraGon...Cheers BOOF

Kool looking gun,would be nice to fire one,its too bad your having difficulty w/the one you got.Hope you git it figured out.

Well the old barrel is now trash or just a cool oxtagon piece of pipe. Took off all the good stuff. Well you know how Dragons are......I took the trash barrel (with a hole in both ends) and loaded it up with about 200 grains of powder, with a little trail behind. and lit it off..........holly shit I think I broke one of my neighbors windows from the concussion...don't like em anyway. I'm now inside watching my security monitor looking for the police to show up.
Can you believe me Dad is a retired FireMan.
Smoking Dragon

LMFAO, I can so relate with blowing things up ND. My dad is also a firefighter. I think they gave us the fire bug! ;-)

So Dragon... Did'ja get a new barrel for it? Have ya given up BP all together?
Gawd, wish I coulda been there for the 'blow-off'! Holy Shite that sounded like fun! Lemme share a little funny with ya:
Subject: Little Bow Hunter
>
>
> Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little badass
> compound bow beginner kits. Of course, the first month I
> went around our land sticking arrows in anything that could
> get stuck by an arrow. Did you know that a 1955 40 horse
> Farmall tractor tire will take 6 rounds before it goes
> down? Tough sumbich.
>
> That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazard
> fan that I was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut
> up T-shirt doused in chainsaw gas tied around
> the end and was sending flaming arrows all over the place.
> One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a
> large rotten oak stump in our backyard. I looked over
> under the carport and see a shiny brand new can of starting
> fluid (Ether). The light bulb went off in my head. I
> grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it
> would probably just spray out in a disappointing manner.
> Lets face it, to a 10 yr old mouth-breather like myself,
> (Ether), really doesn't "sound" flammable. So, I went back
> into the house and got a 1 pound can of pyrodex (black
> powder for muzzle loader rifles).
>
> At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and
> opened up the can of black powder. My intentions were to
> sprinkle a little bit around the (Ether) can but it all
> sorta dumped out on me. No biggie, a 1 lb. pyrodex and 16
> oz (Ether) should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker
> you know? You know what? Screw that I'm going back in
> the house for the other can.
>
> Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now
> we're cookin'.
>
> I stepped back about 15 ft and lit the 2 stroke arrow. I
> drew the nock to my cheek and took aim. As I released I
> heard a clunk as the arrow launched from my
> bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my dad
> getting out of the truck... OH SHIT! He just got home
> from work. So help me God it took 10 minutes
> for that arrow to go from my bow to the can. My dad was
> walking towards me in slow motion with a WTF look in his
> eyes. I turned back towards my target just in time to see
> the arrow pierce the starting fluid can right at the
> bottom. Right through the main pile of pyrodex and into
> the can. Oh Shit.
>
> When the shock wave hit it knocked me off my feet. I
> don't know if it was the actual compression wave that threw
> me back or just reflex jerk back from 235 fricking decibels
> of sound. I caught a half a millisecond glimpse of the
> violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you
> there was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1 ft above the
> ground as far as I could see. It was like a
> little low to the ground layer of dust fog full of
> grasshoppers, spiders, and a worm or two.
>
> The daylight turned purple. Let me repeat this... THE
> FRICKING DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE.
>
> There was a big sweetgum tree out by the gate going into
> the pasture. Notice I said "was". That son-of-a-bitch
> got up and ran off.
>
> So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my
> shoes with my thundercats T-Shirt shredded, my dad is on the
> other side of the carport having what I can only assume is a
> Vietnam flashback:
>
> ECHO BRAVO CHARLIE YOU'RE BRINGIN' EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE
> FIRE. DAMNIT CEASE FIRE!!!!!
>
> His hat has blown off and is 30 ft behind him in the
> driveway. All windows on the north side of the house are
> blown out and there is a slow rolling mushroom cloud about
> 2000 ft. over our backyard. There is a Honda 185 3 wheeler
> parked on the other side of the yard and the fenders are
> drooped down and are now touching the tires.
>
> I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I
> don't know - I know I said something. I
> couldn't hear. I couldn't hear inside my own head. I
> don't think he heard me either... not that it would really
> matter. I don't remember much from this point on. I said
> something, felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I
> felt a sharp pain, blacked out, woke later....repeat this
> process for an hour or so and you get the idea. I remember
> at one point my mom had to give me CPR. and Dad screaming
> "Bring him back to life so I can kill him again". Thanks
> Mom.
>
> One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that
> stump again, Mom had been bitching about that thing for
> years and dad never did anything about it. I stepped up to
> the plate and handled business.
>
> Dad sold his muzzle loader a week or so later. I still
> have some sort of bone growth abnormality, either from the
> blast or the beating, or both.
>
> I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into
> archery. It's good discipline and will teach them skills
> they can use later on in life.

EdgeWalker I have not laughed that much and That loud in like forever!!!!!!! Holly Shit that was funny I mean I could see it all as it transpired !!!!
Dude you have made my day Big Time!!
Thanks for that reply
Laughing Dragon

Edgewalker54;
That one is about the best anything, anyplace & well told besides.
Will have to rethink getting archery sets for the grandkids