Load suggestions for a 1777 Charleville pistol

[jonathan butcher]

Gentlemen,
i will soon be in receipt of a reproduction 1777 Charleville pistol, was wondering if anyone could make a load suggestion for this gun ? I'm told by the Seller bore measures .689".

Thanks in advance to all responders, am very much lookimg forward to shooting it!

 

[Zonie]

If it were mine, I would use a .675 or .678 diameter lead roundball as is shown in this Track of the Wolf link.

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/127/3
I would lightly patch the ball using thin cotton cloth, about .010 thick primarily to just hold the ball in place against the powder charge.
My powder load would be in the 25-35 grain ballpark and of course because it is a flintlock, the powder would be black powder only.
The synthetic black powders like Pyrodex and 777 don't work well in flintlock guns.

 

[hawkeye2]

Toot had asked a similar question over on the N-SSA forum and I had just replied there. I'll post my replies here and a link to the discussion over there so you can follow it.

https://www.n-ssa.net/vbforum/showthread.php/19542-Charlieville-pistol
Well I never fired mine because it had a trigger pull that was actually painful (really!) but it's down to something acceptable now so I guess i need to cast some balls. I would recommend checking the bore size which is easy to do with a smoothbore, just use a set of calipers. Decide whether you will be primarily shooting it with a naked ball, paper cartridge or a patched ball and check to see what's out there for molds. That's a fairly hefty pistol so recoil wouldn't be much of an issue and that's a heavy ball too. I would think 30 grains of 3f would be a starting point and 50 would be too much. 2f would probably work fine too if that's what you have

I just checked 2 things, first I don't have a mold, thought I bought one years ago. Second the bore diameter is .692". If you work up a load keep us in mind and post it over on the Muzzleloading Forum too. It might actually encourage me to round up some balls and shoot mine.

Moose Molds has about the best selection of .69 caliber molds, see this page: MOOSE BALLS | mm2013

 

[toot]

hawkeye2, the load that I came up with your help, was 30 GRS. of 2FG, black and a .678 RB & also a .680. RB. I shot both with a wad of hornets nest over the powder and a RB on top of the hornets nest and then a .678. or a .680 RB, and another wad of hornets nest on top of the RB, to keep it from rolling out, and VIOLA!! what a blast- PUN intended!! also the one that had a 22 pound trigger pull and the guy that I purchased had a trigger job done on it and now it breaks at a clean 3 POUNDS. what a difference. they all seam to be in the 22 or 23 LBS. range.