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After the somewhat recent purchase of my original Remington Creedmoor rifle, I decided after nearly 5 decades of loading smokeless powder, I'd take a leap into BP loading.
I own and shoot dozens of 1800's BP era cartridge rifles, but have always loaded them with various smokeless powders. Whenever I tell someone I don't shoot BP, I get the shocked look, and then often the "I'd never shoot those wonderful old guns with smokeless!" comment. Or the, "It's not safe to shoot those guns with smokeless!" comment.
Although I know both comments are baloney, I'm starting out on the journey to load accurate BPCR cartridges. Mainly because the club I shoot at has some long range BPCR shoots, and although I could compete with smokeless, my scores wouldn't count. And I've been told my accuracy will increase with BP also!
I've also been told that loading BP cartridges, is as easy as smokeless! Well I'm here to say that part is a big fat fib! Not that loading BP is tough, but it certainly takes far more steps to reload, shoot, and clean; both during and after shooting!
When I began this adventure I talked with several extremely good shooters, some of which are some of the best BPCR and BPTR in the country. Got great advice, but always with the caveat that, "This works for me, but you might need a different wad, different powder, different compression," etc., etc.
It seems some things are a constant in BP loading, while others vary greatly from shooter to shooter, and may work great for some guys, even though not for others! I hesitated to buy up too much of any supplies of powder, wads, etc., but on the other hand with powder getting eaten up 3x-4x as fast using BP charges of full cases, I needed to stock up pretty well!
I began with just two calibers. The .44-77SBN my Creedmoor is chambered for, and the .45-70 that I have numerous single shots chambered for, so can try them in various rifles. In an effort to save some expense I used my 3/8" hole punch to punch out coffee filter paper for an over the primer flash hole "wad". Really just to keep powder out of the primer pocket, and get consistent ignition. I ordered .030" wads from John Walters as punching them out is tedious, and his price per 1000 is cheap.
So far I'm trying various amounts of compression, and just one bullet weight and design for each caliber. A 415 gr. for the .44-77SBN, and a 526 gr. for the .45-70. Have about 40 rds. of each for both guns, with 10 rds. of each load, varying the charge, and the amount of compression too.
I built a drop tube from 3/8" aluminum tubing that's 24" long, which does a great job of ensuring all the case levels are equal when I charge each case. So the variable is how much compression, which I regulated by making charges smaller, but never so small as the bullet doesn't seat against the wad fully.
Of course this is just the loading part! Next I need to figure out the sequence for shooting, so I can control fouling. Some use a blow tube, some wipe between shots, and some use bore pigs with squeegees attached between each shot. So more choices there too! And have to figure out what works or doesn't work, without changing several things at the same time!
I think if I get lucky I wont pull all my hair out, or jump off a bridge before I figure this all out! Right now I can already tell it takes twice as long to load a case than it did to do the same with smokeless! So it better result in more than just a lot of smoke, and give me good groups too!
I own and shoot dozens of 1800's BP era cartridge rifles, but have always loaded them with various smokeless powders. Whenever I tell someone I don't shoot BP, I get the shocked look, and then often the "I'd never shoot those wonderful old guns with smokeless!" comment. Or the, "It's not safe to shoot those guns with smokeless!" comment.
Although I know both comments are baloney, I'm starting out on the journey to load accurate BPCR cartridges. Mainly because the club I shoot at has some long range BPCR shoots, and although I could compete with smokeless, my scores wouldn't count. And I've been told my accuracy will increase with BP also!
I've also been told that loading BP cartridges, is as easy as smokeless! Well I'm here to say that part is a big fat fib! Not that loading BP is tough, but it certainly takes far more steps to reload, shoot, and clean; both during and after shooting!
When I began this adventure I talked with several extremely good shooters, some of which are some of the best BPCR and BPTR in the country. Got great advice, but always with the caveat that, "This works for me, but you might need a different wad, different powder, different compression," etc., etc.
It seems some things are a constant in BP loading, while others vary greatly from shooter to shooter, and may work great for some guys, even though not for others! I hesitated to buy up too much of any supplies of powder, wads, etc., but on the other hand with powder getting eaten up 3x-4x as fast using BP charges of full cases, I needed to stock up pretty well!
I began with just two calibers. The .44-77SBN my Creedmoor is chambered for, and the .45-70 that I have numerous single shots chambered for, so can try them in various rifles. In an effort to save some expense I used my 3/8" hole punch to punch out coffee filter paper for an over the primer flash hole "wad". Really just to keep powder out of the primer pocket, and get consistent ignition. I ordered .030" wads from John Walters as punching them out is tedious, and his price per 1000 is cheap.
So far I'm trying various amounts of compression, and just one bullet weight and design for each caliber. A 415 gr. for the .44-77SBN, and a 526 gr. for the .45-70. Have about 40 rds. of each for both guns, with 10 rds. of each load, varying the charge, and the amount of compression too.
I built a drop tube from 3/8" aluminum tubing that's 24" long, which does a great job of ensuring all the case levels are equal when I charge each case. So the variable is how much compression, which I regulated by making charges smaller, but never so small as the bullet doesn't seat against the wad fully.
Of course this is just the loading part! Next I need to figure out the sequence for shooting, so I can control fouling. Some use a blow tube, some wipe between shots, and some use bore pigs with squeegees attached between each shot. So more choices there too! And have to figure out what works or doesn't work, without changing several things at the same time!
I think if I get lucky I wont pull all my hair out, or jump off a bridge before I figure this all out! Right now I can already tell it takes twice as long to load a case than it did to do the same with smokeless! So it better result in more than just a lot of smoke, and give me good groups too!