Black powder rifles

[Beekeeper]

I have a question that was asked of me by my step Grandson.
He believes anything his alcoholic father tells him.
His question to me was " can any caliber rifle be fired with BP"
You know 30-06, 308, 8MM?

In truth I had no answer for him as I had never considered it before and told him I would find out so I need your input so I can give a good and correct answer.


Jim

[Don McDowell]

Yes they can be, but for why would be the next question.

[jhrosier]

While any cartridge could be fired with BP, the fouling might make some calibers nearly a single shot proposition.
Small bores, say less than .38 caliber, coupled with bottlenecked cartridges would tend to foul very quickly.
Open your "Cartridges of the World" and take a browse through the obsolete section. You will see mostly straight walled or slightly tapered cartridges from the black powder era in the smaller bore sizes. The few botllenecked cartridges are mostly larger bore sizes.

OTOH, the original loadings for the .303 Brit. were BP. I managed to more or less duplicate the original load by heavily compressing the powder charge. The powder burned surprisingly clean and accuracy was about passable. The recoil and muzzle blast would get your attention though.

Jack

[Beekeeper]

Don,
I would never want to.
The question was asked of me by a 19 year old who's father spends most of the day in a bar soaking up the great truths spoken there.
I wanted to answer his question as best I could to dispell some of the **** his father tells him.
His father lives in Texas and seems to have a ready answer for everything of "FU" and if the bar flies tell him it is so then it must be so.

I have no intention of firing BP in a smokeless rifle and no desire to either.
I have fired both smokeless and BP in my 71/84 Mausers but they are made for both and do quite well either way.

Jim

[RMulhern]

While any cartridge could be fired with BP, the fouling might make some calibers nearly a single shot proposition.
Small bores, say less than .38 caliber, coupled with bottlenecked cartridges would tend to foul very quickly.
Open your "Cartridges of the World" and take a browse through the obsolete section. You will see mostly straight walled or slightly tapered cartridges from the black powder era in the smaller bore sizes. The few botllenecked cartridges are mostly larger bore sizes.

OTOH, the original loadings for the .303 Brit. were BP. I managed to more or less duplicate the original load by heavily compressing the powder charge. The powder burned surprisingly clean and accuracy was about passable. The recoil and muzzle blast would get your attention though.

Jack

Jack

"The recoil and muzzle blast would get your attention though."

Not withstanding...the attention of quite a few Zulu as well!!:bigsmyl2::holysheep:-o

[NickSS]

The answer is yes but why? In my youth I did load both 303 British and 30-06 with black powder and jacketed bullets. Accuracy was ok but I had to add lots of elevation to get on target. These were some of the first ammo I ever loaded due to the fact that I had black powder for a muzzle loader and I knew nothing of smokeless power. If black was all you have it would work to get you dinner in an emergency. By the way they do boom quite well and make interesting smoke that smokeless does not do.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Now, a 505 Ginbbs holds about 140gns FFG and a 715 cast projectile . . . .might just work[smilie=w: