Flintlock Caliber Confusion

[cynthialee]

Just curious, Zonie, why the admonition against "thick patches in a pistol. Especially a smoothbore."?

And what would constitute a thick patch?

A thick patch is harder to get down the barrel...thus when one loads the pistol it puts strain on the stock, specifically right at where the stock becomes a pistol grip. Too much strain and you can break it.
As for the smoothbore I suspect the reason to be that it is because it is harder to get an overly thick patch down a smoothbore than a rifle. The rifling gives a bit of extra space for the patch, without it there is nowhere for the excess to go. Too thick a patch and you might end short started and incapable of seating the ball.

 

[Zonie]

You are exactly right on both points! :thumbsup:

 

[Grumpa]

Thank you, and Zonie, for the quick response.
My smoothie pistol is a Scottish Highlander, all metal stock, so no problem there...but I wasn't thinking about the channels provided by rifling, and getting a patched ball stuck short of the breech. My post came as I was nodding off.

I have used mattress ticking the few times I've shot it, no problem. But I will spend some time on the Smoothbore forum before my next outing.
Richard
Grumpa

 

[M. De Land]

My heavy barreled .54 pistol with ten inch barrel really likes 50 grains of 2F Goex.
I think this is about all it can burn in that length with a patched ball.
It might go 60 grains with 3 F but 50 of 2F is plenty stout in the hand gun. Mike D.

 

[nhmoose]

Yes I will be buying Goex FFg powder; I was planning on a 60 grain charge but I suppose I can work up to that .

Please back down to the 35 grain level mentioned the maker stated

 

[Zonie]

I agree with you.

For what it's worth, an old Dixie Gunworks catalog has a table of historic powder charges.

It says a .67 caliber British Tower flintlock pistol powder load was 35 grains.

 

[frogwalking]

The reason I use 40 grains of powder for buckshot instead of, say 25 grains, is that if the buckshot are traveling too slowly they will bounce off of stuff and fly back at me. With the larger powder load, they stick into trees, boards and such.

 

[G.smith]

Lots of good G-2 on this thread, Thanks Greg for getting it started. I am anxiously waiting delivery of my Pedersoli .54 Kentucky pistol. Gonna bookmark this thread for future reference.
Thanks to all.

 

[GDM]

This is more of a question than a statement, but when I was younger an experienced black powder shooter told me when working up a load for any of my muzzleloaders to always take the caliber and cut it in half , and that was your starting point for a powder load. Example .50 to .54 start out with 25 to 30 grains and work up. Is this correct or a good rule of thumb to follow or was he off base? I see from most of your suggestions that Greg's pistol being a .60 caliber you have suggested starting with 25 to 35 grains which would put my friends suggestion in the ball park.

 

[bpd303]

That's always worked for me. Pistols take less powder than rifles in any given caliber.

 

[cynthialee]

1/2 for pistols and 1/1 for rifles is my go to starting point

 

[Coot]

1/2 for pistols and 1/1 for rifles is my go to starting point

I'll second that approach. :thumbsup:

 

[user 27715]

I'll probably go for a 35 grain load then. I haven't gotten to take my pistol out yet though as I haven't found any gun shops in the area that carry Goex black powder. I'll probably order some from Buffalo Arms. I'm planning on getting another pistol and a musket soon.

 

[Zonie]

If your blackpowder shooter mentor was talking about a pistol, I agree with him.

If he was talking about a rifle I don't agree with him.

Although a rifle will shoot all right with a 1/2 caliber load, most will find the velocity it produces is pretty useless unless they are always shooting at close targets.

OK you squirrel hunters. :redface: 1/2 caliber loads can work very nicely on a squirrel but those shots are usually at very close ranges.

 

[GDM]

We were shooting pistols at the time but to be honest I thought he was talking about all of them but I can't remember anymore.

 

[TFoley]

A 60gr charge for a pistol will nearly rip your hand off

This.

I shoot 45gr of FFG behind a .44cal ball in my Walker, and THAT sucker weighs around five pounds. It's a real attention-getter at both ends.

The most humungous handgun I've EVER fired was a Rhodda of Calcutta-converted P53 made into a handy tiger-bustin' howdah pistol, using the service load of of 68gr of FFg under the usual 535gr Minié-type bullet.

That was definitely a once-to-see-what-it-was-like experience.

Depends on whom you are trying to impress, I guess, your buddies with your bravery, or the guy in the fracture clinic trying to figure out which wrist-bone fragment goes where.

tac, not as stupid as he used to be.