Using a gease cookie and several card disk to reduce case capacity

[GARD72977]

I am not very knowledgeable about black powder loading. I am researching calibers for a gun I want to order. Just wondering if you can work up a load with a reduced capacity by using some material cut into disk to take up space in the cartridge along with a grease cookie. The idea is to reduce the recoil for shorter shots taken off hand. Maybe making a 45-90 into a 45-70?

[Don McDowell]

No you don't want to do that. Lower pressure from lighter charges often times mean more and heavier fouling. Go with a lighter bullet for the offhand shots, less felt recoil and quicker barrel time help make up for some of the wobble..

[GARD72977]

I guess another way would be to use a smaller case and have a extra bullet mold like a Buffalo Arms mold with reduced first band so you can load the bullet long and gain case capacity. Not sure how this would affect accuracy. It would be really neat to have a 40-50 and down load a little for 100yd off hand shooting and have standard capacity for longer shoots. Then you could have the reduced first band bullet for close to 40-70 loads. Just looking for all the ways to skin a cat before I order something.

[GARD72977]

No you don't want to do that. Lower pressure from lighter charges often times mean more and heavier fouling. Go with a lighter bullet for the offhand shots, less felt recoil and quicker barrel time help make up for some of the wobble..

Are you saying that a 40-50 may foul more than a 40-70?

[kokomokid]

I have used a cork wad stack in a 45-100 to reduce powder cap to 45-70. If you have a dirty case some wad stacks like ldpe can grip enough to stretch or pull a case into. Might research how the army downloaded the 45-70 for thier carbines. The carbine load would not be compeditive in bpcr today.

[Don McDowell]

Are you saying that a 40-50 may foul more than a 40-70?
No that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is when you load a case to less than it's capacity with blackpowder, due to a combination of factors the fouling will be a heavier.
The 40-50 is a sweet little cartridge, and the 40-70 is capable of doing a lot of things, altho they sometimes can be a bit cranky to get to shooting well,, but when one does get to shooting well they can be dang tough to beat.

[.22-10-45]

I have a Ballard No.3 in .25-25 Stevens. I am using black (3FG Swiss). I have succesfully used reduced loads by using a .030" beeswax wad on top of drop-tubed charge of black..filling rest of case to mouth with Puff-Lon ballistic filler. Bullet seated using Ideal No. 3 Tong tool. I first tried COW..but with the RMC brass..turned from solid..the stuff was grabbing the slight toolmarks in neck & stretching the brass. No such problems with Puff-Lon. Fouling didn't seem any heavier..but I push barely damp patch thru after each shot for match accuracy.