Lyman .54 Cal. (Hawken) Great Plains Rifle (GPR)

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Lyman .54 Cal. (Hawken) Great Plains Rifle (GPR)

LYMAN .54 CAL. (HAWKEN) GREAT PLAINS RIFLE (GPR)
LEFT HAND PERCUSSION MUZZLELOADER

- .54 Caliber
- 32" Barrel Length / 50" OA Length
- 1:60" Twist for Patched Ball Target and Hunting Loads
- Blue Finished Octangonal Barrel
- #11 Percussion Cap Ignition
- Hawken Style Snail with Clean Out Screw
- Approx. 9 lbs Total Weight
- Primitive Fixed or Adjustable Rear Sight / Blade Front Sight
- Walnut Stock
- Trimmed in Iron Furniture
- Hawken Style Iron Trigger Gaurd and Butt Plate
- Hooked Breech with 2 Wedges for Easy Barrel Removal and Cleaning
- Double-Set Hair Triggers

I bought the Lyman's .54 Caliber Great Plains Rifle or GPR for a bit of target range work but primarily for deer hunting in the Illinois muzzleloader season as the modern CVA in-line with scope was just too easy and not even a challenge. After going through many online forums and asking as many questions as I could, the concensus was the Lyman's product, although a higher price is superior in quality and accuracy than the competition.

In the box you get:
Stock with all furniture afixed, including buttplate, trigger guard lock assembly and trigger assembly
Barrel assembly with dovetailed adjustable rear sight and blade front sight
Wooden ramrod with brass tips (10x32 thread for cleaning jag, patch puller, etc)
Bag containing primative rear sight, 2 x wedges and cleaning jag
Lyman user guide
Investarm instruction manual
Lyman product catalog
A free 8 oz plastic bottle of Butch's Bore Shine (a nice touch)

The finish on the stock and the fit of metal furniture (ie trigger guard, butt plate, etc) to the stock is absolutely exceptional. The barrel finish is also quite good but has a couple of tiny machining marks but I believe this adds a bit of individuality and character to the gun. The stock itself is an absolutely beautiful rich dark grain which I am sure can be further enhanced by linseed oil or similar to bring out the wood grain even more.

The hammer recess is the one thing that is not a good fit to the nipple and the front edge just clips the nipple without a cap even being placed on it. I think this is quite poor and results in caps not firing the first time when struck by the hammer. This is not a good thing as I will be using this gun mainly for deer hunting. This detracts from an otherwise superbly finished gun. I am going to use a Dremmel to open the gap about .010 to .020 thou to allow for a better fit which should do the trick I believe. Also I could not find any Remington #11 percussion caps at the local gun shops and had to settle with CCI caps. Personally I don't like CCI caps and experience has shown me that Remington caps don't need the force CCI caps do for ignition. This is definitely the case with my black powder cap and ball pistols.

Trigger pull for the normal quick trigger is a heavy 10lb 1oz, but with the dual set target 'hair' trigger it is reduced to a very light and crisp 2lb even. Very, very nice indeed!

As yet I have not taken this gun to the range to sort out the percussion cap ignition problem, work to the rifle's most accurate load and of course zero it in at 50 yards at the range. I am hopefull to have this done in the not too distant future and add it to this report.

UPDATE on Jan 7th, 2007:

I believe I have sorted out the percussion cap ignition problem. I did this three ways to ensure I have enough clearance:

1. Using a Dremel and a #453 grinding bit, I carefully ground approximately .010-.015" from the front surface of the hammer recess,
2. Using a mill smooth file, I filed approximately .010" off the top face of the nipple, and
3. I am now using Remington #11 percussion caps. I could not buy them around here so I ordered a large quantity of them from Dixie Gun Works in Tennessee (excellent service btw).

UPDATE on Jan 8th, 2007:

The ignition problem is definitely rectified and I had only one FTF and that was my fault for not fully seating the percussion cap.

I tried several different loads using 2F and 3F. The most accurate load I found my GPR to shoot was 80 grains of Hodgdon Pyrodex 'P' or their equivalent of 3F, a Hornady .535" ball and a CVA pre-lubricated patch. This combination resulted in sub 2", 3 round groups at 50 yards and all groups had two of the three balls going virtually through the same hole. BTW, I run two dry patches through the bore after each shot.

I am using the adjustable sights that came fitted on the rifle (there is also a primitive sight in the box) and groups were shooting, with the adjustable rear sight adjusted all the way up, about 8" low and 5" to the left. I drifted the rear sight a few thou at a time to the right (which moves POI to the right) using a 2oz brass mallet and now have it shooting somewhere near center. I also filed .032" off the front blade sight using a mill smooth file and this resulted in raising the POI to about 3½" below POA. Of course after I have finished working on the front sight I will re-blue it using some Birchwood Casey Perma Blue paste.

UPDATE on Jan 27th, 2007
click image to view larger	Here are the results of my final zeroing and group confirmation at the range. Needless to say I am very impressed by the accuracy of this Lyman's .54 caliber Great Plains Rifle. I could not have wanted any better than this and it will definitely be my primary muzzleloader for the Illinois 2007 muzzledeer hunting.