Shot that trade gun...WOW.

[tzvia]

First time out today shooting that North Star West 62cal trade gun I found used last week. It has an awasome trigger. Only problem was that I only had 777 and RS (works fine in my caplocks). I found I needed more Goex ffff than I would have liked in the pan, and sometimes it did not go boom. I thought about putting a few grains of it down the bore first but was not so sure it was ok to mix it w/777 so did not. Next week, the wannabe powders stay at home 'cuz I'll be using Goex. Now I had ordered some .60 balls, but they haven't arrived yet so used some .57's w/.020 patches. 84 grains of ff777 and the undersized balls gave me a horizontal spread of 3.5", vert ran 6" (getting used to no rear sight) at 25 yards. The middle hole of the group was in the x. Cant wait to get the right sized roundballs. I know it will do even better-I'm stoked, best 200 bucks I ever spent. The trade pistol would be a neat build to go along with it.
Also shot a Pedersoli Kentucky pistol .45cal-same issue w/fff777. Too bad, it cleans up so easy...

Lois

 

[musketman]

Mixing powders is called a duplex load, and some do use them...

One word of caution, if you are using the 84 grain charge and put 10 grains of FFFFg down the bore first, then you have to reduse the 777 or Pyrodex charge by 10 grains, so you would use 74 grains of it...

If you don't, you will over-charge the load by 10 grains...

 

[Jon in MI]

If you read the 777 web site you will find they recomend 5 grs of 4f in first then the main charge reduced by that 5grs. I have used 777 in my filntlock and had no problems as lond as I did this. I have since changed to Swiss powder and love it.

Jon

 

[11th corps]

If you read the 777 web site you will find they recomend 5 grs of 4f in first then the main charge reduced by that 5grs. I have used 777 in my filntlock and had no problems as lond as I did this. I have since changed to Swiss powder and love it.

Jon

Jon, are you then using 4F in the pan? Does this load give you reliable ignition? The reason I ask, real blackpowder is getting hard to find in this area.

 

[Jon in MI]

Yes on both. I do use 4F for priming, I found that a small brass primer like those found a TOW drops about 5 grs. I just prime down the bore then measure my main charge and the rest is just like everyone else. I rarely had any ignition problems and when I did it was the Goex 4F turning goopie in the pan not the main charge. I now use Swiss and for both main and prime as it's clean and I don't have to duplex loads. If BP is hard to find 777 will work for flintlocks. BTW I was getting very good groups with my duplex load, like 3" at 100 yds off the bench.

Jon

 

[tzvia]

:hmm:. I guess if I could not get Goex I would try the duplex, but since my primer dispenses as long as I press the button, it's not so simple to dispense 4 or 5 grains. So I just don't feel like futzing with it.

Heck, I'm just happy it went boom (most of the time) and put 'em on paper.

Lois