Powder measurement, very confused!

[tacfoley]

I'd recommend a load of 50gr of Pyrodex RS to start. Triple 7 might blow the skirt off the bullet, leaving you with a difficult clean-out, to say the least.

Remember, and I keep saying it on the other thread - ALL the subs are MORE VIGOROUS in action than BP. What goes whump in a BP load is going go seriously THUMP in a subs load - all the more reason to start low, especially with the Minié bullet.

The Lyman mould is the more usual for the P-H and its copies, because the skirt is somewhat thinner than the almost-solid-based Lee. In any event, the bullet should be around 1 - 2 thou smaller than the muzzle - to allow you to 'thumb' it into the rifling with very little effort. Lubing the Minié is a whole story by itself - Borebutter, if you like the locker-room smell is very popular, if costy here in UK. Others, like me, make a mix of beeswax and Neats foot oil 75/25 and dip the bullet in it. This is fine for warm UK for most of the year. I have also used E45 - an emulsion skin cream from Boots the Chemist - it simply washes away with all the fouling going along with it.

I opine that you would be well-advised to get into real BP for large calibre shooting like the .58cal Minié - it really is NEVER overly successful trying to get consistent results with BP because Pyrodex doesn't mind a little compression, but T7 does not like it at all. More to the point, Pyrodex subs are meant for BIG loads in BIG hunting guns. The AVERAGE subs load in a .54cal percussion rifle is around 100gr of RS, for hunting, y'see. One gentleman of my acquaintance - not a subs man - loads his .54cal Hawken with a mighty 150gr of FFg under a 240gr sabotted bullet for hogs. He looks rather like Kenneth Williams, if you remember him - makes you wonder where all that recoil goes.

You'll no doubt be advised to do other things than this by others. What you take on board is up to you. I shoot BP here and in the USA and Canada, and have a deal of experience in the matter, as well as being one of the earliest posters on the well-known US BP sites www.muzzleloading.com. If I don't know the answer, then I know about 45000 other folks who do.

tac

PS - take a tint and hip and invest in a Co2 ball blower - sooner or later you WILL need to remove a ball or bullet that went down the barrel BEFORE the powder. Remember, there are two kinds of BP shooters - those, like me, who admit to doing it, and liars.