Something Else Between Powder And Ball
- Thread starter Shotput79
- Start date
Shotput79, we must have reasons....... why don't you want to use the felt wad? Cost? You could use a 38 Special case as a wad cutter and use cheap felt weatherstripping. I think the wads are a lot easier to use than messing with cornmeal, etc.
Or, just load her up with all the powder she can hold and let er rip. Lots more fun IMHO.
Or, just load her up with all the powder she can hold and let er rip. Lots more fun IMHO.
bedbugbilly
New member
I make custom holsters / leather goods in the winter. I take some of my heavier scraps / cuttings of leather and stamp out leather wads. I only recently got a couple of 44s but I've done this for my 36s. I then take the leather wads, melt the crisco/toilet ring wax lube that I mix up and use over the balls . . and soak the leather wads in it and then set them out to dry on paper towel. All it takes is my time and they seem to work fine for over the powder. I just keep them in an old Altoids tin which will hold over a 100 of them.
bedbugbilly
I to was wondering about the leather rounds from my leather pounches. Might try them.
The other day I had a bright idea of punching out a bunch of heavy card-boad wads and them soaking them in Gatafeo's lube. I use them for target loads in my 1858 Rem. One over the powder, a charge of cornmeal, a felt wad, then the ball. Works for me.
I to was wondering about the leather rounds from my leather pounches. Might try them.
The other day I had a bright idea of punching out a bunch of heavy card-boad wads and them soaking them in Gatafeo's lube. I use them for target loads in my 1858 Rem. One over the powder, a charge of cornmeal, a felt wad, then the ball. Works for me.
Gunn Smithy
New member
Buffalo Arms offers up a couple of nifty products that may be of interest to you in your current quest and I've used both of them although not necessarily for cap n ball. The first is a wad maker that you thread into your reloading press and put their vegetable wad material into and punch away. In short order you will have more wads than you know what to do with. http://www.buffaloarms.com/Products.aspx?CAT=4112 The second will also work for you and also serve a secondary purpose of sealing the chambers from chain firing. It is a reservoir that holds bullet lube set into your reloading press. Pull the handle and under pressure the lube comes out in a 1" by 1/8' thick ribbon which can be punched by an empty case to form "cookies" to use between powder and ball. http://www.buffaloarms.com/Detail.aspx?PROD=160596&TERM=lube cookies This gives you a couple of options to use and Buffalo Arms is a great company to deal with. Smithy.
Why?
Perhaps I'm missing something... why all the fuss about filler between powder and ball? Why not just use a lubed wad? I'm not one these folks here that have been shooting with BP for 30+ years but in the few years I have been enjoying this; powder, a lubed wad and a ball have worked perfectly.
This reminds me of those guys in The Corps that were always looking for a way to shine their boots/shoes with something other than good ol' polish.
Perhaps I'm missing something... why all the fuss about filler between powder and ball? Why not just use a lubed wad? I'm not one these folks here that have been shooting with BP for 30+ years but in the few years I have been enjoying this; powder, a lubed wad and a ball have worked perfectly.
This reminds me of those guys in The Corps that were always looking for a way to shine their boots/shoes with something other than good ol' polish.
I don't see a good reason to use a filler. I'm not going to shoot a load so wimpy the ram cant seat the ball on the powder. For the shooting I do I can't see any difference in accuracy with the ball right at the chamber mouth or a little way down inside it. Course with my loads it's pretty close anyway.
Thinks fellows
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you guys. I see all that you fellows have posted on this thread. and you all have some great ideas. One thing I want to make clear that I should have done in the first place. I'm not going to wast food shooting it out the barrel of a gun. For one thing most of the time I've never used anything but the amount of powder a fiber lubed wad and a rd ball to shoot out of my revolvers. I get good groups. Later on I wanted to bring the ball up as close to the barrel as I could get it cause I don't always use full loads when loading target loads. I was trying find out what some of you folks were using to fill the gap. I rather find something other than food. I see some good ideas that will help me out. Believe I'll give the felt wads a try first. Thinks for all the help. ShotPut
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you guys. I see all that you fellows have posted on this thread. and you all have some great ideas. One thing I want to make clear that I should have done in the first place. I'm not going to wast food shooting it out the barrel of a gun. For one thing most of the time I've never used anything but the amount of powder a fiber lubed wad and a rd ball to shoot out of my revolvers. I get good groups. Later on I wanted to bring the ball up as close to the barrel as I could get it cause I don't always use full loads when loading target loads. I was trying find out what some of you folks were using to fill the gap. I rather find something other than food. I see some good ideas that will help me out. Believe I'll give the felt wads a try first. Thinks for all the help. ShotPut
Shotput,wool wads work well put right on the powder. Saturate them with a lube/wax combo that's not runny and won't squish into the powder when seating the ball.
A good way to avoid any consternation about how deep a ball is seated in the chamber with target loads(the most accurate isn't always the most powerful.....I know you know that) is to have a machinist/gunsmith ream yer chambers to be the diameter of the grooves in the barrel while also ridding the chambers of irregularities and taper.
You'll get better accuracy that way and be able to use any acceptable powder load without concern.
I have a milling machine and chucking reamers(four flute/straight flute) and a centering tool I had Starret makes for me. Works well enough. Straightens the taper that can be in the chambers and the irregularities.
Irregularities like you wouldn't imagine in those chambers of the Italian guns. It shows at times when a good chucking reamer is run into a chamber at a certain minimum diameter as ......a shiny chamber with black(the bluing) still showing in places on the side walls of the chamber. The black left is where the chamber walls were irregular and had wide spots like the chamber wasn't round to begin with.
Accompaning a chamber sizing/reaming is a fresh up of the forcing cone of the breech end of the barrel. A forcing cone of 11 degrees works well to fresh it up and makes it concentric with the bore for better accuracy(when using a piloted reamer that has a pilot that actually fits snug in the bore).
Accompaning that would be a check/repair(if needed) of the alignment of the chambers to the bore for better accuracy.
Do those things and worry over the seating depth of the ball with certain powder charges/fillers ect.ect. are over.
I target shoot cap&ballers too. I get good accuracy. I don't do minute of angle or the like. I do minute of rock,stump,ground hog,fence post ect.ect.ect.
A good way to avoid any consternation about how deep a ball is seated in the chamber with target loads(the most accurate isn't always the most powerful.....I know you know that) is to have a machinist/gunsmith ream yer chambers to be the diameter of the grooves in the barrel while also ridding the chambers of irregularities and taper.
You'll get better accuracy that way and be able to use any acceptable powder load without concern.
I have a milling machine and chucking reamers(four flute/straight flute) and a centering tool I had Starret makes for me. Works well enough. Straightens the taper that can be in the chambers and the irregularities.
Irregularities like you wouldn't imagine in those chambers of the Italian guns. It shows at times when a good chucking reamer is run into a chamber at a certain minimum diameter as ......a shiny chamber with black(the bluing) still showing in places on the side walls of the chamber. The black left is where the chamber walls were irregular and had wide spots like the chamber wasn't round to begin with.
Accompaning a chamber sizing/reaming is a fresh up of the forcing cone of the breech end of the barrel. A forcing cone of 11 degrees works well to fresh it up and makes it concentric with the bore for better accuracy(when using a piloted reamer that has a pilot that actually fits snug in the bore).
Accompaning that would be a check/repair(if needed) of the alignment of the chambers to the bore for better accuracy.
Do those things and worry over the seating depth of the ball with certain powder charges/fillers ect.ect. are over.
I target shoot cap&ballers too. I get good accuracy. I don't do minute of angle or the like. I do minute of rock,stump,ground hog,fence post ect.ect.ect.
Good Shooters
People at the shooting range make fun of a fellow with a black powder revolver tell you out shoot them with one. That's not the reason I go to the range in the first place. Most of the time it's so I don't have to shoot by myself all the time, and to fellowship with other shooters. You can always share and learn from others. You can learn what not to do from them also. Samething can happen here also.
People at the shooting range make fun of a fellow with a black powder revolver tell you out shoot them with one. That's not the reason I go to the range in the first place. Most of the time it's so I don't have to shoot by myself all the time, and to fellowship with other shooters. You can always share and learn from others. You can learn what not to do from them also. Samething can happen here also.
kwhi43.
Are you doing this as a test of some kind. I don't understand cutting the cylinder in half. I can't see in my mind how this is going to look. I did see one of the revolvers that was turned into a .22 cal and the cylinder was half as long as the .44 cal. Just being nosey Kwhi
Are you doing this as a test of some kind. I don't understand cutting the cylinder in half. I can't see in my mind how this is going to look. I did see one of the revolvers that was turned into a .22 cal and the cylinder was half as long as the .44 cal. Just being nosey Kwhi
Black Powder and abuse?
On the topic of the "ribbing" we BP shooters take at the range, I have gotten all from dirty looks to many good natured puns about all the smoke and odor!
I actually try and grab a spot where the smoke drifts harmlessly away from the firing line, but if the comments get unruley or mean, then I try and get right nextdoor to the complainer!
Yea I know BP stinks a little like sulpher and all and the fillers add their own aroma to it. I normally use Cream of Wheat when the gun needs a filler. It burns completelly and has a light smell as it burns.
It's funny but my Remington replicas don't cotton to the use of fillers! When I load em light, I just set the ball deep back in the chambers. Seems to shoot the most accuratelly seated deep. Colt copies seem to prefer having the ball close to the front of the cylinder.
With .36's you don't have to worry about fillers much because the powder and a Pistol wad takes up almost all the chamber and when you ram the ball you get just a little (maybe 1/16") freebore at te front of the chambers.
It seems when you shoot a Cap and Ball revolver, there are many onlookers and when I catch someone watching me load up, I try and invite them to watch and try and explain what I'm doing and to shoot my best to make them see how accurate these guns group! I have sent more than a few away saying "did you see that gun Group?"
I never challenge other shooters to match my BP groups because I want to promote BP shooting rather than alienate folks to it!
Ha-ha, my buddies at the Club do a real job ribbing me about "It smalls like Bacon" or "what's on fire" I guess the "Public" who pay to shoot , think we are enemies the way they rib me but then we all laugh it off. It's fun being the main Cap abd Ball shooter on the line, you meet a lot of nice folks and I always try to invite people back along with their guns to shoot BP with me! It's good PR for the hobby to treat folks nice besides you see just how many people own these things but don't shoot em. Clean-up seems to be the biggest objection. I explain whatever tricks I know (like using an old Hairdrier to dry parts) and people really warm-up to the help!
Well I need to get the BP Box all supplied for tomorrows shoot. It's funny how many Balls and Caps you go through! Seems like I'm always buying a tin of Caps!
ZVP
On the topic of the "ribbing" we BP shooters take at the range, I have gotten all from dirty looks to many good natured puns about all the smoke and odor!
I actually try and grab a spot where the smoke drifts harmlessly away from the firing line, but if the comments get unruley or mean, then I try and get right nextdoor to the complainer!
Yea I know BP stinks a little like sulpher and all and the fillers add their own aroma to it. I normally use Cream of Wheat when the gun needs a filler. It burns completelly and has a light smell as it burns.
It's funny but my Remington replicas don't cotton to the use of fillers! When I load em light, I just set the ball deep back in the chambers. Seems to shoot the most accuratelly seated deep. Colt copies seem to prefer having the ball close to the front of the cylinder.
With .36's you don't have to worry about fillers much because the powder and a Pistol wad takes up almost all the chamber and when you ram the ball you get just a little (maybe 1/16") freebore at te front of the chambers.
It seems when you shoot a Cap and Ball revolver, there are many onlookers and when I catch someone watching me load up, I try and invite them to watch and try and explain what I'm doing and to shoot my best to make them see how accurate these guns group! I have sent more than a few away saying "did you see that gun Group?"
I never challenge other shooters to match my BP groups because I want to promote BP shooting rather than alienate folks to it!
Ha-ha, my buddies at the Club do a real job ribbing me about "It smalls like Bacon" or "what's on fire" I guess the "Public" who pay to shoot , think we are enemies the way they rib me but then we all laugh it off. It's fun being the main Cap abd Ball shooter on the line, you meet a lot of nice folks and I always try to invite people back along with their guns to shoot BP with me! It's good PR for the hobby to treat folks nice besides you see just how many people own these things but don't shoot em. Clean-up seems to be the biggest objection. I explain whatever tricks I know (like using an old Hairdrier to dry parts) and people really warm-up to the help!
Well I need to get the BP Box all supplied for tomorrows shoot. It's funny how many Balls and Caps you go through! Seems like I'm always buying a tin of Caps!
ZVP