1848 Baby Dragoon and 4Fg

[Bottom Dealin Mike]

I just finished putting an 1848 Baby Dragoon through it's paces. What a hoot!!!

I was a little surprised by how it performed with 4Fg powder vs 3Fg B-P.

Velocity with 3Fg was 672 fps...with 4Fg it was 801 fps. That wasn't a surprise, but the groups tightened up too. Mostly 2" groups with 4Fg at 10 yards vs 3" groups with 3Fg. (I know...10 yards...but with those sights, that's good shootin')

If I had to use one of these Babies for hide-protection I'd sure want 4Fg powder!

[Tommy tornado]

4ffffg!!!!??   I have always been told since I was a pup of 12 that 4fg is for priming only.  What load are you using in 4fg? 

[Bottom Dealin Mike]

I'm using 12 grains, and believe me there's plenty of meat on the cylinder.

The problem with 4Fg isn't that you'll blow the gun up...(unless you put 40 grains of it into a .45 Colt case)...the problem is that you'll get erratic performance with larger powder charges because the small, densely  packed grains won't burn uniformely. But for small powder charges it can perform quite well.

BTW, if you aren't familliar with the 1848 Baby Dragoon, it is a five-shot, .32 caliber cap & ball pocket pistol. Shoots a 51 grain roundball.

[Dick Dastardly]

I got me a lil spur trigger Remington 31 cal and ol Walt Kirst built me a fine Kirst Konverter cylinder fer it.  It is chambered for 32 S&W.  I kin only get three grains of powder under the bullet, so I went with FFFFg Holy Black.  Shoots great, very consistant, around 650fps.  I tried FFFg but it was erratic and shot all over the place.

So, I think that for lil guns, lil powder fills the bill.

DD-DLoS

[BlaiseNSaddles]

I will file all this away.  I have an 1848 Baby Dragoon that I just got the R&D .32 S&W cylinder for.