Black powder measure?

[Idaho45guy]

I need to load a bunch of .45-70 govt loads for sighting in and a match in a month. Will need around 100 rounds.

It's been years since I loaded any BP rounds, and I still have the drop tube, vegetable wads, and 100 cast and lubed 500 grain boolits.

If I remember correctly, I can't use my RCBS powder measure due to it being plastic, and occasionally a grain will get caught in the mechanism and I feel a crunching sensation. That would be very, very bad with black powder.

So, is my only option to slowly pour powder onto the scale until I hit the 65 grains I need?

100 rounds is going to take forever, I fear.

[hawkenhunter50]

I use a big powder flask like this https://www.amazon.com/Muzzle-loaders-Black-Powder-Flask-Capacity/dp/B07WNKJWM9

to fill one of these https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/85/1/MAS-120

to close to the weight I need and then trickle in the last little bit.

It's pretty quick process once you get going.

[M-Tecs]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?202509-Powder-Measure-for-black-powder

the last reply below is an option.

https://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1521038714

[Nobade]

My standard Redding measure has been dispensing black powder charges for over 30 years with no problem ever. I don't worry about it.

[Don McDowell]

I've loaded tens of thousands of blackpowder rounds with my Lyman DPS 1200 until it finally crapped out and now am using an RCBS charge master.

[Lead pot]

The fastest way to set off black powder in your loading room is cleaning it up and run a shop vac under the bench. When the lid pops off you know you found some spilled powder :D

[Gunlaker]

If you don't want to use that powder measure, a cheap set of Lee Dippers will work pretty well. For the first few years I used them and trickled in the few grains. Now I use an MVA measure and the dippers stay in the drawer for the most part.

Chris.

[Froogal]

I've used my Lee powder dispenser quite a lot for black powder.

[country gent]

Several ways to go about this.

1) make a dipper a grain or 2 short and use it to pre weigh charges close. A case can be sacrificed for the dipper.
A case rough cut to length then use your trimmer to finish to charge weight. A length of heavy copper wire for a handle when done.

2) Your RCBS measure with a ground strap or the plastic hopper replaced with a brass or aluminum tube

3) one of the lymann Hornady or other BP dedicated measures

$) I use a Belding and Mull measure with giid results. They can be found fairly reasonable at times.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Static can’t set off BP.

This old urban legend needs to be put to bed permanently.

https://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html

Kenny W

[Zad Fnark]

I use my Lee dippers to get in the ballpark and tap the rest onto the scale. Sometimes I even get it perfect on the first toss. :)

[Idaho45guy]

Static can’t set off BP.

This old urban legend needs to be put to bed permanently.

https://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html

Kenny W
Thanks! I have an old Lee powder measure that doesn't get grains caught in it, so will use it

[Mr.doug]

I agree with Kenny ive been using a hornady for years with no problems. There are a lot of articles out there about setting bp. And it's not as easy as you think.

[veeman]

I been using my old orange Lyman 55 for near 40 years, never an issue.

[Finster101]

The fastest way to set off black powder in your loading room is cleaning it up and run a shop vac under the bench. When the lid pops off you know you found some spilled powder :D


First hand experience?

[Idaho45guy]

Made 50 match worthy rounds tonight. Took me 3 hours. Why? Because the Lee powder measure is so wildly inconsistent that I had to weigh every charge and adjust accordingly before dropping it down the drop tube.

Here are 4 charges in a row. I was trying to get 65 grains. I did not touch the adjustment for any of these pulls...

299140

299141

299142

299143

So, it went slow, but they are done.

299144


I have two different brands of cases; Winchester and ones marked "F-P". The difference in case capacity between the two is enormous, with the Winchester case on the left having much more capacity...

299145

Both loads are obviously compressed, but I wonder how much difference the POI will be between the two rounds based on one being much more compressed?

[indian joe]

Made 50 match worthy rounds tonight. Took me 3 hours. Why? Because the Lee powder measure is so wildly inconsistent that I had to weigh every charge and adjust accordingly before dropping it down the drop tube.

Here are 4 charges in a row. I was trying to get 65 grains. I did not touch the adjustment for any of these pulls...

299140

299141

299142

299143

So, it went slow, but they are done.

299144


I have two different brands of cases; Winchester and ones marked "F-P". The difference in case capacity between the two is enormous, with the Winchester case on the left having much more capacity...

299145

Both loads are obviously compressed, but I wonder how much difference the POI will be between the two rounds based on one being much more compressed?

two grain spread about normal in dipper measured charges until you get a good system of tapping/ vibrating to settle the charge - I dont have a LEE measure but guessing its aluminium ? BP seems to kinda stick to AL also if the powder chamber is longish works against you . Can improve this by running some powdered graphite through the measure so to coat all the surfaces in contact with powder then clean the surplus graphite out (even helps with cut measures like a shortened case). I think you would need a specially good measure and good technique to get dropped charges inside half a grain - does it matter - chronygraph will tell that tale - if you get ES down respectable yre good

[Nobade]

Sounds like you need to keep an eye open for a Belding & Mull measure. They are the deal when it comes to precision throwing black powder charges. MVA makes a version of it if you have a lot of money to spend.

[country gent]

Try wrapping a dryer sheet around the measure at the hopper drum junction. It may help with the cling and flow. Im not familiar with the lee measure but my bp tubes for the Belding and Mulls I made have a cupped face in them this helps a lot.

You might also try one or two light "bumps" on the handle when filling the cavity to settle the powder in. The lee hoppers arnt as big but a baffle may improve things also. these can be cut from a plastic pop bottle to regulate the powder on the drum when filling.

[indian joe]

Sounds like you need to keep an eye open for a Belding & Mull measure. They are the deal when it comes to precision throwing black powder charges. MVA makes a version of it if you have a lot of money to spend.

I am using ungraphited powder (more tricky again in measures) dont mind time in the loading room these days and so I am fine with weighing charges for the bigger cases, best investment for ages was a little digital jewellery scale off fleabay - its about three times quicker than the balance beam - and dead accurate so far - was about 25 bucks landed in my mail box.

[greenjoytj]

I dispense BP with:

Redding 3BR powder measure.
It’s fast and accurate, my favourite dispenser. I do disassemble and clean it after dispensing BP and re-wax it with a high quality car wax to help prevent rusting. So far no rust.

RCBS Chargemaster 1500 electronic dispenser and digital scale combo.
Works great but it’s slow particularly for large charges.

Lyman 55 BP measure.
It works just as accurate as the my Redding but harder to adjust.
The adjustment system is very odd by today’s standards of micrometer adjusters.
Which explains why I often read about people that own several Lyman 55’s and keep them adjusted for specific powders.
Not surprised the Lyman stopped making this measure.
Watch for rust occurring in the iron frame, requires a complete disassembly and cleaning after each use. I had vacuumed out mine put it away for a year or two. When I checked it a small amount of rust was in the iron frame at both end bearing surfaces but none in the main powder cavity area.

LEE dippers along with a digital scale and a powder trickler.
Depending on the charge to be used the system is surprisingly fast.
A custom made desired charge weight specific dipper would speed the powder dispensing process if using this syetem.

[Tazman1602]

OK it’s been a while since I loaded any black or pyrodex but last I knew BP and substitutions were measured by VOLUME and NOT weight….what am I missing here guys because I’m getting fixin’ to load 45-70 and 45-90 and I do_not want to really screw things up or go bang in a bad way….

Art

[Hossfly]

I think all measures thro a volume, to know the weight you have to weigh it.

[indian joe]

OK it’s been a while since I loaded any black or pyrodex but last I knew BP and substitutions were measured by VOLUME and NOT weight….what am I missing here guys because I’m getting fixin’ to load 45-70 and 45-90 and I do_not want to really screw things up or go bang in a bad way….

Art

ok I will kick the hornets' nest for ya....

If you think about it most powder charges are measured by volume as they are dispensed - smokeless measures for safety sake we calibrate by weighing at the start and the safety conscious among us will check a charge on the scale periodically just in case something moved (I weigh check every tenth one) - start messing with stuff like bullseye and red dot in small cases and a couple grains extra can result in an ambulance visit . The first reloading I ever did was shotgun ballistite in a 32/20 - we took a sample of powder along with our load spec to the local chemist shop and got the dispensing pharmacist to weigh a charge for us, put it carefully into a gel capsule to take home and we cut a bullet shell measure to hold the exact same volume as he had weighed out - later when we changed to more suitable powders I bought a quality scale and loaded many thousands of rounds (32/20,44/40, 303/22) using homemade scoop measures calibrated by scale. Never had a problem - later years as stuff got cheaper and I got more cash I bought a good rotary measure for my smokeless loading - but if you dont have a scale you should not be allowed have a measure (for smokeeless powders)

Blackpowder being what it is, a couple grains extra, even in small cases is no big deal safety wise, so we can skip the scales if we so desire.
Whatever way you want to twist it grains is a unit measure of weight NOT volume (CC is volume - we see that marked on the LEE dipper measures) so when someone hands you a blackpowder measure with grains marked on it - someone, somewhere, sometime, calibrated that thing by either weighing charges into it OR taking an educated guess based on the volume of it. Happily most blackpowder density (weight per volume) is close anyhow - seems like swiss and wano are a tad more dense than Goex and most homemade is less dense again than Goex - but we can safely fill a case with any brand (of BLACKPOWDER) without need of an ambulance visit.
I load ungraphited powder (have done that for over 25 years) that needs a little more care and attention filling a scoop measure to get consistent velocity (doesnt matter much with plinker loads or a muzzleloader or anything shot under 100yards)
I get Extreme spread in the range of 20 to 50 FPS doing that (maybe sneaks a little higher sometimes) and is as good as most smokeless loads - for bigger cases like 45/70 where I am trying for accuracy at longer ranges or trying to squeeze the best off the sandbags at 100yards, I can get that ES down into single digit (under 10 FPS) If I do everything carefully and weigh my charges - reason enough for ME .........

Understand weighing is not a safety issue, blackpowder cases were designed to be safe when they filled to the base of the boolit plus a little compression with appropriate granulation of BLACKPOWDER - you can load em like that (eyeballing it) and have a lot of fun shooting - blow your head off doing the same thing with smokeless!

disclaimer - I have no experience whatsoever with pyrodex or any other substitute powder. Follow the directions on the can for those .........

[ascast]

I use a Belding & Mull or Lyman 55. The Ideal #5 is the same as the Lyman 55 but with cast iron hopper if your worried about that. I don't think it matters. I think if static electricity could set off BP we would have seen it by now. But do not rub any on a hairy bigfoot.

[ascast]

I have a spare Ideal #6 if you want to duplex load.

[Nobade]

I think the whole volume thing came about because of Pyrodex. At least I have never heard it mentioned before that stuff hit the market. The idea is, it will equal the power of black powder for an equal volume. But that volume weighs less than the same volume of black powder. So if you want to load say a 45-70 with pyrodex, you either use a measure calibrated for black powder and set it to 70 grains, which will throw a lighter charge of Pyrodex, or use an adjustable measure, fill it with black powder, and adjust it to throw 70 grains. Then dump that out and use Pyrodex, and don't weigh it because it will weigh a lot less.

[greenjoytj]

As Noblade mention above substitute BP weighs less than real BP for an equal volume.
For substitute black powder measure by volume, then weight that volume to to discover its weight. Make several volume throws and weigh then to find the average weight.

[Wayne Smith]

Yup, it is the substitute powders that cause the confusion. They are significantly less dense than black powder. Thus the confusion in measuring them and the use of 'grains volume' - a misnomer if there ever was one. "Grain" has always been and is a measure of weight, there is no such thing as a 'grains volume'.

Powder, black and smokeless, is measured in grains of weight, one grain equaling 1/7000 of a pound. (Just to confuse things further, I don't know 'drams' - is a dram a measure of weight or volume?). Pyrodex and the other substitutes, being less dense, was going to be a problem because people might use weight measures and significantly overload their gun. So we were told to use the weight markings of volume measures to measure an equal volume of the substitutes. Reasonable and clear. But as this permeated down through magazine articles and conversations around the campfire ... confusion occurred. Especially when the person talking did not realize the markings on the measure indicated weight of black powder.

It has nothing to do with measuring by weight or volume, powder is routinely weighted to check the volumetric measure and we measure each charge by volume, not weight, unless we are using a long stick powder and carefully adding to the volume to get the right weight.

[Don McDowell]

Way back when Pyrodex first came out and Hogdons bought it out, in their little reloading manuals they gave the instructions to use it on a volume basis in a black powder measure, and even printed a chart to give approximate weights when thrown from a blackpowder measure.
Hit the rewind button back 150 years and the literature put out by Sharps and Remington, they mentioned both methods of powder charges. Both of those along with other books written in the day pointed out the importance for accuracy sake of weighing the powder charges especially in long range shooting. Sharps even went so far as to print in their catalog the conversions from Apothecary to drams and grains weight. Several of the books in print at the time listed the best places to get the quality scales.
No there's not a safety factor in throwing black powder charges by weight or volume, but if your concerned about finding the accuracy from a given lot of powder you'll weigh it out. That's not to say that very careful and repeatable process in dropping bp charges from a volume measure can't happen, but weighing each charge, and adjusting each charge to the same weight isn't that hard of a thing to do.
And I can't help but wonder if weighing out the fake bp aka substitutes might not help some of the accuracy woes that many have when shooting that stuff.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Way back when Pyrodex first came out and Hogdons bought it out, in their little reloading manuals they gave the instructions to use it on a volume basis in a black powder measure, and even printed a chart to give approximate weights when thrown from a blackpowder measure.
Hit the rewind button back 150 years and the literature put out by Sharps and Remington, they mentioned both methods of powder charges. Both of those along with other books written in the day pointed out the importance for accuracy sake of weighing the powder charges especially in long range shooting. Sharps even went so far as to print in their catalog the conversions from Apothecary to drams and grains weight. Several of the books in print at the time listed the best places to get the quality scales.
No there's not a safety factor in throwing black powder charges by weight or volume, but if your concerned about finding the accuracy from a given lot of powder you'll weigh it out. That's not to say that very careful and repeatable process in dropping bp charges from a volume measure can't happen, but weighing each charge, and adjusting each charge to the same weight isn't that hard of a thing to do.
And I can't help but wonder if weighing out the fake bp aka substitutes might not help some of the accuracy woes that many have when shooting that stuff.

Wisdom right there.

Kenny W

[Tazman1602]

Thanks Indian Joe and all the rest. I’ve reloade smokeless for 45 years but have always been a bit wary of black. That stems from an incident in the mid 70’s involving a cheap cap and ball pistol and two….ahhh, cute girls I was trying to impress….when I looked finally just the wood grip was left in my hand. Mom almost killed me when she opened a cabinet and the breech-plug was sticking out of the wall inside the cabinet. I’ve always checked loads by weight every ten rounds or so with smokeless, I’ll let you know how my loads turn out.

Art

[Idaho45guy]

Thanks Indian Joe and all the rest. I’ve reloade smokeless for 45 years but have always been a bit wary of black. That stems from an incident in the mid 70’s involving a cheap cap and ball pistol and two….ahhh, cute girls I was trying to impress….when I looked finally just the wood grip was left in my hand. Mom almost killed me when she opened a cabinet and the breech-plug was sticking out of the wall inside the cabinet. I’ve always checked loads by weight every ten rounds or so with smokeless, I’ll let you know how my loads turn out.

Art

That sounds like a great story!

[Tazman1602]

That sounds like a great story!

Oh boy….so, those of you old enough to remember, up here just below the Mackinaw bridge in Michigan we had a store called Giantway, it was the only “big store” in the county back then say around 1974. Along with groceries etc, they also sold hunting supplies, Winnie 94’s ($99), ammo, and they also sold these “do it yourself” black powder guns cap and ball or flinters. Barrel, lock, and normally a cheap piece of maple which we would “hog out” to fit all the parts into. Once done (remember my buddies and I were like 16 and we HAD all the answers)…and knew nothing about measuring powder — Fess Parker never measured…as Dan’l Boone he dumped powder, patched a ball and rammed it home, fired every time.

This usually worked out pretty good and we were Kings of the north, dumping powder, ramming a ball, and BANG! Lots of smoke and only God knew where that ball hit but it was fun! One day a couple of local girls were over to the house and they were, well, VERY cute. One of them spotted my prized cap and ball and asked if it was real and did it actually shoot? Of course it did! Then the girl with the big eyes and large…..smile….said the famous last words….”Why don’t you show us”? I wasn’t from Missouri but those…..words….lit me off. Grab the powder flask, balls, wads and cap and off we went.

To the front porch and I was thinking “does it shoot— of course it does and I’m Fixin’ to show them!” Half cock the hammer, turn pistol barrel side up and add some powder. Doe eyes was smiling at me now….if she wants to see “bang” I’m gonna show her……dump a little more powder….she’s still smiling so dump a little more, patch the ball and ram it home…..hmmmm, ramrod was really long tamping the ball this time but I’m sure it’s ok.

Put a primer on, take aim at the barn…..and just before I squeezed one off I thought “that powder MIGHT be a bit much”……..doe eyes smiled at me again and went inside the kitchen to watch through the window. I closed my eyes, lifted that pistol as far away from my head as I could, turned my head, closed my eyes and squeezed…

I thought a danged atomic bomb went off, heard something smash into the outside kitchen wall behind me, felt an awful recoil in my hand and couldn’t see a thing because of all the smoke. The thought “hey that was groovy” go through my head, looked up and all that was left was a bit of the wooden pistol grip in my hand. Only Jesus himself knew where the barrel went but behind me was a bit of a hole in the siding….no one will ever know….

The girls thought I was crazy (true, I had only one single thought in my mind at that age…) and left, I thanked God I wasn’t dead, but the next morning when mom went to get coffee and I heard her say “What the hell is THAT”! I knew I was in trouble….the barrel plug went right through the wall, through the cabinet, and was sticking out of it right where her favorite coffee cup USED to be…unfortunately I was the only one who had a black powder pistol and she guessed what had gone on. Only Jesus Christ himself saved me from getting beat to death that day and I promptly got some magazines that showed how to measure powder and load them properly. Never again did I “Dan’l Boone” a black powder load and that gentlemen is a true story about how….

Before one can get old and wise, one must first be young and stupid. It was rare that I saw those girls again…hope you enjoyed,

Art

[Idaho45guy]

Oh boy….so, those of you old enough to remember, up here just below the Mackinaw bridge in Michigan we had a store called Giantway, it was the only “big store” in the county back then say around 1974. Along with groceries etc, they also sold hunting supplies, Winnie 94’s ($99), ammo, and they also sold these “do it yourself” black powder guns cap and ball or flinters. Barrel, lock, and normally a cheap piece of maple which we would “hog out” to fit all the parts into. Once done (remember my buddies and I were like 16 and we HAD all the answers)…and knew nothing about measuring powder — Fess Parker never measured…as Dan’l Boone he dumped powder, patched a ball and rammed it home, fired every time.

This usually worked out pretty good and we were Kings of the north, dumping powder, ramming a ball, and BANG! Lots of smoke and only God knew where that ball hit but it was fun! One day a couple of local girls were over to the house and they were, well, VERY cute. One of them spotted my prized cap and ball and asked if it was real and did it actually shoot? Of course it did! Then the girl with the big eyes and large…..smile….said the famous last words….”Why don’t you show us”? I wasn’t from Missouri but those…..words….lit me off. Grab the powder flask, balls, wads and cap and off we went.

To the front porch and I was thinking “does it shoot— of course it does and I’m Fixin’ to show them!” Half cock the hammer, turn pistol barrel side up and add some powder. Doe eyes was smiling at me now….if she wants to see “bang” I’m gonna show her……dump a little more powder….she’s still smiling so dump a little more, patch the ball and ram it home…..hmmmm, ramrod was really long tamping the ball this time but I’m sure it’s ok.

Put a primer on, take aim at the barn…..and just before I squeezed one off I thought “that powder MIGHT be a bit much”……..doe eyes smiled at me again and went inside the kitchen to watch through the window. I closed my eyes, lifted that pistol as far away from my head as I could, turned my head, closed my eyes and squeezed…

I thought a danged atomic bomb went off, heard something smash into the outside kitchen wall behind me, felt an awful recoil in my hand and couldn’t see a thing because of all the smoke. The thought “hey that was groovy” go through my head, looked up and all that was left was a bit of the wooden pistol grip in my hand. Only Jesus himself knew where the barrel went but behind me was a bit of a hole in the siding….no one will ever know….

The girls thought I was crazy (true, I had only one single thought in my mind at that age…) and left, I thanked God I wasn’t dead, but the next morning when mom went to get coffee and I heard her say “What the hell is THAT”! I knew I was in trouble….the barrel plug went right through the wall, through the cabinet, and was sticking out of it right where her favorite coffee cup USED to be…unfortunately I was the only one who had a black powder pistol and she guessed what had gone on. Only Jesus Christ himself saved me from getting beat to death that day and I promptly got some magazines that showed how to measure powder and load them properly. Never again did I “Dan’l Boone” a black powder load and that gentlemen is a true story about how….

Before one can get old and wise, one must first be young and stupid. It was rare that I saw those girls again…hope you enjoyed,

Art

Well told! Thank you!

[indian joe]

Way back when Pyrodex first came out and Hogdons bought it out, in their little reloading manuals they gave the instructions to use it on a volume basis in a black powder measure, and even printed a chart to give approximate weights when thrown from a blackpowder measure.
Hit the rewind button back 150 years and the literature put out by Sharps and Remington, they mentioned both methods of powder charges. Both of those along with other books written in the day pointed out the importance for accuracy sake of weighing the powder charges especially in long range shooting. Sharps even went so far as to print in their catalog the conversions from Apothecary to drams and grains weight. Several of the books in print at the time listed the best places to get the quality scales.
No there's not a safety factor in throwing black powder charges by weight or volume, but if your concerned about finding the accuracy from a given lot of powder you'll weigh it out. That's not to say that very careful and repeatable process in dropping bp charges from a volume measure can't happen, but weighing each charge, and adjusting each charge to the same weight isn't that hard of a thing to do.
And I can't help but wonder if weighing out the fake bp aka substitutes might not help some of the accuracy woes that many have when shooting that stuff.

I have not shot subs but the couple I have seen used at the range (Pyrodex and one other) didnt look like they would flow in a measure near as well as commercial BP - there
would nearly have to be an accuracy improvement from weighing charges.

Also have not been able to get scale accuracy of charges from scoop measures or spout on a flask setups - get close sometimes if yre meticulous with process but then its as slow (at least) as using a scale. The electronic scale has speeded up my weighing heaps.

[GregLaROCHE]

I been using my old orange Lyman 55 for near 40 years, never an issue.

I’ve been using my 55 for a few years now with BP. At first I wondered, but after doing research, I decided there wasn’t much more to worry about as any other part of reloading. If someone is worried about the plastic and static electricity, why not run a ground wire to discharge any. That’s what is supposed to be done with metal airplanes when refueling.

[GregLaROCHE]

Thanks Indian Joe and all the rest. I’ve reloade smokeless for 45 years but have always been a bit wary of black. That stems from an incident in the mid 70’s involving a cheap cap and ball pistol and two….ahhh, cute girls I was trying to impress….when I looked finally just the wood grip was left in my hand. Mom almost killed me when she opened a cabinet and the breech-plug was sticking out of the wall inside the cabinet. I’ve always checked loads by weight every ten rounds or so with smokeless, I’ll let you know how my loads turn out.

Art

Please give us the details of the breech plug. Sounds interesting.

[Lead pot]

Oh boy….so, those of you old enough to remember, up here just below the Mackinaw bridge in Michigan we had a store called Giantway, it was the only “big store” in the county back then say around 1974. Along with groceries etc, they also sold hunting supplies, Winnie 94’s ($99), ammo, and they also sold these “do it yourself” black powder guns cap and ball or flinters. Barrel, lock, and normally a cheap piece of maple which we would “hog out” to fit all the parts into. Once done (remember my buddies and I were like 16 and we HAD all the answers)…and knew nothing about measuring powder — Fess Parker never measured…as Dan’l Boone he dumped powder, patched a ball and rammed it home, fired every time.

This usually worked out pretty good and we were Kings of the north, dumping powder, ramming a ball, and BANG! Lots of smoke and only God knew where that ball hit but it was fun! One day a couple of local girls were over to the house and they were, well, VERY cute. One of them spotted my prized cap and ball and asked if it was real and did it actually shoot? Of course it did! Then the girl with the big eyes and large…..smile….said the famous last words….”Why don’t you show us”? I wasn’t from Missouri but those…..words….lit me off. Grab the powder flask, balls, wads and cap and off we went.

To the front porch and I was thinking “does it shoot— of course it does and I’m Fixin’ to show them!” Half cock the hammer, turn pistol barrel side up and add some powder. Doe eyes was smiling at me now….if she wants to see “bang” I’m gonna show her……dump a little more powder….she’s still smiling so dump a little more, patch the ball and ram it home…..hmmmm, ramrod was really long tamping the ball this time but I’m sure it’s ok.

Put a primer on, take aim at the barn…..and just before I squeezed one off I thought “that powder MIGHT be a bit much”……..doe eyes smiled at me again and went inside the kitchen to watch through the window. I closed my eyes, lifted that pistol as far away from my head as I could, turned my head, closed my eyes and squeezed…

I thought a danged atomic bomb went off, heard something smash into the outside kitchen wall behind me, felt an awful recoil in my hand and couldn’t see a thing because of all the smoke. The thought “hey that was groovy” go through my head, looked up and all that was left was a bit of the wooden pistol grip in my hand. Only Jesus himself knew where the barrel went but behind me was a bit of a hole in the siding….no one will ever know….

The girls thought I was crazy (true, I had only one single thought in my mind at that age…) and left, I thanked God I wasn’t dead, but the next morning when mom went to get coffee and I heard her say “What the hell is THAT”! I knew I was in trouble….the barrel plug went right through the wall, through the cabinet, and was sticking out of it right where her favorite coffee cup USED to be…unfortunately I was the only one who had a black powder pistol and she guessed what had gone on. Only Jesus Christ himself saved me from getting beat to death that day and I promptly got some magazines that showed how to measure powder and load them properly. Never again did I “Dan’l Boone” a black powder load and that gentlemen is a true story about how….

Before one can get old and wise, one must first be young and stupid. It was rare that I saw those girls again…hope you enjoyed,

Art


Art,

Back in those early days, mine started in the 50's those front stuffers were fun and still are for me. The more powder down the barrel the more smoke and ball of fire :D.
They also shoot a arrow farther than a Bow LOL, yes were very fortunate the good lord watched over us and still is for some.
Yes I hunted in your woods for many years as well as when they opened a special black powder season I think was back in the late 70 or 80's.

[Tazman1602]

Please give us the details of the breech plug. Sounds interesting.

Greg at that time I was 16-17 and didn’t know what a “breechplug” was. I did know there was a “line” on the rear of that percussion barrel and knew it was probably a a separate part but had zero idea how it was attached to the barrel…..

Art

[Tazman1602]

Art,

Back in those early days, mine started in the 50's those front stuffers were fun and still are for me. The more powder down the barrel the more smoke and ball of fire :D.
They also shoot a arrow farther than a Bow LOL, yes were very fortunate the good lord watched over us and still is for some.
Yes I hunted in your woods for many years as well as when they opened a special black powder season I think was back in the late 70 or 80's.

Hey Lead….I didn’t know about the arrow trick until I was about 24 or so and needed to feed the family, an old guy (about my age now…) told me that if I emptied the shot out of that 20 gauge shell and was real careful curling the arrow feathers into it and sawed off the barrel of that SS Kreske $25 shotgun —- still legal, 18.250”…..probably……it would shoot arrows real well.

In those days if we didn’t limit out on deer we ate a lot of hamburger helper or whatever it was at that time….thank God the statute of limitations ran out on everything I ever did about 25 years ago….I never touched black powder again until about ten years ago ……

Art

[FrankJD]

I'm using the new Lyman orange measure, works just fine for me and black powder.

[sharps4590]

Static can’t set off BP.

This old urban legend needs to be put to bed permanently.

https://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html

Kenny W

^^ This. I used my RCBS for 20 years before I knew I wasn't supposed to. I do have a Belding & Mull I use now but mostly because I bought it as an antique and like to use it. They are accurate. If my RCBS was all I had I'd still be using it.

The vacuum cleaner is another myth that needs to be laid to rest. The dirt, dust and other stuff picked up by a vac doesn't pass anywhere close to the motor, it's sucked up by an impeller, driven by a motor driving the suction force. I've nev3er so much as had a whiff of smoke and I've used a vac for 50+ years, central and upright, to clean up droppings.

Liquids with fumes are another matter entirely.

[59sharps]

I've been using my RCBS uniflo for 30 yrs now. But won't tell you you should or could use it.
I also have a lock and load In use now. But won't tell you you should or could.

[Lead pot]

The vacuum cleaner is another myth that needs to be laid to rest.



Yes I did just that :D

[namsag]

Well I’m like a lot of others above, I threw probably at least 200 black powder charges in my RCBS Uniflow before I found out it was supposed to have killed me. I don’t use it anymore because after finding that out I got a Belding and Mull and then a MVA measure, they are way cooler and they are more accurate too.

[FrankJD]

Lyman 55 for more than a few decades, ain't been blowed up ... yet!