Pedersoli powder charge?

[b bogart]

Can some one help a brother out here? I have a friend that has been shooting a Pedersoli .32 caliber flintlock the past couple Weds. evenings. He's had this gun for several years and just now is shooting it. Yea I encouraged him He is curious as to a decent powder charge to start with the thought of producing good targets. Anyone out there shooting one of these? Even those that aren't have any good suggestions??
I would just be guessing, and hoped one of you can help me suggest to him!
By the way we have been shooting every Weds. for the past month. Now some others are beginning to join us. Even some of those suppository gunners show up for the camaraderie and to make fun of my shooting.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Bruce

[Longknife]

Bruce, I can get good 25 yard accuracy with my little 32s' with as little as 15 grns. but I need to bump 'er up a bit to get a flatter trajectory out to 50 yds and more. (Douglass barrel) I have shot as much as 40 grns. with excellent results though, man,  she really cracks!!!!! Most of the time I settle for about 30 as it will shoot real straight at the target ranges and that is what I pop squirrells with too.  He will just have to experiment and see what his gun likes, they are all different and some are darn finiky (like womem). Good Luck! Ed

[BrownBear]

My little Traditions Crockett (capper) will cloverleaf just about any charge you stuff down the bore.  I've settled on 20 grains of 3f.  One shooting pard has a Crockett as well and has settled on that charge as well.  An yet another has a Green Mountain 32 cal replacement barrel on his TC, and he's pretty well settled on 20 grains also.  Not for your flinter, but all our guns shoot Pyrodex P a whole bunch cleaner and more accurately than Goex 3f or any other sub.  We can go 20+ shots without swabbing using Pyro P, but especially with the Goex we're doing well to get more than three.

We do lots of informal shooting with these guns, but they're mostly for hunting snowshoe hare.  Accuracy is good enough for head shots out to near 50 yards if you can hold that fine.

[Daryl]

Brownbear- there's a bunch of us up here who feel that if you have to swab at all, no matter the bore size, your patch isn't thick enough. If you can't load a thicker patch then the crown isn't radiused and smooth enough.  Ordinary spit is all that's needed, no "wonder" lubes nor synthetic or other modern BP replacement powder.
: Neil's (of this forum) daughter in law shoots a .32 at Rondy and never has to wipe. She uses real BP. She would be difficult to beat.

[BrownBear]

I agree, but with exceptions.  We've only gone 20 with the Pyro because we've never tried more.  It would probably do.  The other exception comes with super tight patches in the field.  On hunts we won't be carrying mallets, and that skinny little ramrod will only seat a ball against so much pressure.  We've tried the tight patch on the range, and it's a dandy deal.  But as I said these are hunting rifles, and the criteria are simply different.

[eldeguello]

I believer any charge between 15 and 30 grains is safe enough.  I use the one which seems to give the best grouping.....

[Gene Carrell]

My 32cal with it's Martin bbl. will shoot well with 30gr of 3Fg Elephant, 0.315 rb and  0.018 patching. It does not require a mallot, just a hand-picked 5/16" loading rod custom scraped. I don't recall ever cleaning between  shots, but how many do you take on a hunt anyway?

[BrownBear]

We're using .311 balls with .010 patches.  A .015 patch is "do-able" with a very sharp smack on a short starter, but .018's are strictly mallet affairs.  Haven't tried a .315 ball, but I have little doubt that we'd be using really thin patching of some sort if we could get them.   Sounds like a case of different bore sizes to me.

There's no closed season and no bag limit on snowshoe hare up here, plus we're going into a high period in their population cycle.  A dozen hares a day is not extreme, and if you really need a bactch of hares you can certainly get them.  A standard batch of pepper sausage requires the flesh of 25 hares on average.  Casual eating of hares rather than chicken means we consume another 30-40 a year.  Good eats!

The only powder we've found that doesn't require swabbing every few shots on hunts is Pyro P.  I've got Goex 3f, and I'd happily use it if it worked better.

[J.D.]

I hope you have better luck than I have had with the 32 frontier rifle I own. the most accurate patch/ball combo I have found is .315 ball and .o15 cotton drill patch, but even that is not consistent.

I have tried everything from 10gr FFFG Goex, to 50 gr Swiss FFG, and FFG with little success.

I have even bored out the cavity in the breech to .300 to allow powder to more easily find its way into that cavity. And while that did improve ignition, it didn't have any effect on accuracy.

Anyone want to buy a Pedersoli 32 cal flint gun? I'll even give you a      

[Daryl]

I've never had to use a mallet - I normally use a .020" denim patch in my .40 with a .400" ball, spit or LHV lube. No pounding or other gyrations are needed. It loads barely harder than a .395" ball with the same patch. The bore size is .398".  As I said, if you have to pound or use a malley, your crown needs work.  taylor was using a .020' aptch with his .508" ball a couple days ago, without loading problems, in his .50 Ginny.  He tried a .030" patch and that was too tight, but once started, went down as easily as any other load.
: Pyrodex, in my experience, does not foul at all.
edited to change ' to " on the .030" patch.

[J.D.]

I've never had to use a mallet -  As I said, if you have to pound or use a malley, your crown needs work. 

I second that. Forming a radiused crown as Daryl suggests definitely makes loading easier without affecting accuracy. It certainly made a big difference in how my 32 loads.

[Daryl]

I just re-crowned this barrel. Note the very smooth radius and the rifling starts 1/8" below the muzzle's top surface.  This is smooth enough, I can start a .395" ball with .020" spit lubed denim patch 6" down into the barrel with just pressure on the rod - no hitting at all.  Hammers and mallets are for adjusting sights, bent barrels and for putting age marks thieves. Oh yeah, sorry for the lousy picture- my camera was about out of juice and wouldn't flash or focus properly. So far, I don't think this minie-cone has hurt accuracey.

[northwoodsdave]

Daryl

I like that crowning job.  I have an antique .36 barrel with much the same crown:  I can load the ball by hand and just use the ramrod to push it down into place.  I don't need a short starter, which I understand is a late addition to black powder anyway.

Did you use a specific tool to accomplish this crown?  I'm curious, since I like the way the old .36 fires and it's very accurate as well.

Dave

[Daryl]

I used a sharply tapered reamer (1/8" to 7/8") to cut the angle, turned by hand, then an RCBS neck chamfer tool with emery in 320 grit with the electric drill to partically finish, then 400 wet or dry underneath my thumb to finish.  With a .020" denim patch lubed with LV or spit and .395" ball, I can shove the combo down 3/8" into the muzzle with hand pressure, then down 6" using the long starter shaft and hand pressure, then of course, 3 choked up pushes on the rod and it's on the powder.  The short starter isn't necessary, but it prevents broken rods. This is not a 2 finger load, but a ham fisted load- still don't really need a starter, but do - it's easier.