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John Smith’s powder charge

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We often kick around powder charge. What’s best for your gun. Some boys go big some go economic
Old chargers can sometimes be real heavy. Brown Bess could go from 140 to 280 grains.
The interpreters at James Town put out some vids on James Town and Seventeenth century colonial life.
Several vids look at list made by Smith about what you needed to bring if coming to the colonies.
You needed a ‘piece’ of around musket caliber, and sixty pounds of lead and twenty pounds of powder. We can presume( even though that’s a bad idea) that civilians would buy better powder than military was issued.
So 1/3 powder to shot.
If you have a twelve bore ball is about 580 grains and a 190 grain charge. A twenty bore, small compared to a musket, 350 grain ball and 116 grain charge
One never gets 7000 grains out of a pound. You always spill, and you had to prime, and of course a slightly smaller ball might be used. A twelve bore might shoot a thirteen ball, even a fourteen and be a good shooter, and we have lots of folks that shoot 110 in their twenty bores.
Just found that interesting
 
If you all get the chance check out their YouTube pages
While their stuff is earlier then our average it’s super fun
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