New to BP shooting

[harris_304]

I don't have a lot of experience shooting black powder revolvers. I bought a 1851 CVA Navy .36 cal and wonder how
fast can a experienced BP shooter load this type of gun at the range. Let's assume that we are using caps, powder, wads and
the ball.

This will give me something to read while I am waiting for my LTC to process (MA). :hmm:

 

[Don]

Well, that depends. Depends on whether you load on or off the frame and what kind of tools you have to do the job. I've never timed it my self but it does take a few minutes. I'm usually just target shooting and I like to load off the frame to save stress on the frame plus I can see what I'm doing better that way. I imagine the fellas who do cowboy action shooting can get pretty fast but even still I imagine it takes a minute or two.

Don

 

[jaxenro]

LTC's in Mass can be a gripe. It took over three months for my first one because (as they told me) I didn't have a police record. Been looking for a good place to shoot BP as well.

 

[Rat]

Although I use loose powder and ball when target shooting, when "in the field" I use a paper powder cartridge, which also contains the wad and ball, and a straight line capper.

This is very fast, you grab a "cartridge", tear off the end, pour in the powder, squeeze out the ball and wad and seat them. Repeat this five more times, cap the nipples quickly with the capper, and you are loaded up again in pretty short time...really very fast, not even comparable to loading with loose powder, cap, wad and ball.

Try it you may like it.

Now it does take time to make the cartridges in the first place, but if you do it while watching the Outlaw Josey Wales, there's really no time lost there.

Rat

 

[jdixon]

You need a license for a black powder gun in Massachusettes :: Does Ted Kennedy still have a driver's license? He has killed more people with his car than you ever are likely to kill with your handgun. I guess they changed from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. :shake:

 

[jaxenro]

Not sure if technically you need a license to buy one. I would not want to get caught driving to the range with one in my car without one. It just saves a lot of hassles.

 

[harris_304]

I don't have a plice record as well. Since I had a FID for
26 years it will probably take them 4 months to issue mine
as well. I just took a pistol saftey course. With that in
mind it will probably take five. MA goes out of it's way
to restrict gun lovers with compliance laws...etc.

:boohoo:

 

[WV_Hillbilly]

Using paper cartridges, pre-measured charges, and a capper--I managed to load all six chambers in under a minute. That was a long time ago, when my fingers had better dexterity. Under two minutes would still be pretty fast.

Any steps that you can do ahead of time can really save you a lot of time loading at the range. Even using "quick loads", a syringe for grease, and a capper--I could do it in under a minute. (also long ago!)

That kind of speed comes from LOTS of loading & shooting cap-n-ball revolvers. It is "almost" humorous once you get your cadence to watch another shooter taking up to 10 times as long to load the same model of revolver.

FRIENDLY WARNING - loading the gun SAFELY is much more important than loading it fast--unless you're competing in a match or in a gunfight (very doubtful!)

So don't worry too much about "speed loading".

Shoot Safely!
WV_Hillbilly