Adamantium
New member
I've started to get the itch to buy a BP muzzle loader, probably nothing fancy but just something to target practice with for fun. The problem is that I don't want to put money down on a new gun if it turns out that I can't stand all the smoke and smell of BP. So I've come up with the idea to reload some ammo in black powder to try out and see if it is worth investing more time and money in. Also it is my understanding that some of the guns I own now are chambers in cartridges that were designed for black powder, the .303 Brit and the 12 ga. shotgun. I just can't find any load data or information of differences from the loading of smokeless powder.
Some things I've learned so far are:
1. I can't use any powder measuring device intended for smokeless powder to measure BP, it would be dangerous.
2. BP is measured by Volume, not weight. I read somewhere that for loading rifle loads you add just enough powder to have a slight compression from the bullet.
3. For shotguns you just use a 1/4th inch fiber wad instead of a modern shot cup. Also the hulls you use will only last a reload or two tops, so I've saved some cheap promo ammo hulls because I wouldn't want to use a hull that could be reloaded many more times anyway with smokeless.
4. For my uses FFg would be the proper powder size. I've already bought a pound for the pyrodex version of that, but if it turns out that I can't use it I guess I just might have to buy a BP rifle for it so it doesn't go to waste, I did the same thing a while ago with a couple of 30 rd. AR mags I had laying around my house and I just love my like new pre-ban M4 with Trigicon night sights, A3 upper and Olympic Arms ultra match lower .
Thats it though, and if that was all I knew about reloading smokeless I wouldn't even touch it. I am wondering if you guys could fill in some of the holes that I've got, like the actual ammounts of powder to use, and saftey precautions I need to know before hand. I am also not sure about the differences between pyrodex and normal BP other than they can be used interchangably and pyrodex is more common because it is classified as a propellent and not an explosive. Also if what I'm trying to do is not same then let me know, because I do prefer to avoid hurt where ever possible .
Thanks
Sincerely,
Adam
Some things I've learned so far are:
1. I can't use any powder measuring device intended for smokeless powder to measure BP, it would be dangerous.
2. BP is measured by Volume, not weight. I read somewhere that for loading rifle loads you add just enough powder to have a slight compression from the bullet.
3. For shotguns you just use a 1/4th inch fiber wad instead of a modern shot cup. Also the hulls you use will only last a reload or two tops, so I've saved some cheap promo ammo hulls because I wouldn't want to use a hull that could be reloaded many more times anyway with smokeless.
4. For my uses FFg would be the proper powder size. I've already bought a pound for the pyrodex version of that, but if it turns out that I can't use it I guess I just might have to buy a BP rifle for it so it doesn't go to waste, I did the same thing a while ago with a couple of 30 rd. AR mags I had laying around my house and I just love my like new pre-ban M4 with Trigicon night sights, A3 upper and Olympic Arms ultra match lower .
Thats it though, and if that was all I knew about reloading smokeless I wouldn't even touch it. I am wondering if you guys could fill in some of the holes that I've got, like the actual ammounts of powder to use, and saftey precautions I need to know before hand. I am also not sure about the differences between pyrodex and normal BP other than they can be used interchangably and pyrodex is more common because it is classified as a propellent and not an explosive. Also if what I'm trying to do is not same then let me know, because I do prefer to avoid hurt where ever possible .
Thanks
Sincerely,
Adam