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Ok so new Pietta .44 1858 on its way along with all the paraphernalia and some Hodgson 777 3F powder to start with while I wait for my explosives license to be processed, no 10 caps, some wonder wads and some 10mm soft wads.

Also have a book on order from mlagb

I've downloaded the manual and it says to use loads between 12min-15max grains of 3F under the .454 ball, however during my research on the Web on the gun I've read quite a few reviews from our friends over the pond who have purchased their guns from Cabelas and they send out their own manual which gives them much higher powder charges of 25-30 grains so I'm interested in what you guys are using as in:

powder charge
wads
ball seating depth
Do you grease/lube over the ball (is this essential when using wads?)

Thanks

My go to charge for the .44 holster revolvers is 24 gns 2f or 3f, I prefer 2f as it takes up a bit more room in the cylinder and as I use Swiss it likes a little bit of compression. Work up and down from there, I cannot really comment on this load for Triple 7 as I have found the stuff erratic and I will not use it.

I make my own wads from quality 1/4" high density felt soaked in a stiffish mixture of beeswax and tallow.

With a good fitting ball and wad I don't grease over the cylinder mouths, if I was using a dirty caking powder like Krankies nutty slack then I would as that fouling needs all the help it can get to stay soft.

There is a lot of debate around greasing cylinders to stop chain fires as there is a prominent school of thought that says that the chain fires come from loose caps and flash over going down the nipples. Theoretically to mind either way is possible and chain fires do happen occasionally so a well sealed cylinder and good fitting caps should cover all bases. Cap to nipple fit can be a bit of a challenge as the manufacturers do not seem to have agreed any standards, the nipples with the gun can be easily reduced by chucking them into a drill and spinning them 'tween some emery paper.

People say that the ball should be seated as close to the cylinder mouth as possible and use various fillers like semolina to take up space, from my experience it makes no difference to my groups so I don't bother.

If you are one of those people that subscribe to the no air gap between powder and ball then with the smaller loads you will also need to ensure that the ball is seated down onto the powder as the rammer will not seat the ball down to the base of the cylinder so with light loads you may get an air gap, these loads will need the ball seated down with a dowel.

Ruger Old Army:- 17grns BP, 457 Ball. No wads or filler or anything else.
Also sometimes use 3grns for a bit of fun.
I load my cylinder outside the gun so the ball is seated "firmly".

I did use wads but only to stop the powder falling out before I put the ball on top.

Mark

A couple of comments, I find a No.11 RWS cap a better fit on my Pietta 1858 Remington and I always put a small dab of fat on the top of each chamber just help with the fouling. I certainly don't attempt to seal the chamber with grease. I've no experience with BP substitutes and I use a 1.6cc Lee scoop of 3f which equates to around 26g.


I've never understood how people think a spark can get passed a ball that is so swaged into the cylinder it's left a ring of lead around it.

Just an aside for anyone who is into these Italian repro revolvers then I can heartily recommend "Percusion Revolvers by Cumpston and Bates", ISBN-10: 1-62873-695-X. The load data for BP and substitutes with velocities is of interest as well as the history around the originals.

30gns by volume of 3F for .44/.45. I don't use grease, fillers or wads with BP or Pyrodex. With 777, stick to the published Hodgdon loads.

Aye hard fecker you!

Bet you cross the road without looking and shoot your revolvers with the grips off.

As stated if you're using 777 use what is stated on their data sheet here https://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/muzzleloadi ... CKBOX_1=on
777 is apparently very particular in terms of how much it is compressed as well as needing no air gap and it can, according to the manufacturers create pressure spikes if used otherwise

dromia wrote:Aye hard fecker you!

Bet you cross the road without looking and shoot your revolvers with the grips off.

No, it's just that BP revolvers "need" to have BOOM, fire and billowing clouds of smoke!

23gns in a .36 Pocket Police, now that's a hand stinger!

I can attest to its extreme sensitivity to compression leading to pressure spikes with triple seven, nasty stuff from my experience and not worth the pennies.

If you must use substitutes and I can think of no reason why you should then Pyrodex is far more benign than triple 7 as far as loading is concerned, its fouling however is far more hygroscopic than black powder.

They are black powder guns so why use inferior products.

Regarding smokeless powders and jacketed bullets they are just passing fads and will never catch on.