1F in a .44 Navy......

[Stantheman86]

I have a full case of Goex 1F that I bought for my .69 Muskets, and given that it would probably take me years to burn up 25lbs of powder, plus my range has a new policy against "shotguns" at the pistol range, I shoot them a lot less.

So, today I thought, why not burn some 1F in a .44

I probably should have gone with a steel frame but my .44 Brasser "Griswold & Gunnison " was what I grabbed for the task

I used the 30gr spout on my flask , with my finger in it, probably dispenses about 27 so I figured it's roughly equal to 20gr of 3f .

The arbor had a light coat of Wonder Lube, I used no wads or anything over the ball

At 15 yards, I fired 6 rounds, nice satisfying boom, an upward "push" of recoil, not a snap , and lots of smoke. After correcting my aim and aiming at the waist of the target, I fired 2 more cylinders pretty much point shooting , one handed. Most of them hit the scoring area and the few misses definitely scared it, and were just off the scoring area

After 3 cylinders , the gun got gummy and required a quick wipe down with a baby wipe and I fired another cylinder at a different target

That stuff looks like a pile of Coal in those chambers, I forgot how huge the grains are

If I had put tallow or other lube over the ball the gun probably would have kept running all day. The front of the arbor had most of the fouling

I'm sure if I sandbagged the gun , the groups would have been just fine. It didn't seem to know the difference between 1F and the 3F I had used previously.

If you want to use your imagination at the range, you can pretend that it's 1865 and you're a Confederate raider, and all you have is Musket powder and round balls you cast over a camp fire to load your tired, hard used brass frame revolver and you are just staying in the fight with whatever you can find . Or you just want to burn up some 1F that's usually in stock because few people buy it from powder inc

I wonder how that Reenactor Musket powder would work?

 

[No second place]

Plinking at large targets at short distance any BP or substitute works well enough for some fun with my non match guns. Some load work recorded in my load book helps with what charge is needed...c

 

[stikshooter]

I think a lubed wad over powder would suffice and grains would not stik and a whole lot less GOO

 

[Stantheman86]

Plinking at large targets at short distance any BP or substitute works well enough for some fun with my non match guns. Some load work recorded in my load book helps with what charge is needed...c

I've seen people put up worse targets than this at 15 yards with Glocks at my job

Combat accurate is ok with me , I like to daydream and experiment, I'm like what could this gun do with a random 30gr untested charge of Cannon/Musket powder and a round ball , only one way to find out

I wouldn't go that heavy in a Brasser again but my steel frame .44 Navy will definitely be seeing some 30gr charges of 1F. Any more than 30 would just be blowing unburned powder, in fact it probably was today with 30 of the slow burning 1F. 20 would probably do just fine.

 

[Stantheman86]

I think a lubed wad over powder would suffice and grains would not stik and a whole lot less GOO

Wads would work, I have some, I'll try them next time

 

[earlwb]

I had thought about 1F before. But I never tried it. Thanks for sharing as it is nice to know.

The range, I go to, allows shotguns but only with slugs. Shot tears up the wood target backstops too fast. So shooting smoothbore with balls or conicals would be OK.

 

[Stantheman86]

I had thought about 1F before. But I never tried it. Thanks for sharing as it is nice to know.

The range, I go to, allows shotguns but only with slugs. Shot tears up the wood target backstops too fast. So shooting smoothbore with balls or conicals would be OK.

A board member of the range told me I had to move to the rifle range, when he saw me shooting a percussion .69 smoothbore, and I started to explain that it's not a rifle, or a shotgun, but just gave up and moved.

I have to be in a certain kind of mood to shoot the smoothbore muskets anyway. Cap and ballers are just easier and are also fun.

1F probably wouldn't work as well in a .36. I could be wrong, just a gut feeling. I'll have to try it. I've used 2F in my Walkers and it was very accurate.

If nothing else is in stock, 1F can be very handy.

 

[earlwb]

I didn't think about that as I was using the 25 yard line on the rifle range side. Slugs and ball worked fine at 25 yards in my smoothbores.

 

[Stantheman86]

I didn't think about that as I was using the 25 yard line on the rifle range side. Slugs and ball worked fine at 25 yards in my smoothbores.

I have fired Lee slugs through my .69 Pedersoli 1816 percussion musket to 100 with good accuracy but I couldn't get a good way to keep lube on them down, and after 5 or 6 loading got tough

 

[Rebel jim]

I use 25 grains of 3f in my Griswold and gunnison (44), seems to be the best load. I use wonder wads and have shot over 200 rounds in one session. The gun hasn't seemed to loosen up at all.

 

[Bad Karma]

A board member of the range told me I had to move to the rifle range, when he saw me shooting a percussion .69 smoothbore, and I started to explain that it's not a rifle, or a shotgun, but just gave up and moved.

I have to be in a certain kind of mood to shoot the smoothbore muskets anyway. Cap and ballers are just easier and are also fun.

1F probably wouldn't work as well in a .36. I could be wrong, just a gut feeling. I'll have to try it. I've used 2F in my Walkers and it was very accurate.

If nothing else is in stock, 1F can be very handy.

I hope you’re never in a position where you’re forced to use it but if you have it and it makes noise and pushes a ball down range… why not?

 

[Rifleman1776]

I would not have thought 1Fg would work in that C&B. Larger granulations are generally very hard to ignite, in my experience. If it works for you, it works.

 

[Stantheman86]

I hope you’re never in a position where you’re forced to use it but if you have it and it makes noise and pushes a ball down range… why not?

I has almost bought a case of that Skirmish Cannon powder because it was like $300 for 25lb before the Pandemic panic prices screwed us , and it's apparently just filthy burning floor scraping powder, made for Reenactors to shoot blanks out of cannons or big bore muskets. It would probably be an exercise in frustration trying to live fire with that manure

 

[Stantheman86]

I would not have thought 1Fg would work in that C&B. Larger granulations are generally very hard to ignite, in my experience. If it works for you, it works.

I had no problems with it , I've used 1f in .58 rifles before and it lit off without any problems.

I have 2f and 3f, but I've never done much with 1f. I will definitely try more in my steel frame .44 Navy and one of my Dragoons

I mean who knows. 15 gr of 1F might be a tack driver load in a .36 Navy. Stranger things have happened

 

[Pete453]

Stan, next time you try 1f, if you remember, load a chamber then pull a nipple out and see if the powder is compacted into a big solid chunk like 3f would be. I'm curious. Thanks. For your report,
Pete

 

[Stantheman86]

Stan, next time you try 1f, if you remember, load a chamber then pull a nipple out and see if the powder is compacted into a big solid chunk like 3f would be. I'm curious. Thanks. For your report,
Pete

I will do that

If I had to guess I'd say it would just be a compacted mass of the huge grains

 

[TDM]

Better than letting it sit on the shelf. Glad it worked for you.

 

[Nazgul58]

I has almost bought a case of that Skirmish Cannon powder because it was like $300 for 25lb before the Pandemic panic prices screwed us , and it's apparently just filthy burning floor scraping powder, made for Reenactors to shoot blanks out of cannons or big bore muskets. It would probably be an exercise in frustration trying to live fire with that manure

I ended up with 5 lbs of this cheap. Shoot it in a 54 GRRW Hawken, a full stock 58 flint Hawken and a Kibler Colonial in 58. It works, it is dirty, but it works. Use it mostly for the 2 1" bore canons.

Don

 

[Bullit]

I had no problems with it , I've used 1f in .58 rifles before and it lit off without any problems.

I have 2f and 3f, but I've never done much with 1f. I will definitely try more in my steel frame .44 Navy and one of my Dragoons

I mean who knows. 15 gr of 1F might be a tack driver load in a .36 Navy. Stranger things have happened

I have read, but never tried, that bp could be ground finer by putting it in a rotary tumbler with a couple boxes of 50 cal. lead balls. This info came from one of my bp books I believe. If done, it just seems safest to me to put the tumbler outside, in the shade on a nice dry day. You could grind 1F down to 4F if you needed.

 

[Stantheman86]

I have read, but never tried, that bp could be ground finer by putting it in a rotary tumbler with a couple boxes of 50 cal. lead balls. This info came from one of my bp books I believe. If done, it just seems safest to me to put the tumbler outside, in the shade on a nice dry day. You could grind 1F down to 4F if you needed.

I've heard the old trick of smashing 2 or 3f into 4f with two metal spoons but I've used 1, 2 and 3 as pan prime before

Powder inc has 2 and 3f Schuetzen in stock and I'm probably never going to be grinding 1F into 3F , it just seems like it's mildly dangerous

I wouldn't turn down some cheap Skirmish or Reenactor powder, it will always work in something