.380 long rifle antique handgun

[gaucho9]

Double barrel (SXS) exposed hammers European (Spanish or Belgian) handgun marked 380. Long chambers, thin walls, good rifling. more than 100 y.o. and for sure black powder gun. Available (Midway) Fiocchi's 380 long rifle ammo is loaded with smokeless and a jacketed boolit. Afraid to shoot this ctg. On a previous (BerdanIII) forum discussion I found a lot of info about bullets (heeled vs non-heeled) but the powder recommended was Unique (smokeless).

My questions are: Can I use black powder? And what BP load would give me the "right" chamber preassures so as not to have this thing blow in my hands?
Can I empty the Fiocchi ammo and reload them with the correct 125 gr heeled lead boolits?

Plan to shoot it remotely the first few times... THANKS

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_243444fdcc584a1e35.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=5619)

[williamwaco]

That is a beautiful piece.

You are sure going to be unhappy if it fails.

If it were mine, it would be a safe queen for sure.


.

[gaucho9]

Agree with your feeling. But I am really inclined to shoot this one. Remotely for sure for the first time.

[richhodg66]

That is a nice piece.

I happnned upong a Tranter revolver recently in (I think) .455 Eley. I contemplated trying to shoot it, but got kinda scared, I sure don't want to ruin it. SOmething I thought about was shooting wax bullet indoor type loads through it, maybe that would be a place to start.

[Mk42gunner]

Only you can decide if the gun is safe to fire; it is in your hands, we are looking at pictures.

You should be able to pull the jacketed bullets from the Fiocchi ammo and reuse the case, but check case lengths first. Some of the older cartridges have had multiple case lengths, for example .32 Long Colt.

Once you locate dies, (or figure out how to load it with out dies) and find a mold, it shouldn't be too difficult to load with BP.

Good Luck and Welcome Aboard,

Robert

[Wayne Smith]

Just fill the case just above the base of the bullet with BP and seat the bullet. The bullet should slightly compress the powder to ensure no air space. That's really all there is to loading BP.

[Bigslug]

How tight is the gun? Does the action close up solid with no wiggle, or does it feel wobbly like a cabinet door with stripped out screws?

Light charges of Unique would be nothing to fear in a tight gun. I'd be looking at bottom-end .38 Special charges, and probably wouldn't see a need to venture anything hotter. A loose gun I'd be hesitant with regardless of the propellant.

As already stated, black powder needs to be compressed for safe ignition. If you aren't comfy with the notion of a full charge, you can fill the front of the case up with various combinations of card stock, lube cookies, or felt wads. Personally, I'd go with the anemic charges of smokeless to eliminate those extra chores - as well as those associated with cleanup.

[gaucho9]

Sorry I took so long to thank all of you for the wonderful advice you've gave me. I got some of the Fiocchi ammo and today am going to my neighbour gunsmith with a printed copy of these pages and see what we can do...

[gaucho9]

Follow up: Today we removed the jacketed bullets and the cases are of the right length. The powder was similar if not equal to Unique. Now to hunt for the "right" lead bullets. And as for "anemic load" or light loads of Unique, what would you recommend? This gun, as evaluated by a very competent smith, and is tight and according to him, safe to use.

[runfiverun]

4grs of unique would make that brass and gun last a bit longer.
something like this would be pretty easy to modify for your purposes, simply by adding an upper lube groove and cleaning up the heel a tick.
http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=35-120A-D.png
I'd give Tom a call.