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Original 36 cal SB pistol, min charge?

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Newly O’Brian

Newly O’Brian

12ga, 32, 36, 44, 45, 54 and 58 cal
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I have an original 36 cal SB percussion brass barrel pistol.

What would you suggest for minimal starting charge?

8 grs of 4F with a .350" PRB?

20240610_195322.jpg
 
Newly O’Brian said:
I have an original 36 cal SB percussion brass barrel pistol.

What would you suggest for minimal starting charge?

8 grs of 4F with a .350" PRB?

View attachment 326601
Click to expand...
Nice looking pistol. If it were mine, and it was me loading it, I would go with about 20 grains and a thinly patched .350 ball. Wait a minute and a few folks that know more about these small pistols will drop by and chime in. Haven't had too much experience with tiny pistols myself yet. And I'd use 3f.
 
If it has a patent breech then be sure to use enough powder so that when the prb is seated it's against the powder w/o any void between them. I recently read somewhere, probably on this forum, that a good starting charge for a pistol is half the caliber, so for a .36, 18 grains would be about right but I would start a little under that due to the brass barrel. I would use FFFg, not 4F. I have a .36 smooth bore pistol, and 12 grains of 3F is accurate and fun to shoot. My pistol does not have a patent breech but the barrel is steel. Good luck, nice looking gun!
 
Interesting piece.

I will also say, start with 1/2 the caliber in grains. So the .38 gets a starting load of 18 by the book so to speak.
Now I would go down to 15 and work up in 2 grain increments to find an optimum load.
So do like 6 shots to determine the group you get with a load. Like it? Keep it. Hate it....try again and again until you find the group you are happy with.
 
My squirrel load in 32 caliber rifles is 12 to 15 grains of 4F or 3F under patched round ball. For a pistol like you have I would start at maybe 10 grains of whatever powder was on hand and bump it up until I had the POI and accuracy where I wanted it and it call good to go. In a smooth bore you may want to try both patched and bare ball combinations.

Doubt either granulation of powder will give you a complete burn, but the 4F will be cleaner, and either 3F or the 4F at 10 grains should give between 900 and 1000 fps coming out of a 6” barrel, with the 4F the hotter of the two.

Just an FYI. 00-1/2 buckshot is about .340” diameter, while 000 buckshot is about .360”. What actual diameter does your barrel’s bore measure?
 

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