Tower Pistol Loading

[RBK]

Hello folks. I have one of the old Japanese Tower pistols, .66 cal. and with flints from TOW, I have fired it before. Best research I could find indicated 25--30 grns. FFF. I have loaded the powder, packed in a nominal wad of printing paper, added say,,, 15 bbs and, another wad of paper. It fired OK and threw out bbs to say 5 yards. Is what I am doing safe? Or, do I need to use some sort of "over powder card" and "over load card"?
I have already used the search function and read a good deal about this pistol using roundballs but, not how you load anything other than roundballs.
Many thanks!

 

[Homesteader]

Once you've determined that it's not just a wall hanger, you can pretty much load it as you would any smoothbore. And since you're not gonna hit anything anyway, a light powder and shot load decently packed with wadding should make for a fun blast & smoke.

I've got an old Tower around here somewhere that I used for shot and ball both. I'd need to be inside to hit the walls of a barn, but it did make a satisfying boom.

Btw, you write "15 BB's"... I do hope you mean lead shot, right?

 

[RBK]

No, as a matter of fact, I had used steel BBs.
Please elaborate.
Thanks.

 

[Homesteader]

Steel is too hard for the barrel. It will at least score / damage the bore. For a muzzleloader you've got to stay with soft lead, or one of the more exotic (and expensive) metals like bismuth.

 

[RBK]

Thanks for the advise. I should be able to purchase the needed pellets easy enough.

 

[Homesteader]

Best of luck, and have fun. :thumbsup: