One ever-lasting niggle over here is the utterly unbelievable cost of the average pack of 100 cast ball - around £10-12 per hundred.

I cast my own, and have done since the late 1960's, and reckon that the average cost to me of casting scrap lead from our old plumbing is around 17P per thousand.

IF you get into BP handgun shooting, get a suitable mould just as fast as you can - a propane gas-burner and an old pan will do to melt the stuff, and a ladle to decant it into the mould.

I have no idea how much it costs me to shoot my .44s, but by the time you've bought either caps, black powder or one of the substitutes and the stuff to seal over the end of the chambers - I use Boots E45 handcream - it can't be much more than a few pennies.

And BTW - it has been shown over in the USA by careful experimentation that multiple discharges are NOT initiated from the open end of the chamber, but by poorly fitted percussion caps. And I would very much like to see the gun that was 'destroyed' by such a multiple discharge.

tac - BP shooter since 1964