Fiber wads work just fine
Black Powder Cartridges
- Thread starter DHall_37
- Start date
Update: Alright guys I got 200 bullets in. They don’t have the BP lube on them so cleaning might be tough, but I can get over that. Friend also got some GOEX 2F.
I also bought Lyman’s Black Powder Handbook and loading manual 2nd edition.
It’s got good info on black powder cartridge reloading and I’m much more confident! It stated that overpressure is pretty much impossible and the number one goal is to fill the case up and compress the charge and not worry about how many grains are in the case. This is what I was worried about because all I’ve loaded is smokeless powder and a compressed load is MAX for any cartridge like 300 savage for example.
The book also had lots of information on lubrication and the advantage of using fiber wads.
I also bought Lyman’s Black Powder Handbook and loading manual 2nd edition.
It’s got good info on black powder cartridge reloading and I’m much more confident! It stated that overpressure is pretty much impossible and the number one goal is to fill the case up and compress the charge and not worry about how many grains are in the case. This is what I was worried about because all I’ve loaded is smokeless powder and a compressed load is MAX for any cartridge like 300 savage for example.
The book also had lots of information on lubrication and the advantage of using fiber wads.
dellet
Gold $$ Contributor
They don’t have the correct lube, or they have no lube at all?
You really don’t want to shoot without a lube if that’s the case.
While it’s true it’s hard to blow anything up with black powder loaded correctly, loaded incorrectly all bets are off.
Without lube it will take more pressure to force the bullet down the barrel, and it will leave more lead behind, slowly restricting the diameter of the bore and causing more pressure.
It’s not clear if you actually measured the bore and grooves. You really need to measure groove depth or slug the barrel and measure that. You might find the groove diameter is much smaller than .430”. It’s easy to do and it’s much better to find out before you pull the trigger that you should of used a .415 bullet.
Old rifles are fun to shoot, they do require a bit more thought and preparation.
You really don’t want to shoot without a lube if that’s the case.
While it’s true it’s hard to blow anything up with black powder loaded correctly, loaded incorrectly all bets are off.
Without lube it will take more pressure to force the bullet down the barrel, and it will leave more lead behind, slowly restricting the diameter of the bore and causing more pressure.
It’s not clear if you actually measured the bore and grooves. You really need to measure groove depth or slug the barrel and measure that. You might find the groove diameter is much smaller than .430”. It’s easy to do and it’s much better to find out before you pull the trigger that you should of used a .415 bullet.
Old rifles are fun to shoot, they do require a bit more thought and preparation.
I haven’t slugged the bore, I’ve done lots of research and everyone uses .430 bullets military heeled bullets were like .429. I think the .415 number comes from an early jacketed bullet. The lands in these rifles are super deep maybe groove diameter is .415?
However, the .415 number probably comes from the paper patched bullet. They probably used that bullet and a paper patch for the rest of the diameter.
Maybe my local gun smith can slug the bore, I’ve already asked him to see if he could drill a hole in the bolt for the firing pin, but he said to go elsewhere because he’d charge 5x what someone else could do it for. Seems kinda odd….
As for lubricant the bullets are lubed they have a red colored lube to them. The Lyman manual said this kind of lube works ok, but non oil based lubes are better for black powder. Something like bees wax id
mike mccormick
Silver $$ Contributor
A great homemade bullet lube for BP is equal parts beeswax, lard and vegetable oil. The info about avoiding void space is correct. There are powder compression dies made for BP cartridges also. BP works best when compressed, and bullets seated to the lands.
I have a Martini and Vetterli in .41 swiss.i load the Lee 44 240 RN sized .430 or RCBS 44 Keith Bullet and 8g of trailboss.
accuracy is 3 MOA and its such a cheap to shoot and assemble load I've not worried about fine tuning.
shown is typical 50 yard group.
accuracy is 3 MOA and its such a cheap to shoot and assemble load I've not worried about fine tuning.
shown is typical 50 yard group.
Thanks, was that martini made by Fanz Bokeli? I had an identical one but traded it for a Mauser guild rifle to a buddy. I’m talkin so close you might have my old rifle.
Yup Boekel and probably is.it was originally sold by edelweiss and then ended up on gunbroker.i rebuilt the front of the stock as it was pretty thrashed.
I almost bought it on edelweissarms but got a 7.5 instead. And bought another 7.5 off if a buddy who got his at edelweiss.
I was glad it showed up.
it came out of Florida
Ok the more I look at it I think you have my old rifle! He it was at my reloading bench.
Attachments
I had to do some custom machining on it, let’s just say if you take the firing block off you’ll be in for a surprise.
Yep I traded the rifle to a guy in Florida, he said he’d probably sell it as he needed the cash.
I bought it from edelweiss months ago. If you want to know about what all I did to it just let me know. It needed a bit of machining. The stop nut on it literally was in 3 pieces when I bought it.
Here is the front end repair I did I had to inlet a couple of scabs as it was completely shredded and made a wedge pin and a couple of screws that I intentionally aged. I wanted it to look like an 80 year old repair. I still haven't put the final touches in the exterior finish as I wanted to get shooting it
Yeah I saw your feedback from edelweiss. One of the rifles I got was completely shredded apart they weren't very honest about it. I had to rebuild the buttstock as well as make a new firing pin.
Did you have to do any firing pin spring work to this example? And does it eject shells properly? When I had it with my brass it didn’t wanna extract all the time.
I was quite ashamed that the stop nut was literally shattered I might have a pic of the new one.
works fine.the 348 Winchester cases I made are perfect. I had to thin the rims of the 8mm Lebel on my little lathe a bit to get them to extract.
so far a bit short of 200 rounds fired
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where is that part from?Old one
the back side thst the firing pin goes in?
I haven't yet opened the action up.
Yep it’s what holds the firing pin in place. I’m glad you got it working my 8mm lebel cases were to thick at the rim and would hang up.
I had to re tap for 5/8-18 and make a stop nut from an old bolt. I bought a new stop nut and it didn’t fit at all, that’s why I had to do a lot of machine work. I re tapped the block so I didn’t have to replicate what ever the old threads on there were.
It’s set up so you can flip the firing pin and shoot the old rim fire cases too.
Attachments
good job thanks!.
my 22 rf Haenel & Hausch had a reversible dovetail on the breech block and the firing pin was reversible to go to centerfire.It was a neat system.the action was the same size as this .41.im guessing they made all the actions like this so they could go RF or CF depending on chambering.
I wish the 41 was the larger action like my two 7.5 target rifles.
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