Safely firing an antique gun

[Dexis]

So I picked up an antique gun on gunbroker a few months back and still haven’t gotten around to shooting it.

I can’t help but wonder how or where to start when it comes to starting to dump powder down the barrel of a gun from the 1800’s, and wanting to be safe about it.

The seller said they had loaded it up to 90gr of 2f. Which I don’t doubt…BUT I’m not willing to bet my life on it.

Just wondering if anyone has some advice about how to go about starting to shoot this gun, but with some sense and safety in mind.

 

[dtruex]

You'd have to give a lot more information before anyone could begin to answer this. Type of gun. Rifle or smoothbore? Caliber? Flintlock or percussion? Pictures would be good, and descriptions of the condition of the gun, the inside of the bore, condition of the nipple (if it's percussion), and things like that. And of course the first thing to do is make sure the ramrod reaches to the breech/touch hole/nipple to confirm that there's not an old charge in it.