Powder measurement, very confused!

[norfolk shooter]

Hi all,

I have been firing my Remington 1858 with triple 7 powder loading directly from my powder flask

[B]DO NOT LOAD POWDER DIRECT FROM YOUR FLASK!!![B] All it will take is a little ember at the bottom of your pistol or rifle and then bang!! Good bye hand. Your flask is ineffect a granade.

[ashf9999]

[B]DO NOT LOAD POWDER DIRECT FROM YOUR FLASK!!![B] All it will take is a little ember at the bottom of your pistol or rifle and then bang!! Good bye hand. Your flask is ineffect a granade.

True. Though I'm not sure it has actually happened (I stand to be corrected) it is theoretically possible. The MLAGB discourage it as well. Stick to vials. You don't want to end up on YouTube I thought 777 and Pyrodex bottles had the warnings re using volumetric measurement only on the labels?

[norfolk shooter]

just use a powder measure. you know one with a little slider on. now i have seen one of them with about 40grns of BP go up while being loaded!!!

[Smokeless Coal]

True. Though I'm not sure it has actually happened (I stand to be corrected) it is theoretically possible. The MLAGB discourage it as well. Stick to vials. You don't want to end up on YouTube I thought 777 and Pyrodex bottles had the warnings re using volumetric measurement only on the labels?

Its an American company and they tend to stick all sorts of restrictions on their products to avoid law suits.

The dont use a flask warning is mostly relevent to single shot, fire it reload it and the risk of a glowing ember.

That said my club demand use of vials so you can see the measures all look good, we had one guy short measured from a flask and the ball bounced back and hit another firer.

Stick to vials, we like safe shooting.

[Hakeswill]

I normally leave it a little while after shooting and have a good look down before reloading. If I start weighing my powder then I will be loading it through vials anyway, we dont have the risk of bounce back as the back is sand.

[manxteddy]

A very informative post.
I have an 1858 two band Rifle in .58 and intend to use triple 7 and or Pyrodex.
What size and type of vial /test tube should I get......E Bay ?
Thanks Graham

[airgunnut]

The op is also forgetting that when a finger is over the end of the flask spout, it's not flat, the skin of that finger will be inside the spout, depending how hard you press your finger on to the end of the spout, it can reduce the total by 1 grain.

[tacfoley]

A very informative post.
I have an 1858 two band Rifle in .58 and intend to use triple 7 and or Pyrodex.
What size and type of vial /test tube should I get......E Bay ?
Thanks Graham

Hmmmmmmmm. Are you shooting a Minié bullet? Or a patched ball? Bearing in mind that a RIFLED Enfield was designed from the off as a Minié bullet shooter.

I've never tried a sub in mine, but you'd have to start by measuring the volume of the service charge of 2.5 drams - 68.5gr of FFg - and go from there.

Any standard phial from around 75mm in length will hold any charge that you are likely to be putting in your Enfield.

tac

[manxteddy]

[QUOTE=tacfoley;7164317]Hmmmmmmmm. Are you shooting a Minié bullet? Or a patched ball? Bearing in mind that a RIFLED Enfield was designed from the off as a Minié bullet shooter.

I've never tried a sub in mine, but you'd have to start by measuring the volume of the service charge of 2.5 drams - 68.5gr of FFg - and go from there.

Any standard phial from around 75mm in length will hold any charge that you are likely to be putting in your Enfield.

tac[/QUOTE

Thanks a Lee cast Minie in a 1997 Euroarms P58. Mint condition .Can get Triple 7 or Pyrodex .Actually managed to get one box of RWS caps from Valley Arms with a 60 mile round trip. They only had one.
Awaiting a Melting Pot from Kranks in far away Leeds as I have a bullet mould and ladle.
Phials are next.

[tacfoley]

True. Though I'm not sure it has actually happened (I stand to be corrected) it is theoretically possible. The MLAGB discourage it as well. Stick to vials. You don't want to end up on YouTube I thought 777 and Pyrodex bottles had the warnings re using volumetric measurement only on the labels?

!. It has happened in the USA at reenactment displays, with severe and lethal results.

2. The MLAGB do not discourage it, they positively prohibit it. They also prohibit the use of BP substitutes in the comps.

3. The international federation of muzzle loading - the MLIAC - prohibit it.

Pyrodex and all the subs should be used by volume. However, to set the volume initially, you still have to weight the charge of similar grade BP to get the equivalent volume. Having established the volume of, say, 70gr of FFg for your Enfield P53 and set it on your powder measure, you can then substitute it for the, uh, substitute. IF you weighed it, you'd see that it actually weighs less.

tac

[airgunnut]

[B]DO NOT LOAD POWDER DIRECT FROM YOUR FLASK!!![B] All it will take is a little ember at the bottom of your pistol or rifle and then bang!! Good bye hand. Your flask is ineffect a granade.

I know someone who was very concerned about this so in the filling cap of his cylinder flask he drilled some farly large holes in it then covered the holes with gaffer tape, the theory is that if a spark somehow got into the flask the resulting gas expansion will exit from the weakest point, that been the gaffer tape in the bottom of the flask which is now upside down and at about 45 deg to your body.
I now make paper cases with 22 grains of black and a filler (fine semolina), this makes loading much faster and cleaner as you make them up at home.
http://www.activeshooter.co.uk/threa....146876/page-2