Original 36 cal SB pistol, min charge?

[Newly O’Brian]

I have an original 36 cal SB percussion brass barrel pistol.

What would you suggest for minimal starting charge?

8 grs of 4F with a .350" PRB?

 

[Hermit Tim]

I have an original 36 cal SB percussion brass barrel pistol.

What would you suggest for minimal starting charge?

8 grs of 4F with a .350" PRB?

View attachment 326601

Nice looking pistol. If it were mine, and it was me loading it, I would go with about 20 grains and a thinly patched .350 ball. Wait a minute and a few folks that know more about these small pistols will drop by and chime in. Haven't had too much experience with tiny pistols myself yet. And I'd use 3f.

 

[azmntman]

An old Yuppy Pistol! I love it! 8 would do it and you can likely increase to 20ish to find the most accurate load. Is it rifled?

 

[Newly O’Brian]

SB, smooth bore

 

[The Miner '49er]

If it has a patent breech then be sure to use enough powder so that when the prb is seated it's against the powder w/o any void between them. I recently read somewhere, probably on this forum, that a good starting charge for a pistol is half the caliber, so for a .36, 18 grains would be about right but I would start a little under that due to the brass barrel. I would use FFFg, not 4F. I have a .36 smooth bore pistol, and 12 grains of 3F is accurate and fun to shoot. My pistol does not have a patent breech but the barrel is steel. Good luck, nice looking gun!

 

[cynthialee]

Interesting piece.

I will also say, start with 1/2 the caliber in grains. So the .38 gets a starting load of 18 by the book so to speak.
Now I would go down to 15 and work up in 2 grain increments to find an optimum load.
So do like 6 shots to determine the group you get with a load. Like it? Keep it. Hate it....try again and again until you find the group you are happy with.

 

[Gtrubicon]

There’s my snake shot pistol! I’d try some #9 shot in that baby!

 

[hawkeye2]

Beautiful pistol, I would max it out at 15 grains of 3f.

 

[SDSmlf]

My squirrel load in 32 caliber rifles is 12 to 15 grains of 4F or 3F under patched round ball. For a pistol like you have I would start at maybe 10 grains of whatever powder was on hand and bump it up until I had the POI and accuracy where I wanted it and it call good to go. In a smooth bore you may want to try both patched and bare ball combinations.

Doubt either granulation of powder will give you a complete burn, but the 4F will be cleaner, and either 3F or the 4F at 10 grains should give between 900 and 1000 fps coming out of a 6” barrel, with the 4F the hotter of the two.

Just an FYI. 00-1/2 buckshot is about .340” diameter, while 000 buckshot is about .360”. What actual diameter does your barrel’s bore measure?

 

[Newly O’Brian]

It measures .375"

 

[Newly O’Brian]

18 grs of 3F was the perfect PRB combo