Double Shot Safety Issues?

[rabbit03]

sounds about right! I will get a chronograph one of these days and do a bit of research on the speed of them!

rabbit03

 

[roundball]

I think "loaded for bear" meant a stouter hunting load, not necessarily more bullets.

That was my understanding, a double charge of powder.

When I experimented with a few, they printed a couple inches apart at 50yds, very good accuracy.

And on a related note, I experimented with 3 - .490's in a paper sleeve in a .62cal Flint smoothbore...5"-6" cluster at 50 yds

 

[Cosmoline]

You're pushing twice the lead, so something has to give. While you will (hopefully) print four balls on the bear, they won't penetrate as deeply as two, alone. Makes a difference, especially if it's a large bear.

True, but the weight of two roundballs is still a notch lighter than large conicals. This is a short range load only, so velocity loss and accuracy aren't major concerns. The times I've had close encounters the bruin has been well within 25 yards. They pop out of the dense underbrush, eye you over and dart off again like huge hairy torpedos.

I'm not going to try both barrels at once, but I'm sure both me and those enormous barrels could take it. The stock is another matter. It's been cracked once before and would probably split. Another problem would be the second load going off in mid-recoil and flying off to blue sky.

 

[Cosmoline]

Just an update. I had time to do a few barrels loaded double this weekend. Accuracy wasn't the best but I got both on paper at 25. With some fine tuning on the load I should be able to improve that.

The really weird thing is when loading the second ball I hit a bizarre "bouncy" air pocket. Never had a ramrod bounce back at me! As I figured out, you need to take care to load the second ball slowly and carefully to let the air pocket vent out. It was easy to feel when it seated against the other ball. Not a load you can do in a hurry.

 

[Oldnamvet]

a bizarre "bouncy" air pocket

That air piston effect is why I always put a small hole through my OP and OS cards when loading a smoothbore with shot.

 

[roundball]

The really weird thing is when loading the second ball I hit a bizarre "bouncy" air pocket. Never had a ramrod bounce back at me! As I figured out, you need to take care to load the second ball slowly and carefully to let the air pocket vent out. It was easy to feel when it seated against the other ball. Not a load you can do in a hurry.

I suspect that's exactly why the references to double balls loads in load data charts were eliminated...people probably thought they had seated the second ball and didn't "feel" that difference like you did, touched it off and ringed or burst a barrel.
Another good reason to have a witness mark on a ramrod for any particular load...I use a piece of electricians tape...first thing I do is make the first load with whatever I'm using that day, then after making certain everything is right, I put a wrap of wrap of tape around the rod at the muzzle...its showed me problems several times over the years...ie: dryball, double charge, double ball, etc.