Howdy
So how did the shoot go?
For the record, I have been using nothing but Black Powder cartridges in all my CAS guns for at least 15 years now, maybe more.
Bullet Lube: I used to pan lube regular hard cast bullets with a mixture of about 50/50 Crisco/Beeswax. I found that regular hard cast bullets carry enough lube for a revolver, but would get starved for lube about 6" from the end of a rifle barrel, resulting in reduced accuracy. Then I started adding a grease cookie under the bullet between the powder and the bullet. I put a card wad between the grease cookie and the powder to keep it from adulterating the powder. This put more lube in the bore, but resulted in terrible accuracy because the lube cookie was sticking to the base of the bullet and making it fly like a lopsided dart. So I added another wad between the bullet and the cookie. Way too much work! Powder, wad, cookie, wad, bullet.
Then I discovered Big Lube bullets and never looked back. They carry enough soft bullet lube to keep the bullet well lubed for the longest rifle barrel.
I simply load the bullet directly on top of the powder, compressing the powder between 1/16" to 1/8" with the base of the bullet. That's it. No, the base of the bullet does not get deformed by the powder. I tested some loads with both a wad between the bullet and powder and some without. No significant difference in accuracy that I could measure. Less work is simpler for me.
No, I do not use a drop tube to settle the powder for my CAS loads. No need. For my single shot 45-70 loads, yes. But not for my 45 Colt, 45 Schofield, 44-40, 44 Russian, or 38-40 loads.
When I was still pan lubing I put wads on top of my 44-40 loads all the time. No problem.