Can anyone suggest a good load for a repro 1740's/50's era British Dragoon .62 cal. smoothbore pistol? I'm thinking a .600 RB with a .015 patch on top of 35-40 gr. FFg would be a good start. How about a shot (snakebuster!) load? Thanks! :thumbsup:
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Pistol load?
- Thread starter Musketeer
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My bro shoots 20gr. in his smoothbore .60 Officer's flint pistol. The barrel on this one is a re-bored, turned & swamped 1 1/8" .58 Octagonal rifle barrel. Rather extreme work to get a barrel, but a beautiful pistol nonetheless - I'll have to post some pictures some day.
: One dueler we've seen, has the charger in the end of the loading rod. IT can't hold more than 15gr. and was for a cased set of .60's. The brass barrels at the swamp, were only .020" thick per side. I have pictures of one with 13 thousanths thick and it's brass as well. No wonder the harges were kept light. They'd have blown quickly hunting buffalo I assume.
; 30 to 35gr.3F makes a good healthy load with a 300gr. ball.
: One dueler we've seen, has the charger in the end of the loading rod. IT can't hold more than 15gr. and was for a cased set of .60's. The brass barrels at the swamp, were only .020" thick per side. I have pictures of one with 13 thousanths thick and it's brass as well. No wonder the harges were kept light. They'd have blown quickly hunting buffalo I assume.
; 30 to 35gr.3F makes a good healthy load with a 300gr. ball.
a good rule of thumb is start with half the caliber for pystols and the same as the caliber for ryfls and work your way up or down to suit. I made a Miquelet pystol in 62 cal and use 20/25 gr. FF. Barrel is 8" long and it uses paper cartridges...packs quite a[url] punch..main[/url] thing is,,it doesn't kill on one end and maim on the other...everybody has their own idea of what is right..myne is always the right one... :bull: hope this helps Wulf
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The Blackpowder Loading Manual 3rd.Ed. doesn't have the same gun. It lists for the 1855 Harper's Ferry a 550 gr Minie with 30 to 60 gr. of ffg and a 570 w/ 50 gr. of ffg. Velocity with the first is 577 fps to 802 and 697 with the heavier bullet. A Lemat was tested with a 317gr. 595 ball and 25 gr. of fffg for 571 fps. With slugs that big I think recoil would get "stout" real quick. Hope that helps.
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I wouldn't load much over 35gr. You will find that recoil begins to detract from the enjoyment of shooting it. Even at 35gr., the recoil will be stout, but still easily managed by someone accustomed to shooting handguns.
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