More GreenHorn Questions

[Kennesaw Cowboy]

Thanks to "fal308" & "faraway" for the responses to my first questions!Now for the next,I'm trying to figure a rough monthly budget for this sport & am wondering if someone can give me a fairly close guesstement as to how many rounds a 1 pound can of powder will yield?Thanks for your time.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Depends on what your shooting and how many grains you're using per shot.

BTW, this reminds me of the frontiersmen and why they went to the smaller caliber rifles over the big bore jagers rifles carried by the German & Swiss settlers. The frontiersman was also concerned about powder consumption and use of lead.

 

[fal308]

Gary hit it on the head as usual. Most guys I know who shoot C&B use between 20 - 35 grains, depending upon caliber. Not sure what the loadings are in BP cartridge. As I said before, that's a whole 'nother ballgame.
For some reason I can't recall exactly but IIRC there's around 7000 grains to the pound (I think). So 7000 divided by number of grains per round should equal number of shots per pound of powder.
Most guys (and gals) who shoot CAS have a relatively large budget the first year they shoot compared to the following years due to the cost of firearms and accoutrements. The outfit you wear is a bit part of CAS. We only allow someone to come in street clothes (jeans, t-shirt, ball cap, sneakers etc) on their first shoot. After that , they should at least have a modicum of western attire; a hat, western-looking shirt and boots. Some of the guys that shoot at my club have at least half a dozen complete outfits, along with several sets of firearms.

Once you're up and running though, your budget shouldn't be too bad, unless you shoot a match every weekend and travel much to get to them.

 

[bfoster]

Compared to shooting a centerfire revolver (whether or not you handload) shooting a percussion revolver isn't expensive.

Let's say that you want to shoot 500 shots monthly, and that you don't cast your own lead balls.

$35- 500 lead balls @ $7/100 (44 calibre)
$24- 2# FFFg @ $12/# (500 charges @ 28 grains/charge)
$3- enough cornmeal to "top off" your cylinders so that the balls are correctly seated.
$10- percussion caps @$20/1000
$10- lube. There's a wide range of choice here. You can get by with Crisco, you may well want to use something else. You'll never manage to use $10 worth of Crisco shooting 500 shots from a C&B revolver, you could well use $20 worth of some of the more costly commercial products. Or, you may decide to make your own lube...

That's $82 for 500 shots.

Costs can be cut considerably if, like many of us, you are shamelessly cheap. If you're able to scrounge lead you can cast your own balls for a fraction of the cost of purchasing them ready made. Too, I've listed caps at the going rate in many shops. Sometimes you can find them at a consideably lower price.

Bob