Feinwerkbau History#1 Pistol

[squareball]

After being out of muzzleloading for quite a while I thought I'd like to get back into it again. Only this time playing with a pistol.

As the subject line says I bought this pistol last week and am busily working at gathering the stuff to take it out and shoot it tomorrow.

I was wondering if anyone has shot this pistol? If so I was wondering what the nipple size was for it as I'd like to get a spare. Just one of the things they forgot to mention in the manual!

Any help would sure be appreciated!

Square Ball

 

[madstone]

Square ball, Welcome back! Tell these folks what calibre and they will send so much advice you may get more confused. Listening to me, anyway! Some of these guys/gals are Real experts.
Little has changed, I suspect, since you previously shot ML's, I bet. Start with a light load and add small increments until good load is found. Warning:I once loaded a C&B revolver so light the 36 cal ball bounced off the target's backing and raised a whelt on my fore-arm! If I had not been wise enough to shoot "out to the side" It would have put my eye out! I thought of this just as I shot and held it off to side. Had trouble explaing the whelt to my wife, though. "Weeell, it was like this, see..." Is it OK to lie in a case like this? It's not about sex!
:results:

 

[squareball]

madstone,

Thanks for the welcome back. You're right about ML'ing not changing any. Hasn't since I crossed the Delaware with George and the boy's back in '76, I think it was.

The gun is a .36 cal., and yes, I could use some help along what would be a good load. The manual recommends 10.5 grs. Suisse (Swiss?) #1, which, if I got it correctly, would be Swiss #3 or 4 as we're numbering it on this side of the pond. Seems kind of light to me, and I sure don't want to bounce a ball off the backstop and whack myself in the head.

Don't have any Swiss so am going with 3F Goex. You think this is a good idea, and would 10.5 grs. be a good place to start?

Square Ball

 

[Rebel]

I would think with the .36 cal. a good starting load would be 15-20 grs. of 3f Goex.

 

generally, with pistols you begin the process with a load of half the caliber. Rifles start with caliber size charge.

18 gns. still seems a bity light but you can work up from there. The .36 will build velocity fast.

Swiss powder is "hotter"than Goex but I have forgotten the ratio. Someone will jump in with the conversion factor.

good shooting,
:thumbsup:

 

[Zonie]

When I bought some Swiss powder last year at the Western Nationals the guy selling it said to reduce the load 10 to 15 percent from a typical load.

The Swiss was more powerful than the Elephant brand I was using and the groups moved up about 2 inches at 50 yards.
Reducing the load 15% as he told me to do, brought the group back down to the old location.

Swiss is Goooooood stuff and it produces less fouling too!

 

[madstone]

Nice of the fellow to clue you in! 15% is substantial if you shoot alot! I sure appreciate the tip! Swiss, huh? Cleaner, too, eh? I've noticed different batches of Goex were inconsistent. Some very weak and inconsistent, dirty etc. Switched to elephant and though pleased I still seek better.
:agree:

 

[madstone]

The swiss, someone in here just shared, is about 15% more powerful than elephant? Thus Goex should be a very good substitute for any 36 calibre I ever saw. Bet some of these folks can offer better, more helpful advice than I, but 10.5 grains shouldn't bounce off anything harder than my head!
:thumbsup:

 

[squareball]

Thanks for the replies. Sure do appreciate all you good folks chiming in so far. what you've posted is a lot more than I knew before.

I'm aware of Swiss's properties as I shoot quite a bit of it in cartridge guns. Just don't happen to have the 1F(3F) FWB recommends. As someone said.... Good stuff! I didn't know that there was about a 15% burning rate difference between Swiss and Goex. Good to know.

But right now I have quite a bit of 3F Goex. At 10.5 grs. a shot, maybe a lifetimes supply! I've found very accurate loads using Goex and Elephant for my .50/90, so hopefully I can find something decent in the pistol.

Another problem is ball size. FWB recommends using a .363" ball and a .010" patch. From my understanding this is a little larger than normal. I have some swaged .350" Hornady's, and some .022" pillow ticking. When short starting this into the barrel and pulling it back out the ball shows the weave from the lands, but not the grooves. This doesn't sound good, but it's all I've got right now, so will give it a try tomorrow and see what happens.

Still looking for info on what the nipple size might be!

Square Ball