Filler

[Aline]

Hello,
Is it OK to use corn meal as filler to shoot reduced loads in cap & ball revolvers? Should it be fine or coarse?
Will the filler protect against chain-fire like a wonder wad would? Or does lube need to be applied over the ball to seal each chamber?

Thanks,
Aline

 

[Zonie]

Aline: Corn meal works fine. I use the course but I don't think it would make any real difference which was used.
The corn meal might reduce the possibility of a chain fire but I would lube the mouth of the chamber anyway.
The Crisco or whatever you use not only seals the chamber to prevent chain fires but it provides a lubricant for the ball/bullet as it enters the tapered forcing cone at the rear of the barrel.

 

[bulletman]

Aline is gonna cook her breakfast !

 

The order of load is powder, corn meal, ball (seated), lube (I use Cabela's Muzzleloader lube -- Crisco drips in hot weather).

It doesn't matter what corn meal you use (some use Cream of Wheat, by the way) as long as you use the same kind consistently. This way your loads are all compressed the same amount, and you don't get variability on your rate-of-burn.

The corn meal helps keep powder compressed and helps reduce bullet jump.

The lube is on top of the ball to weather-seal the load and to reduce the possibility of chainfires.

You also want to make sure there is a cap on the nipple of every loaded chamber as otherwise, this is another possible route for spark-incursion and a chainfire. And when you reload, check nipples for snugness -- they can loosen quite a bit as the gun fires.

Tom

 

[musketman]

It is a good idea to put the powder in first, before the corn meal...

This happened to my brother with his Ruger "Old Army" cap-n-ball...

You didn't state if it's yellow or white corn meal, and what about grits?

 

[bulletman]

I almost had a bad thing happen with grits, I used it to top off a round, 7.62X54R, I was using unique powder reduced loads, And when it went off I heard a faint bang and the bullet just about fell out the front of the rifle, The grits expanded inside the case, and turned into cement. There was no way to remove those grits from that case, was like rock hard, since then I dont use filler anymore...could have been a serious accident.

 

[Zonie]

"Should you put a wad between the powder and cornmeal?"

IMO the filler should go on top of the powder.
If your using a Wonder Wad or similar I don't think it would make much difference though. If I am using a wad I wouldn't even bother with the Filler.
I find that unless I am loading really light loads of powder like I do in a Brass Frame guns (can we say Reb?) the powder/wad/ball works well by themselves.
The ball shouldn't be flush with the mouth of the cylinder after seating and I haven't seen any real difference in preformance whether it is "just below" the cylinder face or down in the hole 1/4 inch PROVIDED the ramming device actually seats it on the powder/wad or the powder/filler material. (The key to accuracy is consistency or always doing things the same way.)

 

[R.Dorsett]

I personaly don't know about these...but a guy I know used pillow stuffing.

 

[tucoblue]

Should you put a wad between the powder and cornmeal?

 

[BrownBear]

I'd be suspicious of using pillow stuffing in this situation. In metalic cartridges the seating depth of the bullet is really secure and repeatable, plus the amount of pressure of the bullet (and filler) downward on the powder charge isn't such an issue in pressure and safety.

With a BP revolver, the pillow stuffing gives you a comparatively larger air space than a solid filler, and I think the potential is a lot higher for variation in bullet seating depth without something solid like corn meal to help regulate it. It might work if you weren't worried about the powder shifting around an up into the stuffing.

I think for accuracy and consistent pressures you would have to mark your ram rod/bullet seater for consistent bullet seating depths. You would also have to make sure that the bullets didn't shift while you were applying grease or during recoil over a sequence of shots, as you experience in a revolver. Bullet shift is a real problem in metalic cartridge revolvers or rifles with lots of recoil, hence the heavy crimp (and in rare cases adhesives) used to hold the bullets in exactly the same place. You don't have those going for you in a BP revolver, and the thought kind of makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.