recomended powder chg for pistol

[hortonstn]

can anyone recommend a powder chg for a pistol, 10inch green mountain bbl 1-18 or 1-20 twist
chambers flintlock
thanks
paul

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

You don't indicate what calibre your barrel is, but I'll chime in anyway.  I have two barrels for my Hawken pistol:  a .60 Hoch with 34" twist, and a .45 Numerich (45-70) with 22" twist.  I use 25 gr. of FFFg GOEX in both, and both shoot into one hole at 25 yards.

[Frizzen]

Wish I had a pistol that would shoot that good.

[hanshi]

My .50 flint pistol isn't fussy about powder charges but will do an inch or so at 25yds with 30grns of 3F and with .50grns.

[hortonstn]

Sorry it's a 45 cal sometimes fingers move faster than my mind

[B.Habermehl]

I would suggest, starting around 15 or 20 grains of fffg black powder. In my 50 caliber pistol I settled on 30 grains fffg. I think the extra recoil actually helped the gun to act a bit more repeatabley in my hand. It shot lighter loads just as accurately from a rest but I could shoot it more accurately offhand with a bit heavier load.BJH

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Frizzen, I don't think you need a pistol that shoots that well.  From what I can see, you have enough talent to make up for a pistol capable of only 3/4" groups.

[Daryl]

- I also have a pistol that Taylor built for me. It has a GM .45 barrel with 18" twist and a .54 piece of rifle barrel with a 66" twist. I use 25gr. of 3F in the .45 bl. and generally 55gr. to 65gr. 3f in the .54 bl. With that charge, the slow twist .54 is quite accurate and kicks much like my 4" M29 - much more satisfying than the little POP from the fast twist .45 bl.

I will mention here that that one hold group Taylor spoke of, we've done several times, enough to know it's accurate and not accidental. Those groups comprises of 5 shots making a single hole - however large that hold might be. With the .60, it's likely to be from 1" to maybe a 1 1/2" centre to centre group.  We've both done that, with that .60 cal. pistol.  I'll also note here that there are VERY few modern pistols or revolvers which can match the accuracy of muzzleloading pistols.

[Dennis Glazener]

Please stick to muzzleloaders!  You all know the rules.
Dennis

[Pete G.]

Wish I had a pistol that would shoot that good.

I built one that will shoot a one hole group every time; that second shot usually ruins the group though.

[Daryl]

Please stick to muzzleloaders!  You all know the rules.
Dennis

Sorry if there was a misunderstanding, I was talking about a muzzleloading pistol's recoil, only comparing the recoil to something most can envision.