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Assuming you are refering to a revolver. Pour your measured load into a chamber, using what ever measuring devise you can grab, determine the distance from the charge(without compressing) to the end of the chamber. Add the diameter of your ball, or length of your bullet and thickness of any wad if any you intend to use. Now measure an empty chamber. Now measure how far your loading lever will go into a chamber. by comparing these measurements you can determine if there is empty space in the chamber. Or you can use the good ol TLAR method which is what most of us do.
 
This is going to sound sarcastic, but it isn't meant to.
It'll sound different firing it. :shocked2:
 
You can load your powder and use 1 wad then your ball on one cyl and see how far the loading lever goes down,then next chamber use 2 wads and see how far the lever goes down and so on..If you use one wad and say 20g powder and the loading lever goes all the way down and hits the frame you can figure there is a gap..With 2 wads if the lever does not bottom out on the frame you are good to go...It won't hurt to use 2,3,4 wads but I am sure that is why some people use cream of wheat as a filler instead of a bunch of wads since Cream of whead is cheaper than wads..
 
I thought maybe it was some conjugation of "Thar" as in "Thar goes a bear" and "Tlar wern't one thar yestidday"
 
Hey Fred, you done changed-out yer Avatar image!

Nothin quite like a Walker in each hand, eh?

Do you feel lucky? :shocked2: :grin:

Oh, wait a minute, that's the wrong movie :rotf: :haha: .

Just remember the famous line, "Dyin ain't much of a livin Boy!"

Dave
 
Were original powder charges much higher due to the blackpowder of the period? I think I remember hearing that standard Union issue .44 revolver cartridges then carried forty some grains of powder.
 
Norinco said:
Were original powder charges much higher due to the blackpowder of the period? I think I remember hearing that standard Union issue .44 revolver cartridges then carried forty some grains of powder.

First, welcome to the forum!

As to your question: Since revolvers' chamber sizes varied from model to model, each user would normally fill 'er up with powder, leaving some space for the ball on top. No wads, no grease over the balls. The powder itself was probably a little coarser than the 3Fg we shoot today, at least that's what I've read. Forty grains of powder is a good load for the big Dragoons of 1848, and the 1847 Walker "Dragoon", the biggest, most powerful hand gun in service prior to the invention of the .357 Magnum, held up to 60 grains of powder.

I use 52 grains of powder in my Walker replica, manufactured by Uberti, along with a pre-lubed wonder-wad, and a .454 Hornady ball.

Dave
 
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