So having contemplated this I have decide that for this years shooting I will go the black powder muzzle loading route, I have always shot muzzle loaders and love black powder as a propellant. As the balls and bullets are larger, powder handling is on a bigger scale and priming is easier on the nipple especially with top hat caps it seemed a sensible approach to keep me shooting.
Firstly I went through the racks to re-acquaint my self with what I had, so far I've found three original Parker Hale rifles a P53, P58 Naval and a hexagonal barrel Whitworth. I also found a little percussion Jager smooth bore in .45 with which I am having a lot of fun shooting on the 25yrd range. I also found a new in box Investarms 54 calibre Hawken flinter in a another dealers bin end box which I promply purchased for a very friendly price. I have cast some RB and cut and lubed some patches for this and will be trying it out next week on the 100yrd range. So I have the makings of a decent battery of MLs already, still have to go through the obsoletes and see what I have in there as well that might be worth putting on ticket
Today however I set too with the pot and ladle to cast up some Pritcett bullets to make up some paper cartridges for the P53 and the Naval rifles.
Here is the set up.
I managed to churn out this lot of Pritchetts before my hands packed in, not bady for a single cavity and ladle.
Bullet ready to drop from the mould.
A finished Pritchett waiting to rolled into its paper cartridge.
After a wee rest I went back to the pot for another round and put up some mini Minies and round balls, all ready to make smoke with.