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I have been told that the ball need to be just below the cylinder. When I put 20gr pyrodex p ,it takes 5 pistol wads to get the ball close to the edge. That would get expensive. I have also heard of cream of wheat as a filler. Does the ball need to be close to the edge for accuracy. If so, what do you people use?

I used to shoot a Ruger Old Army which had a maximum capacity of 40 grains. For accuracy shooting I loaded 23 grains of Goex 3F and 17 grains of Cream of Wheat to position the ball just below the chamber mouth. Accuracy was outstanding. I can't say whether having the ball close to the chamber mouth is required, but it certainly works.

Spence

Cream of wheat, corn meal, grits ect are all good for this use.
The closer you get the ball to the forcing cone the better your accuracy will likely be.

I tend to use a bit of corn meal then a wad on top of that. I forget the exact measurement of meal needed, when I also use the wads I have, off the top of my head but that information is in my notes.
(see guys I got smart, I have notes now)

How is the clean up with that stuff?

No problem the same as using all blackpowder.

I've never paid much attention to how close to the front of the cylinder, the ball was. Kind of like shooting a 38 special out of a 357. I shoot reduced loads out of ROA and it has excellent accuracy at 25 yards. Unless you are a competition shooter, you probably won't notice the difference. I've shot handguns for over 40 years and even shot competitively, and trigger pull and sight alignment, will be a more critical factor, to accuracy. 25 grains and 1 wad, puts the ball close enough, for me.

I forgot to ask. What are you shooting......a Walker?

I agree with the use of Cream of Wheat and a greased wad on top. I, too, prefer to have my ball level with the cylinder. I was just taught to do it that way but I have not done any study to see if it really makes a significant difference. Based on what others say, it could well make a difference. I ought to do a study on that some day. I think it would be a fun project. A lot of shooting, measuring, calculating, statistics.....all of that fun stuff that I love. If and when I do it, I will post my findings. 'Til then, I'd say use Cream of Wheat and a wad and make sure the ball is not set too deeply in the cylinder.

Having the ball closer to the chamber mouth and forcing cone does make a difference in accuracy.

Cream of Wheat is preferred over corn meal as it is more compressible.

A Pietta Remington will take about 37-40 grains of real black powder under the ball. If you only wanted to shoot 20 grains of black for example, then use 15 or so grains of cream of wheat.

Mine shoots pretty accurately with just 15 grains of BP. I keep the CoW in a powder horn with a 20 grain spout. But recently did some testing and my sixgun was even more accurate with 35 grains of BP under a wad! A like the flash and boom more too!

"Cream of Wheat is preferred over corn meal as it is more compressible."

Exactly opposite. If you put too much COW in a cylinder and the ball will not seat below the face of the cylinder you have two (2) choices:

1. Get out the pocket knife and shave the ball
down so the cylinder will rotate.
2. Pull the nipple and dribble a bit of BP out,
install the nipple and re-seat the ball.

Corn Meal compresses, COW does not.

Get a copy of "The Definitive Guide To Shooting Muzzle-Loading Pistols" by Derek Fuller. It has information in it that is not available in any other place.

It dispels a lot of what is discussed here as un-factual. It follows what is mentored by the best pistol shooters in Friendship and Phoenix and Europe.

I've used both and CoW compresses more than corn meal. Was using fine grain corn meal if that makes a difference. But then again, maybe my memory is failing me here; it does everywhere else! :v

Where's Mr. Piburn?

He moved to another site and would agree on COW not compressing along with High Master Pistol Shooters.

It is past 5 o'clock in Scotland, time to move on to something tasty.

Just to be sure I found a post of his (kwhi43) and in 2011 he said, "I shoot with the Big Boys at the Nationals and I can tell you when accuracy is the name of the game we all use either Creme-of-Wheat or Cornmeal. Most use Creme-of-Wheat. This is a fact period!"

I'm not clever enough for notes, so I found an empty cartridge (.38, I think), soldered a piece of wire on to use as a handle and then kept filing it down until it held just the right amount of filler (wheat germ).

Saves me having to think about it....

For plinking I don't worry about it. For anything else I use enough powder not to have to worry about it.Only concern is that there is enough powder in the chamber to get adequate compression.

You are right on.

The compression, is the main concern. I think a lot of target shooters are using such light loads, that they have to add a filler to get the right compression. My ROA, with 25 grs. and 1 wad, compresses, and gives good accuracy.

Some tests, would be a good idea, as someone suggested.

This might be a really stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway. By Cream of Wheat do you guys mean the breakfast cereal?

While my experience with shooting cap and ball revolvers is limited, I have been loading 35 grains of Pyrodex with a felt wad on top of the powder charge and by so doing, my roundballs are still a bit below the cylinder mouth. In my preliminary testing, my gun is putting six shots into an area the size of a snuff can. That is good enough accuracy for me. I might be able to improve that with Cream of Wheat but for my needs, that will get the job done.

Jeff

Cyclist: The answer is yes. Cream of Wheat the cereal or Corn Meal or Grits all can be used to fill the cylinders of cap guns. It works and it's "Green". :wink: