Advise on pistol load.

[Pukka Bundook]

Gentlemen,

I have an old 16 bore pistol, converted from flint, and would like ideas on the best load.
I recall Keith Neal having one shoot Very well with a bore-sized ball and powder only.  Thing is, it could get expensive trying too many sizes of balls, so any short-cuts
on what Usually works would be very welcome.
Pistol has a 9" barrel and was originally well made.
Lock is lovely inside, and feels very oily and no friction.
Bolted lock.

Here is the odd photo so you know what we are talking about!  :-)
Had to make the rammer and swivel.

Thanks in advance,
Richard.

[Marcruger]

Oooooh.  What a lovely piece of work.  I was looking at the photo, and thinking, "Well done on making that beauty!"   :-)  You burst my bubble.   God Bless,  Marc

[Pukka Bundook]

Marc,

Yes, I made it as a young bloke, ...about 1815 if I remember right LOL!

God bless back as well.  :-)

[Daryl]

I would likely shoot 30gr. 2F in it for starts, Rickard & see how it handles that.
The pressure would be VERY low along with vel. I would suspect about 600fps.

[Mike Brooks]

Is it rifled?

[Pukka Bundook]

Thanks Daryl.

Would you go with a patched ball, or wadded?

Mike,
It's a smooth bore.

Thanks for looking!

R.

[Daryl]

I am prone to patching, however, did have fun with a patched ball on the powder, with 3 000 buck on top held by a card wad in my rifled .54 flint pistol. 
The pattern at 12 yards was about 10" round, with the ball punching center (10ring) every time on the B-27 target, the buckshot perfectly radial around the centre hole. This
struck me as being a devastatingly effective defense round.
The patch will shoot more cleanly and probably more accurately, but then, the large bore English pistols & .54 US martial pistols, were favoured for running bison (from horseback) on the prairies. Technically, these were quite close range guns and wads would suffice for that, certainly. They, of course, were also fired at somewhat longer ranges during 'fights'.