Wheelgun And Handcannon!

[BD]

Hi All,
I just traded for a repro cavalry Le Mat. My first black powder gun. Anyone have experience/intimate knowledge/favorite loads?
BD

[missionary5155]

Good morning and Happy New Year
The Lemat is just a little different than any 44 caliber BP revolver.
First measure your .44 cylinders. Removes cylinder for easy working. Make sure cylinder inside is oil free. Pin guages would be real helpful here. But you need to accurately find the largest diameter of whichever cylinder mouth. If that is .453 then you want .454 pure lead balls. If the largest cyinder is .456 then you need .457 and so forth. The ball must fit tight into the cylinder.
Percussion cap... Check the manual it should say use #10 or #11. Try one and see if it goes on the nipple all the way snugly. I would test fire a cap on each cylinder to burn out any oil in nipples.
Powder.. 2F is the basic load. I would also plan on trying 3F. But inicially use whicheveryou have. I would start with 25 grains 2F or 3F. Add a felt wad if you are inclined on top of the powder. I do or do not. There is hours of reading about "to wad and what kind" in the Black Powder thread.
So remount the cylinder. At your shooting place add powder to a cylinder and a wad ifyou want.
Add proper diameter soft lead ball. It must ram down on top of the powder. The rammer is attached to under the barrel. The smallest diameter cylinders will cut a ring off the ball.. this is normal. But ball must seat on top of the powder. No air space. On top of the ball add a BP grease filling cylinder mouth.. plain old Crisco works well. No petrolium greases. Bad ! Forms an asphalt type mess when mixed with BP fouling. Crisco and BP lubes stay soft.
Now you are ready to add the proper fitting percussion cap. So with a safe background and with no one standing down range cap those 44 cylinders take aim and fire. I would start at 10 yards.
The shotgun barrel... Clean. Read the maunual or read on the internet the sugested charge and shot load. It is nothing more than a short shotgun. Powder, wad, shot, wad and your are ready to cap.
While you have the cylinder off grease the outside of the shot barrel with a BP grease. You can use straight Crisco here again.
This is just a short get you going story. 10,000 more words will only muddy the story and make you wonder why on earth you should want to start shooting BP revolvers. There really is alot more that can be done to optomise accuracy but that really gets beyond having fun today.
Clean up .. Hot water with a little DOVE dish soap added. Dry, oil and you are ready for another outing. You need to get all the crud and water out of the whole revolver. Disassembly will be required for long time shooting. If you are going back out again next day detailed disassembly not needed. But you will have to sooner or later.
Expect your revolver to shoot as well as you can. My 1862 model remington still shoots fly-eye deadly after 150 years of being here.
There.. I write no more... go shoot the thing and have fun but safey. Yes you can add more powder or even shoot with less... but that 25 grains will be close to where your best accuracy will happen with round ball.
Mike in ILL

[Wayne Smith]

One thing, expect the loading lever to come loose when you fire it. It is held in place by a piece of spring steel, same as the originals, and was reportedly a problem with them, too. I broke mine years ago trying to tighten it, e-mailed Piettia, and Mr. Piettia returned my e-mail with the above information and a request for my addy, he sent me a couple of them, assuming, I guess, that I would try again! I guess spring steel doesn't like to be bent. I must still have one around here somewhere.

[BD]

Thanks for the replies! Unfortunately i got no manual in the deal. My only local source has no actual black powder, but does carry Pyrodex FFG equivalent, and #10 and #11 caps. Is the Pyrodex OK for this application? The loading lever/shotgun ramrod holder is definitely a poor arrangement. For now I'm thinking a big rubber band, (slice of bicycle tube), is in order, and I'll keep the shotgun rod in my range bag. In the future I may make a new, more robust, spring steel clip.
Wayne, what size caps are you using?
BD