Mike Venturino has two very good books out on loading black powder. One is Shooting Colt Single Actions Of All Kinds, it deals with BP loads in Six-guns. The other is Shooting Buffalo Rifles of the Old West, it deals with loading the black powder rifle cartridges very thoroughly. Both are very good reading, well written, & explain the process clearly. I would recomend them to anyong who is interested in reloading BP cartridges.
Black Powder likes to be compressed a little about 1/8 th of an inch. I have loaded it in the .45 Colt & can get about 36 grs into modern cases. I use SPG lube it's soft & helps keep BP fouling soft. I have gotten 3" 5 shot groups @ 25 yards after running 20 rounds through my chronograph. That load 36gr averaged just under 900fps from a 5-1/2" SA bbl. I was using a .452 255gr SWC lubed with SPG.I should have shot for accuracy before I shot for velocity. It's fun to shoot the old loads, & don't ever believe they were pipsqueak loads, they were not. Frank
Black Powder likes to be compressed a little about 1/8 th of an inch. I have loaded it in the .45 Colt & can get about 36 grs into modern cases. I use SPG lube it's soft & helps keep BP fouling soft. I have gotten 3" 5 shot groups @ 25 yards after running 20 rounds through my chronograph. That load 36gr averaged just under 900fps from a 5-1/2" SA bbl. I was using a .452 255gr SWC lubed with SPG.I should have shot for accuracy before I shot for velocity. It's fun to shoot the old loads, & don't ever believe they were pipsqueak loads, they were not. Frank
