DD4lifeusmc
New member
Bought a new .54 cal Pedersoli Sharps couple weeks ago.
Been WAY TO windy to shoot, so been busy cleaning and lubing it
and rolling paper cartridges and loading some brass cartridges.
About out od real BP fffg no more local supplier so bought some Pyrodex ffg
equivalent.
anyway on loading the brass.
I bought the mould, new modern round nose and cast a few to get started.
Normally I am to use 80grain fffg. But manual says 50 - 52 grain with the brass.
However:
the seating land on the bullet is .500 dia. the height to first ring .124 on mine anyway.
The casing seating diameter is .493 dia and the depth of seating ring .273
50 gr does not fill full enough to allow slight compression of powder when projectile inserted.
52 is almost over full, but with some gentle tapping to "settle" the powder appears about right.
So:
How much are you pouring in?
do you tap to settle and remove the excess air or just insert?
How do you all insert the bullet?
I find I can't do it by hand, so been gently tapping with a small rubber mallet.
But afraid i may distort the lead also.
I have a snap setter press, tried it and it kinda works.
Is there a special press made for this?
Here's a picture of what I have done so far. I have 30 paper cartridges loaded.
I have my camera set to the smallest file size setting and is still 3x too big.
so will try the camera phone. It comes out at 44kb.
Hopefully winds die down tomorrow. So I can walk out the door and commence to shooting my new toy!
Been WAY TO windy to shoot, so been busy cleaning and lubing it
and rolling paper cartridges and loading some brass cartridges.
About out od real BP fffg no more local supplier so bought some Pyrodex ffg
equivalent.
anyway on loading the brass.
I bought the mould, new modern round nose and cast a few to get started.
Normally I am to use 80grain fffg. But manual says 50 - 52 grain with the brass.
However:
the seating land on the bullet is .500 dia. the height to first ring .124 on mine anyway.
The casing seating diameter is .493 dia and the depth of seating ring .273
50 gr does not fill full enough to allow slight compression of powder when projectile inserted.
52 is almost over full, but with some gentle tapping to "settle" the powder appears about right.
So:
How much are you pouring in?
do you tap to settle and remove the excess air or just insert?
How do you all insert the bullet?
I find I can't do it by hand, so been gently tapping with a small rubber mallet.
But afraid i may distort the lead also.
I have a snap setter press, tried it and it kinda works.
Is there a special press made for this?
Here's a picture of what I have done so far. I have 30 paper cartridges loaded.
I have my camera set to the smallest file size setting and is still 3x too big.
so will try the camera phone. It comes out at 44kb.
Hopefully winds die down tomorrow. So I can walk out the door and commence to shooting my new toy!