double shots in a cap and ball 44

[farmbif]

ive been reading this series of books about mountain man preacher, by William Johnstone and quite often it talks about double loaded cylinders in a cap and ball gun. two lead balls loaded in each cylinder. is this just fiction or is it something that can be done safely and if so how?

[Winger Ed.]

I'm not a cap & ball guy, but I wouldn't do it any more than I would put two standard size boolits in a .38Spec.
or anything else. I'd heard of BP rifles loaded with 'buck & ball' but I'd be rather leary of that too
if the combined weight was much more than the standard bullet for one.

I'd think the pressure would go way up when it fired.
A Remington design might be OK and hold together,
but I sure wouldn't want to be holding a open top like a Walker Colt when it went off with 2 boolits.

[stubshaft]

I don't think that pressure would be a problem as there would be very limited space for the powder. I'm thinking of maybe 15-20 grains behind the two balls. Velocity would be dismal.

[Castaway]

Even in a rifle, two balls don’t do very well in accuracy at any distance. A ball has a BC just above a rock, and when the base of the front bullet meets the front of the lower bullet, the deformation is significant on both balls. If I were jump shooting rabbits I might consider it, but not practical even for that

[HWooldridge]

I don't think that pressure would be a problem as there would be very limited space for the powder. I'm thinking of maybe 15-20 grains behind the two balls. Velocity would be dismal.

^^^This. Two balls in anything except a Walker or muzzle loaded pistol wouldn’t have much powder capacity.

[Swineherd]

Could take some .38 cal round balls and squashthem until they're approximately .45 wide.

They'd be flattened to conserve room for a powder charge.

Might need to get creative with your squashing method, to conserve a profile which would accommodate loading the disks without having them turn all cattywompus.

[armoredman]

I've seen a double load fired from a barrel being tested, two .54 caliber balls and a honking big powder load - no worries. But in a revolver? MAYBE a Ruger Old Army...

[Swineherd]

How in the devil could this possibly be dangerous?

Just because it's something you've never imagined before doesn't automatically categorize it as dangerous.

[ascast]

I seem to vaguely recall a 45-70 Guard Duty load that was 3 balls over black powder. I'd have to check the books before I loaded any.

[HWooldridge]

I seem to vaguely recall a 45-70 Guard Duty load that was 3 balls over black powder. I'd have to check the books before I loaded any.

I tried this once with a 45-70 rolling block - and although nothing bad happened, accuracy was pretty horrible. I seem to recall one ball hit the target at 25 yds and the other two hit the outer frame. For any type of accuracy, stick to a single bullet, even if it's just a short collar button boolit. Nothing is gained by using more pills.

[Swineherd]

Pills are gained.

[stubshaft]

How in the devil could this possibly be dangerous?

Just because it's something you've never imagined before doesn't automatically categorize it as dangerous.

You want to imagine a dangerous spike in pressure? Load a ball with some airspace between the ball and powder!

[HWooldridge]

Pills are gained.

Es verdad.

[Swineherd]

You want to imagine a dangerous spike in pressure? Load a ball with some airspace between the ball and powder!

Oh, I thought we were talking about loading a powder charge under two appropriately sized projectiles, with no air space.

Generally, when someone asks a question about changing a single variable within a standard procedure, I don't answer the question under the assumption that every other variable will be changed in the most catastrophic way possible.

But, since that's the game we're playing now, has anyone warned the OP against loading a huge powder charge, with a large air space, under two oversized projectiles, into a revolver that has ten sticks of dynamite duct taped around the barrel?

While playing in traffic?

[armoredman]

What do you have against playing in traffic? I told my kid to do that every other day...

[farmbif]

well I wasn't thinking of trying this. just wondering if anyone has ever heard of this being done. or I guess we can chalk it up to pure fiction. Johnstone's books are fiction but a bunch of the stuff in them is based on facts from historical archives.

[Swineherd]

There are plenty of examples of multiple projectiles in single cartridges. I wouldn't doubt more than a handful have played with them in cap and ball revolvers.

[JSnover]

You can load two or even three balls over smokeless powder. It didn't shoot very well when I tried it in a .357 revolver (a long time ago) and the cases often split, but the gun held up ok. I can't remember the load data but whoever commented about the reduced powder capacity is correct.
We're talking about black powder here and I imagine that would be even safer when properly loaded, given the amount of compression I've applied to some BP cartridges loaded with Goex 3F. I just wouldn't expect it to shoot very well.

[William Yanda]

How in the devil could this possibly be dangerous?

Just because it's something you've never imagined before doesn't automatically categorize it as dangerous.

Let me observe that if it was practiced, it was not widely copied.

[Doughty]

farmbif, just because something was not done often or not efficiently, doesn't mean that somebody didn't do it and might have thought it was a great thing. At one time .22 shorts were thought to be suitable self-defense rounds.