Powder amount for .36 caliber rifle ?

[Tom Currie]

I'm going to start sighting my .36 caliber squirrel rfile tomorrow. Looking for recommendations on starting powder amount. I have never shot less than a .50 .

Thanks

[Bob Roller]

I'm going to start sighting my .36 caliber squirrel rfile tomorrow. Looking for recommendations on starting powder amount. I have never shot less than a .50 .

Thanks

I'd load about 35 grains as starting load.Sight it in from a bench and increase powder charge in 5 grain increments until the ball quits climbing and shoots flat at 50 yards.

Bob Roller

[RichG]

the first thing to do is work up a load so you know what your particular barrel, patch, ball, powder combo is doing and what shoots best. then sight the gun in for that load. I usually have a target load with a wet patch so I don't need to wipe between shots and a hunting load with an oil patch so I can leave a load in the gun. Usually the target load will be on at 20 to 30 yds and the hunting load around 75.

[SCLoyalist]

I shoot 40 gr for 25 & 50 yard (about 1800 fps muzzle velocity),  50 gr for 100 yards (pushing 2000 fps).     There's  a rule of thumb given in Eric Bye's book on Flintlocks that suggests the most accurate load will be somewhere around 2XCaliberX Twist, so for a 1:48 twist,  2X.360X48 = 35 grains would be another data point to consider.   Your mileage may vary depending on your gun and powder choice, but for paper punching out to 50 yards, I'd expect your best load to be somewhere around 35 to 40 grains.

Are you intending to shoot paper or woodswalks at 50 & 100 yards, or will your shooting be mostly squirrels up close?   

Happy Shooting.

[ken]

Wife gun groups well with 28 grain. Getz barrel.  My 36  wants about 35 grains to shoot well.  Good luck

[Tom Currie]

Thanks everone for the quick replies. I'm not much of a organized shooter so made this .36 as a squirrel rifle for my 26 year old son, the goal is to get out in the woods with him when we can.

[hanshi]

My .36 flint SMR loves 30 grains of 3F and gives sub 1" groups at 50 yards; never fired this load any farther than that.  I later started shooting 20 grains which seemed as accurate.  But on one trip with a friend we fired at plastic water bottles at 88 yards.  The 20 grain load was accurate and consistently centered those little bottles.  There was a few inches of drop but I just raised the aim to the bottle top and hit quite easily. 

[mab7]

I have two .36s, flint and cap lock, and both are accurate enough at 30 yards with 25 gr of 3F to flat ruin a squirrel's day.

[Daryl]

I use what the rifle tells me to use. Thus, I work up a load using a combination that shoots cleanly enough I do not have to wipe the bore- ever - while I am at the range shooting.
That means a ball that is .010" smaller than the bore- or LARGER. Larger is normal. I shoot a .320" ball in my .32, with a .020" patch- that loads easily, but not as easily as a .311" ball and the same patch.  The .320" ball shoots only slightly more accurately. 

Both sized balls demand is use 35gr. 3F for shooting with a water based lube - range shooting, and 40gr. of 3f for shooting an oil, like mink oil or Neetsfoot oil to get the same accuracy.

I had a .36 some times ago, which shot a .350" ball and .022" denim patch to obtain accuracy at 100yards - 50gr. of 3F.

I do not adjust powder charge for the range unless I am shooting my .69 - where it matters, due to the much increased recoil of the 100meter and longer range load, such as 85gr. 2F for short ranges out to 100yards/meters & 140gr. for longer ranges - to 200meters.
109 yards = 100 meters.

[Mike R]

Yeah you need to try several loads in a systematic way---My first BP rifle was a .36 [I no longer have one] and I didn't know much then...a gunsmith buddy formed a .36 mold for a stubby conical and gave me an empty .43 Span case for a measure--lord knows how much powder that held--probably over 75 gr!  I know it filled up that bore pretty far!  Anyway from a bench with a tang peep sight [and 24 yr old eyes] that rifle would print 1" groups at 100 yds!!! Honest....the rifle was a H&A underhammer deluxe model!  Came across some of the old conicals just yesterday....personally, for a round ball, I would start with 35 gr and work up...

[hanshi]

Additionally, I shoot a .350" ball with a .024" patch - I squeeze the material as hard as I can several times in a row then release the compression; what reading it springs back to is my patch thickness.  It loads easily enough that I'd like to have a .355" mold which should still load easily. 

This is similar to my .45.  The standard load is a .440" lead ball and .024" patch.  I have a single cavity .445" mold and occasionally cast ball with it.  Using the larger ball to replace the .440" gives the same poi, accuracy, ease of loading and "statistically" the same velocity (neither has a speed advantage over the other; they are interchangeable.  .360" molds are available and look to be a possibility.

[Daryl]

I had a 15/16"octagonal .36 cal Sharon barrel back in 1975 that I bought straight from Hall in Kalispel on my trip to visit Les Bauska and buy some of his barrels. It was one of Hall's deep groove buttoned barrels. I was in the shop when he was dragging the button through the tube. The whole shop shook (vibrated) from the enormous pressure inside the bore- stop-go-stop-go-stop-go in rapid succession.  This barrel didn't split, like some did.

He said it would be a 'real' shooter.  I didn't know any better, so I bought it - $50.00 iirc - HA! - put in powder and a ball and it would shoot - it was OK, I guess, but I could not get over that weird internal copndition of the barrel, like it had cross-ribs inside form metal flowing back into the bore behind the button.

The bore was impossible to look at, if a 60 watt bulb was at the other end. It was VERY smooth, mirror-like, but those ribs throwing and magnifying light - OUCH! Hard on the eyes. The loose and tight spots were about 1/4" apart- it looked like a fiddle-back violin on the inside - that is, the lines of loose and tight spots showed like fiddle-back wood grain. Vdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd- is what a tight patch felt like as it was pushed through the bore. Maybe you had to be there - HA!
I put on a huge sloping crown and used to shoot .375" balls with a denim .22 patch.  The barrel's 36" twist seemed to shoot them well enough as they turned into elongated little flat nosed, round butted slugs. I used a steel 5/16" rod and won a match with it.  A 3 minute timed even at 25 yards.

I shot naked .375's and loaded 4 or 5 at time with 30gr. of powder. I had 27 holes in the scoring rings and over double the second place score.  This is not a recommended load, btw.

Yeah - deep hole buttoning does not work - I threw it away and replaced it with a 38" twist, cut rifled .50 Bauska barrel that REALLY shot beautifully.   

[Dan4590]

Hi,

Here is the method I use when I start building a load.

What ever the caliber is, is the amount of powder to start with.

50 cal = 50 grns
45 = 45 grns
40 = 40
36 = 35 grns (rounded off)

Not a super technical method, but it will make it go boom.....a very un-impressive boom, but a safe starting point.

Good luck

[hanshi]

Maybe it's because I, being in my dotage, can't shoot worth a flip any more.  Then, again, it may be because that, which I'm observing, is more or less just the way it is.  But it has so far proven the rule, with occasional exceptions, that whatever BP charge goes in the muzzle shoots as well as any other.  Due to this observance I generally don't seek a specific charge but rather a range of charges; all of which shoot the same. 

In my .32 and .36 I started off using 30grns of 3F and experienced very fine accuracy.  I went down to 20grns, no change, and then down to 15grns with identical accuracy.  These findings seem to lend support to the old claim, "She shoots good with about any charge I put down the barrel".  I believe the exceptions tend to cluster near the extreme low and the extreme high.

Any opinions on the subject will certainly add a wealth of knowledge. 

[Tony N]

I use 35 grns of 3F in both my .36 and .32, works well and makes it easy to remember!!

~Tony