rookie

I'm using a target or reduced load of 20 grains of black in my .45 flintlock. I'm having trouble managing the .45 and thought I'd re barrel it to .36 since my other guns are .36 any way. But for the time being - will 15 grains of black be safe in the .45 flint pistol?

rookie

Or another thought - if the patch makes loading tight then could a thinner patch have any effect on accuracy?

tx gun runner

In modern steel gun with real black powder the only way to blowup a black powder gun is to leave a 1" air gap beween the power and bullet . You can double the charge and double ball it and it won't blow up the gun up . Year ago they tired to blowup a TC rifle . They put 5X the powder and 5 balls in it and could blow one up , but the only way they blowup the gun was leaving air gap between powder and ball .

rookie

So worst case scenario when trying less powder is the ball needs to be pulled. No big deal. It's not like I haven't had to do that before - oops!

What's there to say about patch thickness and accuracy if there even is a link between the two at all?

tx gun runner

The fit of the patch and bullet is the most important of a BP gun accuracy more then the powder charge . A .445 ball with a .015 and or a .440 ball with a .020 patch , both fit the gun perfect most 45 cal guns . I like the thin patch and ball combination , it is little harder to load .

rookie

What did you use and/or where did you get the barrel? Very fine shooting! Do you shoot this or have you before at Friendship IN?

tx gun runner

It is a old 357 mag rifle barrel I had laying around and it has a pistol twist . No to going to friendship . I did the USIMLC which shoot world wide .

Rocklock

TG's load is shown in the pic - 18gr

rookie

Thanks - I did notice that. A friend of mine, and competitor at the nationals uses 18 grains in his guns. I just use 20 in all three. Works fine for now. But I was meaning what did TX use for a barrel which he shared. Thanks though.

tx gun runner

I got these to shoot and found out they were unfired .

click on paste below ....

https://gunnerforum.com/black-powder-...stol-sold.html

Rocklock

I'm learning on a flint pistol now. It's a .40 but the problem seems to be that it is muzzle heavy and all the inertia from the cock and frizzen movement forward and down keeps me dropping low. A friend trimmed some weight off the front end of the 7/8" x 12" barrel by turning it octagon to round.

Sights not yet installed so improvement if any has not been proved. Sighting over the end of the barrel and dry firing seems to show less muzzle drop. Hope to get sights on this week and range time. May look at dropping a couple of inches off the barrel length or making the round a smaller diameter (thinking ahead as I get older I may have more trouble with all of the muzzle weight.
TC

tx gun runner

I agree with you 100% . That is why I made this gun half round because it was too muzzle heavy .

rookie

Very nice looking dueling pistols TX. Are they real or original or are they replica's?

tx gun runner

The original Burr/Hamilton origin guns are in a museum and worth millions , they were shipped to Uberti and they were disassembled and copied and that is when they found out they had secret set triggers in them I guess there were cheaters in the 1800 also . Only 1200 copys of these guns were ever made and the original Wogon of London only custom made guns and these duelers were smooth bore / flint and made in 54 cal which is a super rare cal and with secret set triggers . These guns made dueling against the law and just owning a set of duelers was against the law , so most sets were split and sold . 1st gun control

Here the story of the most famous duel ever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr-Hamilton_duel

Rocklock

And the impetus of your hammer fall (rise?) is upward. Imagine a hammer and frizzen both going forward and down. Don't want it too light on the muzzle. We'll get it working right soon tho. Just need some cooler weather so can stand to be in the shop.

Frizzen

Rookie, I think I know you. We got a mutual friend Charles?