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New to Black Powder shooting. Help!

PROHUNTER01PROHUNTER01 Member Posts: 28 ✭✭
edited January 2009 in Black Powder and Cowboy Action Shooting
Just bought a 1858 Navy Black Powder revolver. I have no idea what kind of powder or primer(cap) size to use ? Do I use wads too ? If someone can help, I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks!
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    ken44-40ken44-40 Member Posts: 201 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Welcome to the wide wide wonderful world of charcoal burning.

    Basically, a .44 cal '58 Remmie clone would use a .451 or .454 round ball, .44 cal lubed wad and between 25 and 30 gr of fffg blackpowder ignited by a #10 Remington cap. (RWS 1075 or CCI #11 would work but not as well). A .36 cal would use a .375 round ball, .36 cal lubed wad, 18 to 25 fr of fffg blackpowder with cap selection being the same.

    Below are a few sites you can got to that will give you more information than you can digest..

    http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?board=31.0

    http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/board,82.0.html

    http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207029

    http://www.curtrich.com/bpsubsdummies.html

    http://www.curtrich.com/frontiersmen.html

    These web sites and forums are guaranteed to give you an information overload and should answer most, if not all of your questions. If you need further questions asked, regular participants in the listed forums will be glad to help.

    Have fun.

    Fingers (Show Me MO smoke) McGee
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    glabrayglabray Member Posts: 679 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It isn't all that difficult. First of all, make sure you use a round ball that is slightly larger than the mouth of the chambers. The balls need to be pure soft lead. Swaged balls are most accurate because they don't have a sprue bump from a mold. When pressing the ball in, there should be a thin ring of lead shaved off all around. This seals the chamber so that you won't get a multiple discharge. Conical bullets are generally undersize, need to be lubed over, and are not as accurate as balls. The correct amount of fffg black powder is the amount that will be compressed about 1/8-inch when the ball is seated onto it and the ball is fully below the front of the cylinder. Try different caps until you find which one fits the nipples of your gun best and fire reliably.
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    BlairweescotBlairweescot Member Posts: 2,014 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I haven't checked all the links given, so this may be redundant info

    You want a ball that is oversized to the point it leaves a ring of lead after it's been pressed into the chamber

    Cap size is subjective; my BP pistol calls for 11s, but they are too loose. 10s fit perfectly. You shouldn't need to crimp them, just push them on

    I advise using a felt wad, lubricated. Powder, wad, ball. The wad ensures that there is no air gap between the poweder charge and the ball; it is also a way to keep things nice and neat

    I remove my cylinder, pour my powder charge, and top it with the wad. Then I re-install the cylinder and seat each ball. The wad makes sure the powder can't spill. While I load the balls, the pistol is pointed downrange in my hands, it's not in a loading stand. In my opinion, loading a firearm while it is pointed even remotely at my head as I lean over the firearm is not smart. After each ball is seated, then I cap each nipple and go shoot.

    I remove the cylinder to load even though my pistol is an open top with a barrel wedge, because firstly I consider it much safer, and secondly, I can easily and quickly clean fouling that way and take a quick peek down the barrel, too
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