Light Dragoon flintlock

[dromia]

Naw, probably in breach of some regulation about destroying Hymenoptera Apocrita habitat.

[matdoodson]

So I shot the Light Dragoon with a .615" ball and 24 grains of medium black powder. It went well, but felt underpowered. You could see the ball hit the back stop at 25 yards and in some cases it didn't penetrate the sand and just rolled back down the slope!

The next week I upped the charge to 36 and wow! The pistol felt great, positive but not overloaded. The ball pushed on through the ply target backings and there were no signs of distress to the pistol. So for mine at least it seems to like a bit more powder and what an experience shooting such an old piece of history. I'm hooked! Thank you all for your guidance...

[dromia]

Pleased you have it shooting to your satisfaction.

Smooth bores usually do need to have the ball driven hard to give any sort of repeatable accuracy.

In the shorter barrels of pistols I have found that appropriate wadding that centres the ball on the barrel and holds it there for its journey to the muzzle means good accuracy with lighter loads.

Unfortunately good wadding, a centred ball and a stiff charge doesn't give twice the accuracy/half the group size.