How to fill powder horn?

[Glenfilthie]

I am the king of stupid questions. I once got beaten up by an angry gun store clerk when I asked him to sell me a speed loader for single action revolver. Shoot, we turned the store upside down looking for one and were in the catalogues trying to find one before getting rudely smacked by the clue bat!

Keeping that embarrassing ancedote in mind - I just ordered a garden variety powder horn from the turkeys at TOTW. It's beautiful and reasonably priced too. So I pull this beaut out of the box and admire it...and then realize...how do ya fill these damn things??? The opening on the narrow end seems to be about the same as the bore on a .30 cal... :idunno:

Am I having a 'blonde' moment? Where can I get a funnel to put the powder in?

Any wags making rude jokes about 'how many black powder geeks it takes to screw in a light bulb' will be fined 5 shillings and horse whipped!

 

[BrownBear]

I just use the powder funnel from my cartridge reloading setup. I spose you could tape it on to avoid spills, but I always seem to do alright just holding it in place by hand.

 

[Dan Goad]

And I thought I was the only one to run into that little problem. I guess we are equally clueless.

Jac S. Muell

 

[jaguarxk120]

On some horns there is a small acorn shaped plug on the big end that will unscrew allowing you to fill the horn. Otherwise just as said before get a powder funnel and pour very slowly.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Make a funnel out of rolled paper or break down and buy one of the little brass jobbies (again from T.O.T.W.)

I soldered a .223 Rem case to a Goex can cap after sawing off the case base and neck and punching a hole up through the cap. With that I am able to pour directly from the can into the horn. A 7.62 X 54R case with the neck sawn off slips tight over the .223 spout. Two wraps of vinyl electrical tape on the .223 case makes the outer cover an airtight fit.

 

[Billnpatti]

There are numerous suppliers of muzzleloading supplies who sell brass acorn plugs to go in the butt end of the horn. It is two pieces. You drill a hole of the proper size in the center of the butt and then glue in the plug. The center of the plug unscrews to allow you to pour in your powder. :thumbsup:

 

[Coot]

Stumpkiller has got it. Either option works fine. :thumbsup:

 

[Muskeg Stomper]

TOTW Powder Funnels & Such

I personally like POWDER-CAP-B

 

[Semisane]

If you like Powder Cap B, just solder a .32 H&R Mag casing to your GOEX can cap and drill it out. Works just fine.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I found a plastic funnel in the housewares section of a department store that is small enough to use to fill my powder horn through the mouth( spout). I did use a hand drill to open up the neck of the funnel to improve the flow of powder down the funnel, but its now a permanent resident of my range box. Ted Cash makes some brass funnels that will also work. At friendship, I have seen these brass funnels, with a length of copper tubing( 1/8" diameter) solder to the neck of the funnel, so that the extension holds the tube stead in the mouth of the horn, or muzzle of a small caliber gun.

As to a speed loader for a single action cartridge gun, I have seen one man use a .45 acp magazine, where he filed the front of the lips off the clip so that the cartridges road sticking up and out at a more severe angle, to enter the chambers of the cylinder. He was loading a .45 acp cylinder in a Ruger Blackhawk combination .45 Colt/.45 acp. cylinder gun. Since we now have pistols made in many rimmed casing cartridges, it might be expensive, but you should be able to find a magazine that will hold rimmed casings and function as a " Speed Loader" for a single action revolver, if modified.

Most of us use what has come to be known as the New York Reload- using a second revolver, rather than trying to reload an empty one.

Carrying a spare, loaded cylinder for Percussion revolvers, as Clint Eastwood does in Pale Rider, is about the only "speed loader" I can think of that works. Historically, the Texas Rangers originally armed with Walker Colt .44s were issued a couple of extra cylinders for the big revolvers, and carried them either in a holster around their saddle's pommel, or on the gun belt.

I share this with you so that you stop thinking you are the only person to wish for a speed loader for a single action revolver, and to share some of the possibilities with you that I have learned over the years. :thumbsup: :hatsoff:

 

[plewis]

I use one of the little plastic funnel-like items the doctor has on the light used to look into your ears. I asked if I could have a couple of them and he gave me a handful. They are disposable to them, so it was no issue. I stick this into the horn spout opening, and pour direct from the can. No mess,no spills,no issues. :grin:

 

[BrownBear]

...just solder a .32 H&R Mag casing to your GOEX can cap and drill it out. Works just fine.

That makes more sense to me than anything I've tried or heard about.

Thanks!

 

[longcruise]

Carrying a spare, loaded cylinder for Percussion revolvers, as Clint Eastwood does in Pale Rider, is about the only "speed loader" I can think of that works. Historically, the Texas Rangers originally armed with Walker Colt .44s were issued a couple of extra cylinders for the big revolvers, and carried them either in a holster around their saddle's pommel, or on the gun belt.

I have read this before and have read some exchanges of the differing views on this. I'm not familiar with any of the percussion revolvers except the 1851 Navy. I can tell you for certain that packing an extra cylinder for an 1851 will not be a fast reload situation!

I remember the Pale Rider movie and that scene with Clint standing in the street at the end of town changing the cylinder in his gun. Can't for the life of me rememember what gun it was but think it may have been an 1860??

Civil war buffs and historians like to point out that no revolver cylinders have been found on the battlefields of the civil war which they suggest implies that the spare cylinder was not used then, else cylinders would have been found during archeological searches of the battle fields.

Sorry! Kinda taking the thread off topic a bit. Wait a minute Paul, you're the one who steered us off!! :blah:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Yep, my fault! Seriously, by the time the Civil War came around, the industrial age had reached the point of being able to produce lots of revolvers, and the cavalry carried more than one. The Southern cavalry did likewise, picking up a lot of guns off the fields, dropped by the Union cavalry that retired from the field. Remember that during the first couple of years of the war, the Southern Cavalry was almost unbeatable, and as a result acquired a lot of Union firearms- both revolvers and rifles from captured troops, and off the battlefields. The troops were exchanged in prisoner exchanged but the guns were not returned.

I apologize for taking us afield, but the poster mentioned how he likes to ask stupid questions, and then used the speed loader for a revolver question as his example. Pale Rider was pure Hollywood Hokum, IMHO. I believe the gun shown was a 1860 model .44. But the Sharps rifle used in the movie was a copy of an 1873 or later model Sharps. Eastwood should have been armed with a cartridge Colt Peacemaker, or maybe the Remington Cartridge gun.

 

[Marc Adamchek]

By hand............one...grain...at.a..time

 

[gordy]

As has been said many times , the only "stupid" questions are those not asked. The way I fill my horns that has worked best for ME, is to tightly wrap my thumb and finger around the horn spout and pour in the powder.It saves trying to hold and balance a funnel, and seldom lose more tthan 2 or 3 grains of powder. :thumbsup:

 

[Pork Chop]

By hand............one...grain...at.a..time

Use non-sparking tweezers...

 

[cratwelder]

I took one of those cheepie plastic powder flasks, with the spring loaded measure spout....removed the sring gate and the bottom filler cap and voila!!!! Horn funnel

 

[nchawkeye]

Dang, I must be getting old...I have a cap that fits the Goex can with the .222 or .223 cartridge case soldered on to it...I have no idea where I bought it from or how long I've had it...It has to me 35 or so years old...Doesn't anyone sell those anymore??? Anyone look in the Dixie Gun Works catalogue???

 

[rwiliff]

The way I fill my horns that has worked best for ME, is to tightly wrap my thumb and finger around the horn spout and pour in the powder.It saves trying to hold and balance a funnel, and seldom lose more tthan 2 or 3 grains of powder. :thumbsup:

Yepper, that's the easy way.

Robert