Old TC Hawkens and rifling ratio

[Buckeye Guy]

Pearly
I shot one of them for many years and you have been given a good bit of real good advice
put them maxi's in her and let then fly
if your hart it set on balls let me tell you you have a bit of work ahead of you
gota have good balls and proper patch and some good lube, also leave them fake powders home
start shooting and don't quit start about 50 grains of black and keeping bumping it up
50 will probably shoot good but feel kinda puny if 60 and 70 get worse skip to 100 and see what you get
110 or 120 will probably settle in for you and tell the story if it does and I am confident it will
Or you can drop back to 90 and add the patches like patrick was talking may take 2or3 of them
have fun and hope you enjoy cleaning it as you will be doing that alot to get thru this whole process
the better the lube you have the more shots you can get between cleanings
after a couple of pounds of powder you will have a good start on learning your gun and she will become a part of you after a bit more

[Hawkdancer]

Pearl Drum,
Target loads and hunting loads are very different   Try  a .015 patch and a .490 RB, target load about 25to30 gr 3F,  hunting load about 75 gr 3F and work up/down to get what you want.  For hunting, the really old guys tell me 85 gr 3F pushing a maxi ball or buffalo bullet will stop an elk up to 150 yes, no problem, assumed a good shot in the vital zone- otherwise we come up with a new name for you:)
I have not hunted with my .50 cal TC yet but it does well enough with the tight patch and rb's on the range.  Driving tacks isn't really necessary for hunting, as you know just a solid hit in the vital organs.  But don't mess up the liver, it is real good with wild rice and mushrooms in a wine sauce . Yum!
Hawkdancer

[Marc St Louis]

Not about a muzzleloader but I used to have a single shot 20 gauge shotgun that I used to load and shoot round balls from, with smokeless.  It was incredibly accurate

[bowtarist]

I put a green mountain barrel on my renegade. I called the company, googled it, told them the serial number and the gave me all the info I needed; ball size, powder load, patch thinkness, grade of powder, all that stuff. Maybe you could try that also. Made for a quick answer.
Have a gooder buddy, dp