Reloading Blackpowder Bottleneck Cartridges

AmmoRat

I am interested in starting to reload some black powder bottleneck cartridges like the 11mm Beaumont, 43 Spanish reformed, and the 11mm Werdl. My question is, are these bottle neck cartridges compression loaded like the straight walled cartridges? I will be loading these cartridges with either black powder or a black powder substitute to find a load that shoots the best. No, I will not be using any smokeless powder. I'm already loading the straight wall cartridges (25-20 SS, 38-40, 45-70, 38) with black powder and they are all compression loaded to some extent and was wondering if the same is true for the larger bodied bottle neck cartridges like the 11mm Beaumont.

surbat6

They'll shoot best if you use a drop tube to load the powder and compress the powder charge at least a bit.