What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

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Granddaughter is very happy with her new 50 cal. Looking for some warm weather now.

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Update on .44 cal conicals in paper cartridges: to forestall a possible wasted trip to the range I elected to try loading here at home. Perfectly safe until capped. I chose the cartridge with the conical glued to the top of the closed casing, figuring it would be the longest. And, indeed it was too long to seat all the way down into the chamber:
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I could get that to work by pounding it down into the chamber with a mallet and starter. I've done it before as a last resort, but that's no fun, and it deforms the bullet, and anyway that's not how it's supposed to work.

So, I'm going to refabricate all the cartridges with conicals loading without the cerial filler, because that's not really necessary anyway, and the distance the bullet protrudes from the chamber is about the same as what the filler takes up, so the result should be just perfect.

I know the cartridges with the balls are just fine, because that's already a successful "been there done that".
 
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Shot my new to me Matchlock. Learned through trial and error where to position the match, and that the thin matchcord from DGW that I bought is too thin. I'll get or make a thicker match soon.
The important part is I had a lot of fun and learned some stuff. The gun is like the ones sold by Veteran Arms, but the guy I got it from got it from Middlesex. I accidentally knocked the sight off it the other day trying to bend it a tad straighter, but I didn't need it anyhow. Just sighting along the top of the barrel and using the groove the sight was soldered into worked fine for plinking today.
Did 4 shots offhand at 35 45 and 50 yards all hit the 8" gong. 80 grs 3F behind a .715 ball wadded with felt and tow on two shots and paper for two other shots.
Only shot four times due to taking awhile to learn how to get the match to hit the powder right (hence my need for bigger matchcord.) I had a lot of fun though!
 
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