Range Report - 4F Main Charges

[roundball]

Finished the last of the Elephant 4F at the range this morning, as 40grn main charges in a .54cal caplock for plinking little aim point stickers at 25yds...extremely accurate and consistent.

Experimenting with this pound of 4F as main powder charges has been an excellent hands on[url] experience...in[/url] summary, here's how I'd use it for plinking charges again if I wanted/needed to:

30grns in the .45cal
40grns in the .50 & .54cals
50grns in the .58cal

PROS:
> A good way to use up old 4F;
> Extremely accurate, consistent;

CONS:
> Have to seat PRBs slowly in a flinter to avoid blowing the fine kerneled 4F out the vent;

 

[Zonie]

I recall the Bevel Brothers trying 4F as a main powder charge in one of their guns and they said the fouling was very bad.

Any comments on this?

 

[BrownBear]

I'bout P'd my pants laughing at the thought of that black dust cloud squirting out your vent. Too bad there wasn't someone there with a camera to get the look on your face!

 

[faw3]

I belive they used to much , we have run thru the man that sold a booklet on useing 4f to pop deer at 200yds all day long, his charges werent as big,that and I belive the brothers used flintlocks? no telling how much ball speed went out the vent. I read the guys book but never got around to getting enough nerve to try it till I got this 48" underhammer with a 1 1/4 barrel 45, 50 and 60 gr loads really fly out fast and hard hitting (I have only wood to use as a back stop to see how far the ball went in vs 3f, and its very clean also. I dont recommend anyone try it, you dont gain enough to chance putting to much in. Fred :hatsoff: Just for info this guy used a 54 cal CVA and I think?? about 60 to 70 grs and I could be way offand this was by Weight not volume,so dont use the 60 to 70 as what he used I'm not sure anymore. He did claim to get deer at 250yds with this load he used what ever it was its patend underJames Duke - Big Medicine .

 

[mglampson]

I knew a fella on another site that had a fit just considering the use of 3fg in anything above 45 cal, claimed terrible barrel erosion in the breach area. Wonder what he would think of the 4 fg main charge.
You suppose 4fg would increase the temp and presure to the point where barrel damage would occur?

 

[roundball]

I recall the Bevel Brothers trying 4F as a main powder charge in one of their guns and they said the fouling was very bad.

Any comments on this?

Don't know what size charges or lubes that they used, but my fouling was very light...I was using .018" pillow ticking patches damp with Hoppe's No9 BP Plus, and wiping a single stroke down/up between shots with a Hoppe's No9 BB Plus patch, so there was no buildup of course.

The fouling from a single shot of 40grns 4F just left pale greenish streaks on the wiping[url] patch...in[/url] fact, it was so light, and there was no bleed-through to the other side of the Hoppe's wiping patch, that I saved/used the other side of the patch to wipe after the next shot...then tossed the patch in the trash.

To be clear, my purpose wasn't to advocate the use of 4F for main charges...I simply had a full can of Elephant 4F leftover that I did not have a use for since I use Goex prime & main...so I figured if it would work at all, I'd get 150-175 shots out of it at the range, and pick up some first hand knowledge in the process...

 

[roundball]

I'bout P'd my pants laughing at the thought of that black dust cloud squirting out your vent. Too bad there wasn't someone there with a camera to get the look on your face!

:grin: ...and the first couple of shots seemed so anemic I couldn't understand[url] it...in[/url] one case, the ball never made it out of the barrel


Then I happended to notice this fine black dust coating down on the concrete floor just left of where I was standing and it hit me!
:rotf:

Works fine in[url] caplocks...in[/url] fact, I assume some 4F blowing over into the fire channel of a caplock is a big plus

 

[roundball]

I knew a fella on another site that had a fit just considering the use of 3fg in anything above 45 cal, claimed terrible barrel erosion in the breach area. Wonder what he would think of the 4 fg main charge.
You suppose 4fg would increase the temp and presure to the point where barrel damage would occur?

Not the light plinking charges that I used...the 40grn charges in the .54cal caplock yesterday were very mild and pleasant to plink with...would have been an excellent squirrel load, very accurate

 

[faw3]

It's in MB Aug 05 80grs4f . Now why vel is lower than 3f Im not sure ? I do find it funny that 80grs 1,2,3, gave vel of 1590,1861,1956. but 4f gave 1900? it goes up 75 to 100 each gr till 4? So I'm still thinking it was overloaded at 80 and if a flintlock they lost thru the vent hole. I tryed just a lttle with my 48" underhammer penetration said the 4f ball was faster, and clean. Fred :hatsoff: