Starter load for 36 pistol

[omarick1948]

I recently bought a .36 cal pistol with a 12"X 13/16" Green River barrel. Any suggestions on a starter load, ball size and patch size to get me started. Also, how much powder is to much in this barrel for safety reasons!

I'm use to shooting the bigger bores and don't want to get carried away in loading!

Thanks in advance,
Rick

 

[CoyoteJoe]

My normal load for a .36 is 15 grains of 3f. That is actually more than you need for most purposes but my pistol shoots very well with that load. I haven't chronographed my .36 but 15 grains in a .45 went over 900 fps, which is why I said it's more than you need. If your pistol has a patent breech you may want to find out how much it takes to fill the powder chamber as a minimum load. As to a maximum load, I really have no idea and was never interested in finding out. You can load 30 grains into a .36 revolver chamber so I've no doubt you could load heavier than that but I don't know what would be gained by doing so. A singleshot pistol gets considerably higher velocity than a similar load in a revolver, presumably because there is no loss from a cylinder gap.