G'day folks,
I'm new to reloading black powder cartridges and I'm hoping that I can tap into the collective for some advice on relaoding black powder in several cartridges. Both the wife & I are looking to venture into Black Powder / Frontier Cartridge for Single Action competition here in Australia.
As such I'm looking to reload black in these cartridges: 32H&R mag, 38Spl, 44-40 and 12ga.
I've had a few guys advice against using a card wad cut out of cereal pack. Is this a thing or not? A mate who runs BP loads in his 44-40, uses a card wad pushed down on to of the powder, then a qty of his homemade lube before seating a cast 200gn projo on top. He hasn't had any issues with using a wad and he does so to seperate the lube from the powder and prevent any issues with contamination of powder. Especially here in our hot summer weather.
The loads that I was considering are:
44-40 - 205gn powder coated castRNFP sized to .427", Starline brass, Federal Large pistol primer. Powder is Wano Precision PPPg and using the Lee powder thrower twin disk unit on the turret press, with the 0.76 hole in both disks, it throws a charge of approx 22gns. I've made up a few test loads with the card wad pressed down on top of the powder, then a very healthy wad of lube, then the projo seated. From basic measuring of base of bullet to top of wad, there would be little to no air gap once the lube is squeezed in to fill the void. What is the collective opinion on this loading??
38Spl - 135gn powder coated cast, sized to .358" RNFP. Various brass, though mainly USA and Winchester. Federal small pistol primers. Wano Precision PPPg black powder, .7cc Lee powder scoop which equates to about 9.5gns. same process as the 44-40 loads.
32H&R magnum - Starline brass, cast powder coated 105gn projo. Wano Precision PPPg powder, Lee powder scoop 0.5cc. Winchester Smal pistol primer.
12ga - Winchester Ultra-lite AA hulls and wads to suit. 7/8th Oz of No7 shot. Winchester Shotshell primers. From memory it's a 1.3cc Lee powder scoop of Wano FFg powder.
Would appreciate the advice, information of the collective black powder cartridge reloaders. Thanks in advance.
Gunnie