serious reloading BP ?

[Wills Point Pete]

 I am not taking offense, just reminding us all that a full charge load in the .45 Colt is anything between a 28/230 to a 40/250. I contend that if a cavalryman was willing to go face to face with a Sioux or Apache, with that load, not to mention the Spaniards and Filipinos, we ought to be pretty well okay with these loads taking down the steel plates.  Again, John Browning took then modern powder and built the .45 acp to copy the Army 28/230 load.

I agree that a load in our sport ought to do more than pop-tink. When things are working right it's BOOM! CLANG! and OMG! from the spectators. Of course it's all too often a BOOM! poop as I miss but that's another story.

[Short Knife Johnson]

Hey there Wills Point Pete.  Glad you didn't take that the wrong way.  From accounts I've read the Filipinos were a tough bunch of nuggets and didn't respond well to the .38 round the U.S. sent their troops in with.  That would be awkward.  Same lesson the British had fighting the Zulus.  They don't go down as easy as Europeans do.  Being of French andGerman descent, I'm well aware that I am comparably fragile like an egg.   

Also, Savvy Jack.  Pyrodex is a black powder equivalent by volume, not by weight.  The preferred load with Pyrodex for my .45-90 by weight is 51 to 53 grains, and around 77 grains of the same volume with Goex.  I started loading my BP ammo by volume, and it works so much better. 

Now, I'm going to start loading .44-40 with BP, I got my hands on an original '73 rifle that is very shootable.  I have the Lyman 205 grain mould, and a bunch of wheelweight bullets already made.  Does one need a lube wad, or a card wad.  When Igo in to make more .45's for the Sharps, I'm going to make some .44's out of 1 to 30.

[Bryan Austin]

I always load BP by volume, even pyro. Wonder why folks think I don't! Maybe I should somehow change my wording!

[Cuts Crooked]

<snip> I contend that if a cavalryman was willing to go face to face with a Sioux or Apache, with that load, not to mention the Spaniards and Filipinos, we ought to be pretty well okay with these loads taking down the steel plates.  <snip>

Uh, I suspect they were just about as "willing" to use that load as our current warriors are to use a varmint round in a main battle rifle. They did what they were told to do, not what they were "willing" to do.

[Short Knife Johnson]

Jack.

I get screwed up to by the volume thing too.  It's just that loading BP is a total abdication of everything we learned shooting smokeless.

[Icebox Bob]

Jack.

I get screwed up to by the volume thing too.  It's just that loading BP is a total abdication of everything we learned shooting smokeless.

  Or is smokeless a total abdication of everything we learned shooting black (since it came first)     

[Raider2000]

Like everyone else has said, your loads for your 44-40 is fine, the guys at my local club a few times would be at the rifle range having their fun but they stop & walk up to the pistol range where I'm at to see what kind of Artillery Piece I've got there as I shoot my 58' with 30gr. FFFG Goex & a 220gr. Conical  , they find it interestin that it isn't a big .44 Magnum or something.

They also don't appreciate the ammount of smoke I create when I shoot off my .54 caliber Hawken on the rifle range but I tell them that once I shoot I don't want the deer to see me so I create my own cover. 

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Like everyone else has said, your loads for your 44-40 is fine, the guys at my local club a few times would be at the rifle range having their fun but they stop & walk up to the pistol range where I'm at to see what kind of Artillery Piece I've got there as I shoot my 58' with 30gr. FFFG Goex & a 220gr. Conical  , they find it interestin that it isn't a big .44 Magnum or something.

They also don't appreciate the ammount of smoke I create when I shoot off my .54 caliber Hawken on the rifle range but I tell them that once I shoot I don't want the deer to see me so I create my own cover. 

Great tactic!

[Short Knife Johnson]

  Or is smokeless a total abdication of everything we learned shooting black (since it came first)     

Touche.

Hey Bob, I just scooped an original '73 w/ a 24" octagon pipe.  How do you recommend loading the .44's to make sure you kave enough lube?  Gonna start cranking out BP loads on my Dillon.  Aming to shoot at least one or two days next year with black.

[J.D. Yellowhammer]

Use Mav Dutchman Big Lube boolits.  I shoot a 73 repro in .44 WCF with MD's, and the 2.2 dipper of black.  Works great--it'll keep your rifle running through a match without any trouble.

[litl rooster]

Touche.

Hey Bob, I just scooped an original '73 w/ a 24" octagon pipe.  How do you recommend loading the .44's to make sure you kave enough lube?  Gonna start cranking out BP loads on my Dillon.  Aming to shoot at least one or two days next year with black.

there's no such thing     Once you go Black you never go back

[Jefro]

Use Mav Dutchman Big Lube boolits.  I shoot a 73 repro in .44 WCF with MD's, and the 2.2 dipper of black.  Works great--it'll keep your rifle running through a match without any trouble.

Yep, So easy a caveman could do it.

Jefro