Black powder pistol shooting

[Flashinthepan]

Hi Craig
I use blackpowder in two flintlock pistols, a musket and a .451 Parkerhale volunteer rifle or as the boss (aka the wife) puts it ‘my cap gun’.
my pistols are smooth bore – cheaper than rifled easier to load obviously less accurate but hugely enjoyable, yes I can spend time prating about with flints but sometimes I can get a run of twenty plus shots without a single flint problem. I need bp in the pan but have tried Pyrodex and 777 in the pistols and musket plus the clubs revolver.

From this I would list the following:
Pyrodex – expensive, corrosive more so than bp in flintlock cause a considerable delay between ignition in the pan and the main charge which is not good for the aim. Needs lots of washing out as it is still cruddy.

777 – more expensive than Pyrodex but you down load as there is more pressure per grain, so it lasts longer. Burns bloody hot so breach really heats up with just one shot, which to be honest concerned me. The 777 doesn’t produce so much crud and it washes out with cold water, which also saves on buying bore scrubs etc.

BP – cheaper unless you buy Swiss or high performance powders, all bp powders make a crud which has to be cleaned out however some powders make more than others. A brush out in shooting is sometimes required. Cleaning needs time, bore scrub compound washing up liquid and a lot of patches and changes of warm water, then gun oil when patch comes out clean.

I tried revolvers and as enfielf2band said I didn’t like the faff of loading plus all the mess of the lube that with a lifelong interest in flintlocks made my mind up for me to go for flintlock pistols.

I would make one final comment, if all our pistols etc are true replicas of the original items in bore size, dimension and rifling. Then the rifling’s twist was made for bp which will have less oomph than Pyrodex or 777 which means that the ball or bullet should be rotated correctly. I say this because one of our good pistol shoots at the club I frequent tried some of my bp in his Rugger and has changed over from Pyrodex to bp because it improved his shooting.

Whichever way you go enjoy the shooting.

[parabellum]

Hi All,

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post, this is great information and has been very useful. Really looking forward to getting my own black powder pistol, I think what I'll do is try some of our club members pistols first before I buy anything, this seems like the sensible way to go.

One more question (might be a daft one) on cleaning a black powder pistol, do you immerse the entire pistol in hot soapy water or do you just rinse parts of it?

Cheers Craig

[enfield2band]

At first I used to put the entire pistol in hot soapy water but you have to take off the wooden butt and the dry the inner workings of the pistol.

I now just clean the barrel and cylinder with hot soapy water and strip it from time to time to clean the inner parts.

Everyone has their own method, all of them work. You will find what is best for you when the time comes.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy your blackpowder pistol shooting. It is addictive.
You have been warned.

[lilguy43uk]

Genuine BP, never mind those "Johnny come lately" imitations. If you don't have to wash your hands before you have a pee then you're missing out on the fun.

Big clouds of choking, black smoke and flame and hands that look as if you've been grubbing in the coal oyle. Can't be beaten.

[tim56]

As above. Have tried 777 and pyrodex but cant see any advantage so just use b/p now.
Another advantage with b/p is if its damp when shooting everything takes on a slight whiff of egg sandwichs Which is ok if you like me love egg butties.
Tim