2F powder in Uberti Dragoon

[brpc]

I normally shoot 40 grs. of 3F with a .457 ball in my Dragoon. I have a fair quantity of Graf 2F that I bought about five years ago.

My question is: Has anyone used 2F in a Dragoon or an 1860?

 

[hawkeye2]

I haven't but wouldn't hesitate to. You might see a slight drop in velocity and a small increase in fouling but neither of those should be much of an issue. If your group changes you may have to adjust the charge slightly. If you have plenty of 2f and no other use for it why not burn it up in the Dragoon?

 

[AZbpBurner]

Burn whatever you've got. For my 1861's & 1858's & occasionally for the Dragoon, I use 23 gr. 3F and a very lightly greased paper wad with roundballs, and get optimum accuracy from all of them.

For the Dragoon, I prefer 3F since it seems to burn a little cleaner, but I don't see any real difference in performance between 2F & 3F. I read somewhere about Sam Colt's recommendation for powder loads for the Dragoon with roundballs & it listed 41 Gr. 2F works great for the heavier loads & make all the .44 mag shooters come running over to my bench to see what I'm shooting.

 

[Tom Compton]

I use FF in my Old Army. Oughta work in the Dragoon
Tc

 

[FishDFly]

There was a pistol maker in Texas and he shot 2F in everything he made from .32 and up.

 

[brpc]

Thanks to everyone for your useful replies. I decided to ere on the side of caution and loaded up two cylinders of 17 grs T7 2F with .454 ball. The gun was a brass frame Pietta .44 marketed as a "Confederate" 1851.

Essentially the gun shot to the same point of aim as the regular T7 3F load, 3in high at 12 yards, group size 2.5in. I checked gun carefully for any cylinder imprinting on the brass frame. There was none.

The only difference between the two powder granulations seems to be more smoke out of the 2F load, but about the same fouling.

Next to try and work up a load for the Dragoon.

 

[Tom Compton]

Tom Gillman of Hot Springs AR was an outstanding gun maker as well as long time national record holder in c.f. bench and a short time in ML. He shot only FF Goex even in his .40 flinter. Gillman was very pragmatic and addressed his shooting projects using many years as a smith and shooter (including 18 years at amp Perry on both rifle and pistol teams).

Tom tested FF and FFF over chronograph 100 shots each. Same gun, ball, patch, lube etc. I wish he had published his findings. He shared them w me as we split a room near a match out of Jackson MS. His reason was that FFF had velocity spikes of about 300 fps w 3-5 shots out of that 100, as best I recall. FF did not show the velocity spikes. If those all occured in one agg or target ..... well.

Using FF in that .40 flintlock I witnessed him head shoot a fox target 50 plus Xs two years in a row. That's offhand at 50 yards folks.

I shoot FF Goex in all BP guns .32s, pistols flintlock, all of them.
TC

 

[FishDFly]

Wade Ingrham from Midland shot 2F in all his underhammer's, whether it was a pistol or rifle.

When a fellow makes M/L's, he tends to learn something that makes them shoot.

I have done well with his pistol's and 2F.

 

[Tom Compton]

Just got one of Wade's .40 under hammer pistols at TMLRA in Brady. Haven't shot it YET but FF will be in it.
TC

 

[swathdiver]

Our ASM Walker is fed a steady diet of 50 grains of FF Olde Eynsford. This tames recoil a bit and the gun shoots very accurately.