Pyrodex in .38 Special

[DLS]

I'm not sure which forum is best for this question, forgive me if it should be in reloading.

I have a pound of Pyrodex Pistol and no black powder arms.

I want to load up some .38 or .357 and shoot them out of a GP-100. I think it would be fun.

Any tips? How much powder and how to weigh / measure?

I don't really know anything about BP, but have heard somewhere that air gaps over the powder or too much compression is bad.

Am I nuts?

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[orygun]

I don't think you're nuts at all. I've never done what you're thinking, but I've certainly considered it.

I believe you want to fill the case with black powder to where the base of the seated bullet would be, but I have ZERO experience and my opinion should be worth that much.

Maybe @AndyinEverson can help out here.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

I'd try about 20-25 grains of Pryodex with Cream of Wheat as a filler for a starting load.
You are correct in not waiting a air gap or over compression.
Andy

 

[DLS]

I was thinking I would use a .38 case as a measure and dump the Pyrodex into .357 case. I'm thinking that will not overcompress the charge and ensure no airspace ... but what do I know (grin)?

 

[DLS]

I'd try about 20-25 grains of Pryodex with Cream of Wheat as a filler for a starting load.
You are correct in not waiting a air gap or over compression.
Andy

Thanks Andy! I was posting my last at the same time as you.

So I use a standard loading scale to measure the powder and not some form of volume device?

 

[Andy54Hawken]

By "volume" ... I'd just get a simple "fixed" black powder measure which "throws" the charge you like and load with that...
Andy

 

[41mag]

the Holy Black is a volume amount, don't need no steeeenking scales.....
on the other hand, Pyrodex is NOT the Holy Black. In my old HBP days I was unable to develop any appreciation for the stuff.

Do a little reading to confirm your concern for caution.

Good luck.

 

[Certaindeaf]

The way you load a cap and ball revolver is to smash the ball with the loading lever down pretty hard against the charge.

 

[gary_wolf]

This is going to be a longer post than I want but here it goes.

I have done this a fair amount but take what i say with a grain of salt. Also if it were me and putting them through my gp100 I would FULLY disassemble and clean with soapy water afterwards. The old guns were designed with black powder in mind. I can shoot my Uberti 51 conversion as much as I like with black but your gp100 cylinder will probably start to drag pretty quickly.

I pan lube my bullets with a bp lube. A thing to note is modern bullets grease grooves are not as deep often times as bullets designed for bp. If you don't want to pan lube I would get a squirt bottle of Balistol and keep squirting the cylinder and bore. If you don't accuracy will drop off sharply after the first couple shots.

Lastly there is a cheap black plastic powder flask at Bi-Mart that throws the perfect charge for 38 special. I can't remember which one at the moment. I would strongly recommend Mike Venturino's book Shooting Sixguns of the Old West. Its basically half a black powder reloading manual and half history book but he talks about things like proper amount of compression.

As always do your own homework with reloading.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

I suggest that you do not use jacketed bullets with your Pyrodex.

Because of its fouling properties you might find that cleaning the pistol, after your shooting session with Pyrodex, to be more tedious.

 

[tac]

IIRC, Hickock45 recently made a movie about shooting some kind of Glock with a BP load - NOT Pyrodex, though. It worked - just. As an avid shooter of BP AND Pyrodex [when I run out of the Holy Black], I can advise you that Pyrodex WILL rot the almighty cr*p out of your stainless OR regular steel barrel and other gun innards in short order if it isn't cleaned up, again, in short order. I recently posted on muzzleloadingforum.com about a guy here in yUK trying to sell his otherwise pristine Ruger Old Army that had a bore pitted from end to end from leaving it uncleaned after a Pyrodex session a couple of months previously.

Needless to say, given the rarishness of the ROA these days, he was asking premium money for a wreck, and AFAIK, still has it. Sure, it shoots, but like a gun that has a bore like the inside of old sewer pipe. I advised him to have it smoothbored out to .460" and get Jeff Tanner to make him a specific mould. At 20 -25 yards he would never notice the difference, given that you can really cram the load on a ROA.

 

[tac]

I was thinking I would use a .38 case as a measure and dump the Pyrodex into .357 case. I'm thinking that will not overcompress the charge and ensure no airspace ... but what do I know (grin)?

That's ZACKLY what I did!!! Shooting the results in my Super Redhawk...

Once.

 

[RVTECH]

Trade/sell the Pyrodex and buy a lb of Bullseye or whatever.38 powder you prefer.
I am a BP shooter (and use Pyrodex) but would NEVER mess with it for a smokeless gun/round just because I had a lb. of it with no other use.