My son has one.. He is a lefty, and Lyman is one of the last makers of an affordable left handed flintlock.

If I recall, the twist rate is 1-48.. His seems to shot a decent ball and patch... We found .490 round ball with a .015 lubed pillow tick material patch shoots best. Our average load is 80 or 85gr of FFF in the barrel and FFFF in the flash pan.

Accuracy is a tuff thing for us to gauge, being open iron sights. We consider 2" groups at 50yrds good and 4" groups at 100 yards. And for the most part, we seem to get that off the bench. I'm thinking the gun shoots better than us.

Our very best accuracy has been using swagged round balls, but we have had decent results with our own molded round balls.

We even picked up a couple of Lee Conical molds; a 320gr mold and a 250gr mold. Both shot OK, but his Lyman seems to like the 320gr better. Comparable groups to the round balls at 50yrds, but a slightly lower point of impact. The 250gr had occasional sight flyers. Shooting conicals, the barrel does seem to foul quicker.

My son has even used 240gr Power Belts, with halfway decent results. The 1-48 twist in the Lyman's seem to shoot what ever we have pushed through it, but we did not try sabots in his.

 

Should be very good. I have an older 'plains' 54 Lyman percussion. The Lyman's are from my experience very good shooters. From the bench, a 3" round orange sticky at 50 yards and a 5" at 100 all day long. Put the rifle away for some time and am working back to tighter groups with patch/lube testing.

John

 

With a twist of 1:48 the barrel is rifled to a compromise between round ball and conical. The groups mentioned above should be representative of the rifle's capabilities. Conical bullets will likely shoot about the same as round ball with that rifling. PA lying rifles shot round ball and were typically rifled between 1:72 and 1:60.

Much better accuracy is possible with muzzle loaders using specialized techniques such as forming the bullet to bore diameter during seating, special lubes and bullet selection, and cleaning between shots. Things not practical for recreational shooting.

There is a reason that metallic cartridges, jacketed bullets, and smokeless powders caught on.

 

With a twist of 1:48 the barrel is rifled to a compromise between round ball and conical. . .

Right on! A true roundball twist is 1:66 or even 1:72, and a bullet (or conical) twist is 1:22. Even with the compromise twist good accuracy is possible. I have a CVA from the 1980's with the compromise twist and have made head shots on groundhogs at 90 yards. That was in the mid- '80's; probably couldn't do that now 'cause my eyes are now very much 2018! :hmpf:

 

Open the touchhole up to .070", use a #50 drill. Throw any cut flints you may have bought away and get some knapped flints, Fuller is about the best.
Get some 4fg for priming A lot of guys swear by Swiss null B for prime, never tried it because I have plenty of 4f.
For main charge a can of 2fg and 3fg and see which works best. Swiss and Goex Real black powders are good.
Forget ANY of the subs, they lie when they say they work in flintlocks.
Learn to knapp your flints as you shoot it extends the life and shots you get from it.
Good luck.

 

I own a Lyman Trade rifle in 50 caliber, that I bought back before there was such a thing as an "inline". I haven't shot it in a while, but it hangs on the wall in my living room and still looks new. I think I recall loading 90 grains of FFG over a lubed round patch and a round ball, number 11 caps I think (maybe 10?). Anyways, I never had any trouble busting clay pigeons hung on a post 100 yards away. After a 1/2 dozen shots or so I would have to run a cleaning patch or brush through it, but it would do it time and time again. Very well built rifles with a gorgeous English Walnut stock. I ought to bring it off the wall and see if I can still do it, no doubt the gun can. I think I paid somewhere around $300 for that rifle back in the late 80's, or early 90's.

I think I tried some saboted 44 caliber JHP in it after the inlines came about, but went back to shooting the patched round ball.

 

.530 ball 15 thousands patch. 90 gr FFG Goex. 4f in the pan.