Shooting a Romano Spencer

[Two Flints]

Hello SSS,

I received the following Email from Mike McComas of the 34th Bttn VA Cav of the N-SSA regarding his Romano Spencer, and with his permission am posting it here for informational purposes only.  Hope you find it of interest.

Two Flints,

I got a bunch of stuff with my Spencer--the guy basically
passed on the contents of his library with the gun.  I'm not
sure there's a manual of any sort, though.  I disassembled
it the first time by experimentation, and clean it based on
the instructions from the previous owner.  I'll look and see
what I can find.

For a load, Larry Romano says it will shoot with the
following, which I've found to be the case:
Case: reformed BELL .50-70 brass
Powder: 40 gr. FFFg GOEX
Wad: --none--
Bullet: Romano Spencer bullet cast in 19 parts Linotype to 1
part pure lead
Lube: SPG

Liberty Bullet made the Romano bullet in that alloy, and
they did shoot well.  Too bad Liberty got out of the
business.  Nothing I cast myself did any good until Larry
told me the secret formula of using mostly linotype.  The
bullets have a hardness around 19.  Wheel weights just spray
lead all over the board, and 1:20 alloy doesn't seem to even
engage the rifling.

I've shot it twice with this load since Larry lightened the
trigger and refaced the hammer, and it seems to want to
perform.    I need to shoot more to really say for sure.

Cheers,

Mike

[Harve Curry]

I'm back. I got DSL service and now this site comes right up. Use to take upwards of 1 1/2 minutes to appear.

I wonder what the rifling land / groove depth is? I haven't experienced that problem with my original 56-50 .
I cast with whatever alloy wheel wights are, but I do drop them from the mold into water and that hardens them.

Harve Curry
SSS trooper no.7