Righto Gents - Following on from the advice gained on here and at my club I took the plunge last weekend and bought myself a .44 Pietta Remington 1858 Stainless target model. The pistol came with some pyrodex P, a measure (graduated 10 - 120 - Grains I assume?), some viles, wads, balls and caps so I am pretty much ready for the first range outing - next Saturday.

My question is - can someone recommend a starting load please? I've looked at the Pietta site and they recommend 12-15 grains of FFFG Black Powder. However the Hodgdons Pyrodex P (PP) site recommends 30 Grains of Pyrodex P. I've been getting in a right tiswas over this and need some advice from the collective!!

I understand the powder is measured by vol, not weight but is 30 Grains of PP = to 15 Grains of FFFG?!? Or are Pietta being really over conservative with their load data? It seems over the pond they stoke these pistols up with 30 - 40 grains of PP.

Any recommendations for a starting load gratefully accepted!