- in cartridges. The extra care needed to keep the firearm and brass in good shape suggests a significant advantage. What is it exactly?
- in cartridges. The extra care needed to keep the firearm and brass in good shape suggests a significant advantage. What is it exactly?
More like a labor of love, and staying directly connected to our history and part of what made America great.
(It was God, guns, and guts.)
For me I like that era in history. I also like that you can have a fun day of shooting and not blow through 100's of rounds. Can have a whole day of fun and only shoot 25 rounds. It slows everything down for me. Also to shoot BPCR, well you have to shoot BP. I think the cleanup part is no worse than cleaning other stuff. Maybe the fact that you have to clean it soon, but it really isn't all that hard to clean. Often hear that but to me really no difference.
Charlie I started shooting black powder back in 1953-4. I was fascinated watching the cow boys on a 10" round Crossly TV screen. My single shot .22 Winchester was just not satisfying shooting the .22 shorts. Back then you could still find .22 ammo loaded with black at a Farmers Elevator but they just did not make smoke like the western movies I watched.
I found a NRA Magazine and in the back pages there were rifles for sale. Well I could not afford a $23. dollar sharps but I stacked hay bales for .50 cents an hour up in a hot Haymow all summer and I sent $13. dollars to the NRA and they sent me a Rem Rolling Block in the .43 Spanish. Shells were still around for it when I to the local gun shop in town and cleaned the gun shop floors and dusted and oiled the guns and old Spike furnished me with shells for the roller and showed me how to reload those Berdan primed shells.
blasting powder was free in a keg in the machine shed but Mom didn't like me using her flour sifter to get the fines to reload with. :D
It just stuck with me over the years. Heck now I even load .45 ACP's for my gold cup and .22 shells. But my supply of primed .22 cases are running low so only my cookie munchers shoot them when they come to visit. :D
I guess you can call it tradition for me.
Those are valid reasons. I got real good accuracy with my first bpcr rounds but using black makes me nervous for my barrel. Probably it will get better when I use the proper lube.
The 150+ yr old guns wouldn't be available for us to enjoy today if shooting real BP was that destructive to them. I have several with mirror-like bores that also show extensive handling/usage throughout the rest of the rifle. Just clean and oil them when you use them and they'll last forever.
Black powder is just a lot of fun. A hint for those worried about cleaning the bore, shoot a couple of smokeless rounds last, and cleaning will be easier.
To quote Steven P. Garbe………..smokeless powder is just a passing fancy!
Cleaning the gun after shooting isn't the headache part of shooting black. Cleaning the cases is the most time consuming.
If shooting with a blow tube between shots, when you're done simply blow 3-4 breaths down the muzzle and same at the breech push a dry patch thru the bore, then a patch wet with water, followed by a dry, repeat 2 or 3 times with the wet and dry. Wipe the bore out with a solvent soaked patch, and oil the bore.
When shooting the matches i use the bore wipers with the felts wet with a solution of water soluble oil and water. Last shot of the day, 2 bore wipers followed by a dry patch, and then before you put the gun in the case for the night or to head home, a couple of patches with bore solvent to remove any carbon fouling, oil it and you're good to go.
Deprime the cases, drop them in a coffee can put a jigger of oxyclean on top of them fill with warm water and with the lid held on the can roll it around in your hands for a couple of minutes, drain the black water out then set the can under the faucet and let the water run till it comes clear. Then it's just a matter of final clean and polish from what ever method of "tumbling" cases you prefer.
Shooting the rifles from that era of the 1870s and a little before or after is a lot of of fun and very interesting to say the least. One of the things that make it so interesting is that most if the real knowledge on loading and caring for these rifles has been lost or is buried. I really believe we are at about the[int of a 10 years old boy back then. Not many could write and little of the actual load data and procedures were wrote down so it was lost or distorted in telling over the years.
I find it very interesting that with the 1870s technologies that you can run with most hunting rifles accuracy wise and effectiveness.
I have been surprised with balanced loads charge bullet weight compression and wads, along with some care loading, How consistent the extreme spreads and standard deviation are. With a a lot of modern rounds 20-30 fps es is considered very good I have many BP loads that are in the 7-12 fps range. Its really amazing what they are capable of.
The other is the WOW factor, uncase a Sharps in 45-90 with the 34" tapered octagon barrel and either tang sight or full length scope on it and you have everyone's attention. When the rolling thunder comes and smoke they are completely amazed.
Not to mention that you can do things with black powder that you just can't do with smokeless. As well as being so much simpler and safer to use and load for. Quite a few of my rifles, even modern made, have never shown the kind of accuracy with smokeless that I can easily achieve with black powder. It just works.
Thanks for the replys, think I will stick with it. And you all have a merry Christmas too!
It feels just wrong to shoot smokeless in my Sharps. I know that's snobby, but it does. However, I don't have any such nausea when shooting smokeless on my CPA Stevens. Maybe because the Stevens 44 1/2 was patented when smokeless was just coming available (though I'm probably making that up). Either way, shooting black powder just feels different in every way and is much more satisfying to me.
Just realized I have a big buckthorn with berries growing in my yard. So I have good wood for the charcoal.Quote:
Originally Posted by SlippyRider
Black Powder just has a nicer recoil and report also...it is my favorite for any Cartridge it can work well in.
I agree - I just dont get all the "how much harder it is to clean" --blackpowder cleanup can be quick and easy, no big ceremony required - the one major caveat is you CAN NOT leave it till lateron - cant park the gun in the rack uncleaned until next outing and cant throw the fired brass under the bench till next loading session - got to do it immediate .Quote:
Originally Posted by hawkenhunter50
All I can do is agree about the cleaning of BPC rifles.
I don't which came first, the love of firearms or the love of history but, they definitely fed each other. As with most who grew up in the 50's I reveled in Dan'l. Boone and Davy Crockett. So, muzzleloaders and their history came first. Then somewhere I read or otherwise learned that the first cartridges were also black powder. My, my!!! Here's another entire historical bent to study and learn to put into practice. That was long before BPCR became hot, Quigley or most Sharps copies of today. I bought my first Shiloh in 1986, 4 years before Quigley.
I think everyone's answer is correct; history, a labor of love, effectiveness, accuracy, ease, (once you know how), slower pace and that satisfying shove, boom and the glorious cloud of white/gray smoke!!!
I fired 50 rounds through two different Revolvers yesterday. .45 Colt, black powder loads. When done, I disassembled the guns, sprayed Ballistol on everything, including down the bore, let everything soak for a few minutes and then washed it all off with hot water. Ran a bore snake down the bore a couple of times, and then some patches through the cylinder. A little more wiping and drying and I was done.
It's difficult to create an over-pressure event in a cartridge with BP, making it much safer for these guns. Some guns are just of a weaker design that loading with smokeless requires an expert level of care. The split receiver of the Evans Repeater comes to mind. And the recoil is much more pleasant with BP.
I shot my 76 in 50/95 the other day with BP, big boom, big smoke, and big smiles!