New .54 Caliber Barrel for my Cabela's Hawken Rifle

Two years ago I took a very large doe in Tioga County, PA with my left handed .50 Cabela's (Investarm) Hawken. The ball was loaded over 70g grains of 3Fg black powder and impacted at about 55 yards. It was a high chest cavity broadside shot with the ball impacting a few inches behind the right shoulder. It made a mess of the chest cavity but the deer ran, which is normal. What I wasn't happy with was the minimal blood trail, which was difficult to follow with the forest floor covered in leaves. A complete pass-through would've have let more blood out faster and made the blood trail easier to follow.

I thought about experimenting with conicals like a Hornady Great Plains or Lee REAL bullet, but then I saw that muzzle-loaders.com carries replacement barrels for this rifle in .54 caliber. They sell it as the Bridger Hawken. Since I like shooting patched round balls I decided to get the larger caliber barrel.

It came well packed and included a replacement tang, which I didn't use. The barrel came with sights and a nipple. The gun as it now looks:

Monday I took it to my club and zeroed the sights for 50 yards. Like my Investarm Gemmer Hawken, it likes a .530 patched ball on top of 80 grains of 2Fg Scheutzen black powder. I used CCI No.11 caps for ignition.

The first two shots were in one hole at the bottom right. After some sight adjustments I put 6 rounds into the group in the center. POA was 6:00 on the bullseye. This is an SR-1 target. The black is 8" in diameter. Of note is that the barrel doesn't seem sensitive to lube. Most of my shots were lubed with Mr. Flintlock, since that allows me to shoot many rounds without swabbing. However, I also shot some rounds lubed with Track of the Wolf's Mink Oil Tallow, which I'll use when hunting. The 6 shot group I circled was 3 shots with Mr. Flintlock and 3 with Mink Oil Tallow.

I recovered about half the patches I used. None showed signs of burnout or cuts. The edge fraying is normal for fired patches, IME.

I lost count of how many rounds I shot but it was around 25 - 30. I shot my last 5 offhand at 50 yards. By this time I was tired and the recoil was getting to me, but this would still put a deer in the freezer.

Speaking of deer, this fawn was hanging out at the range. I took this from about 100 yards with my iPhone 12 before I started shooting. He moved to another part of the property while I was shooting but I saw him nearby on my way out.

Hopefully I'll get to connect with a deer during the October anterless-only season. While I'm not expecting any deer I shoot to drop on the spot, I'm hopeful that the larger, heavier ball will create an exit wound that causes the animal to bleed out more and sooner, for a more humane kill and less tracking.