Here to anger some more people on my antics. 5.5in barrel pieta for hunting.

[muzzleloadingat18]

I want to preface this with the fact that I don't recommend doing what I do. That being said I have been on this journey to find out just how much power I can get from this pistol. I have yet to Chrono it but I have done some testing. I made a mold for a 160gn wad cutter because I think it is the best shape projectile for the job. Better shape than a round ball and not losing muh velocity. Yes you heard me right I made a mold. My latest experiment was with home made powder. I used willow and it worked good screened 3 times and milled for about 6 hours total. Screening more than once makes it faster I stand by it. I think the water homogenizes everything. I used 20gn and it felt like 10gn of go ex. After that I used a precisely measured amount "as much powder as i could fit flush in the chamber" and rammed down my wad cutter. The powder under a good bit of force compacted and left about 1/5in gap to fill with lube. That load felt hotter than 50gn of pyrodex with a round ball. And for those calling me an idiot because thats too much powder for a short barrel. I was getting very very little smoke far less than go ex or swiss. I shot into soft dirt and got about 14in of penetration I compared the penetration to the same as a +p ball 45acp. They both did about the same. I think I can get more velocity if i continue to improve my powder the biggest thing is going to be getting the powder dense enough that when compressed it will fill most of the cylinder so that I don't wast any space. I'm happy with the mold as well. Fit tight loaded easy and cut a ring of lead. Hard cast so no expanding. I'm estimating the velocity at 850 or 900 so even with good soft bullet I don't expect any real expansion. With what I have done so far I can say 100% it can take a deer humanly if done correctly. Within 20 yards it will punch a 45 hole through any deer all day and twice on Sunday. Because of the wad cutter it will punch a clean sharp hole and the deer will bleed alottt. Next step is to Chrono and smoke a pig with it.

 

[russellshaffer]

Fun experiments. Don't hurt yourself but let us know how it goes.

 

[muzzleloadingat18]

Fun experiments. Don't hurt yourself but let us know how it goes.

It's safe. I have done max loads of 45gn of pyrodex with a 200gn bullet and she takes it all day long. The only things are I shot her hard enough that the clip that holds the loading lever up broke. So I'm using a bread tie untill I can figure out how to fix it and still have her look pretty. I am pretty sure it is a known problem and not particularly from me loading it so hot. The recoil is on par with a 45 colt. Not light cowboy loads it feels like full power saa loads. Now Ruger loads are a different story but in terms of standard pressure I think it's on par. I'm very interested to see what velocity I can get. I think that because the powder is screened and non compressed it dose better compacting it tight. It also probably breaks up the grains to a finer f but it's safe regardless.