More reduced loads in a Bess.

[mr.fudd]

I spent a few hours yesterday shooting more reduced loads and took it a bit further than last time. This time I had more patching material, 3F as well as 2F powder and a new powder measure that went right down to 0 grains. I was really pushing things this time and I had several stuck balls.

So here's what I figured out. The tightness of the patch is the main determinant of how light you can load. Using a bare .735" ball, it would reliably fire even with only 10 grains of powder. With a very tight patch the same .735" ball needed 25 grains. I never went below 10 grains as the ballistics were already atrocious and I was having to aim high even at 10 yards.

I could tell no difference in noise levels between 3F and 2F powder using these loads, but I liked the ignition of the 3F more. It just seemed a little faster and more reliable.

15 grains of powder over a somewhat loosely patched ball is the lightest load that I think would have any utility, but 20 or 25 grains gives far more consistency and better accuracy. It's also far noisier. When you go to less than 15 grains accuracy is just too degraded.

Once you get up to 20 grains of powder it starts to sound like a gun blast, but is still quiet enough for a semi-rural setting. 10 or 15 grains of powder sounds more like a nail gun than a firearm.

IMO, all of these loads packed more than enough punch to humanely kill small game. Even the lightest loads were leaving dents 1/2" deep in my backstop, the front of which is made of three layers of OSB. The 25 grain loads buried the balls about an inch deep and would easily have penetrated several inches of soft tissue.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Good work friend, it could come in handy!
:hatsoff:
Britsmoothy.

 

[mr.fudd]

I'm still not really sure about the utility of these loads yet. Despite the tiny powder charges, they still have some serious thump to them, but due to accuracy and trajectory, they are definitely short range loads. I'm going to do some more experimenting using shot instead of RB to see if I can't get a more useful load. I'm thinking that only buckshot would retain enough energy with these low velocities.

I'm thinking of something that could be used to dispatch an opossum or similar pest at up to 20 yards without alarming the neighbors. I've already got a good airgun that's more than up to the job, but I just like fooling around with these things. It gives me something to do on weekends.

One thing that has occurred to me is that the large bore diameter of the Brown Bess might be a problem in developing an effective yet quiet load. A .32" bore with a 33" barrel has a much larger ratio of barrel length to bore size than a .753" Bess with a 46" barrel. It seems to me that that would allow the smaller caliber gun to more completely accelerate it's projectile and burn it's propellant before the projectile exits the barrel.

 

[mikee51848]

Interesting, but I've never heard of a Bess being used as a plinker. I mean, the cost of the balls, to shoot a backyard possum? :hmm:

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

I plink with all my muzzleloaders regardless of bore, but for pest removal I would definitely work up a good shot load. That's one of the great things about frontloaders--their versatility! :thumbsup:

 

[mr.fudd]

Interesting, but I've never heard of a Bess being used as a plinker. I mean, the cost of the balls, to shoot a backyard possum? :hmm:

Being someone who has been big into milsurps for years and will sometimes fire 100 shots or more in a range session, I was thinking the same thing myself, but when I actually started shooting the Bess, I found it wasn't all that significant. It might not be dirt cheap, but I figure that a couple of hours spent shooting the Bess cost me about $14 and I can afford that. I'm not loading it for speed, so it takes me a few minutes for each shot, then I sometimes go downrange to set up targets or take a break or spend 10 minutes trying to cram powder through the vent hole in order to clear a stuck ball.

I also managed to recover a few balls and shoot them a second time, so there was more savings there.

 

[juancho]

Well done! I have developed a silent load for my .45, 12 grains and a normal patch.God enough to clear thru a 3/4 inch plywood at 15 yards and 1/2 as loud as a 22 short. The ballistics are just enough to plink squirrels up to 15 yds.
Never cross my mind to try it with my bess thou.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Come on now, "1/2 as loud as a .22 short"? Since a .22 short is so quiet you can hear the click of the hammer fall, how loud is 1/2 as loud? :haha:

 

[mr.fudd]

I don't know what kind of shorts you're shooting, but the ones I've fired were far too loud to hear the click of the hammer falling. Maybe CB caps or Aguila caps? Those are indeed very quiet, but they're also very inaccurate and they're not really shorts.

A typical short has a 29 grain bullet and develops over 1000 fps out of a rifle barrel. The only way you can keep something like that really quiet is with a can.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

You must be shooting a revolver, standard velocity shorts, CCI or Remington from a rifle just make a slight "splick" sound, not half as loud as the percussion cap on an ML rilfe.

 

[mr.fudd]

No, I'm really not much of a handgun guy. I was seriously into airguns for years though, so I have a lot of experience with quiet shooting guns and next to a shrouded PCP, just about anything seems noisy.

I don't wear any hearing protection when I try for quiet shooting guns or loads and that can make a night and day difference. With a pair of earmuffs on a .22 short is indeed very quiet, but I wouldn't be able to get away with shooting one for long in my backyard before the police showed up.

 

[juancho]

I second that.
Even standard 22 shorts are loud.What I try to get on ML with "silent loads" is a sort of low tone boom! as opposed to an all to familiar not so loud crack of a 22.
A sound like that is not as noticiable as a 22 and it kind of blends better with the background noice, for lack of better words.
Now for quiet shootting, nothing beats a properly tuned low power airgun.