Beginning with a 12 bore muzzle loading shotgun

[meles meles]

So, oomans, having found it great fun to shoot a muzzle loading, black powder, replica duelling pistol, we've now decided to regress further and try our paw at muzzle loading shotguns. We thus need to be educated and equipped. We have acquired a Pietta Navy Arms 12 bore side by side, hammer action, percussion gun. We intend to use real black powdah in it, so our next step will be to apply for an explosive licence and buy a plywood box. What else do we need?

• Is there a 'go to' book we should read for advice and charge loads ?
  Is it worth considering anything other than 'Swiss' powdah?
  What grade should we use?
  Which is better, a powder flask or a 'dipper'. Or should we weight out individual charges of powdah and shot and keep them in anti-static plastic phials?
  Card, fibre or cork wads?

So much to learn! Which is, surely, half the fun !

[dromia]

A good starting point is choose your shot weight, for clays I use 7 1/2 shot and 7/8ths of an ounce.

Get an adjustable dipper. Lee do a good cheap plastic one and adjust it so that your shot charge just fills it. Once set then use the same volume for your powder and shot.

I use a shot bag and a powder flask with a single charge nozzle filed to the correct volume. I would check your clay clubs rules as most places now don't allow loading from a flask at the muzzle, if so then the precharged phials route is the best. Most of my BP shotgun shooting now is for live quarry in the field and the flasks are handy for carrying and fumble free loading and if I do something wrong then I will be only one to suffer.

I like card wads for over shot and over powder, when finding the best load you will need a pattern plate of some sort, I use lining paper held against a stone wall. You are looking for a good pattern and no doughnuting. If this happens then firstly try different over powder wads, fibre, tow, wasps nests etc then adjust the powder charge, usually down, if doughnutting occurs.

For powder in the shotgun TPPH was my powder of choice.

Get a worm for pulling mis-loads, if you have one you will not need it, if you don't have one then you surely will.

Also mark you ramrod for empty, loaded with powder and then loaded with powder and shot so that you can check what you have down if you loose track.

You will also need a decent capper, I like the snail types.

[Plumose]

I am not sure a worm or snail will last long around a badger...

[greenshoots]

Lee do a good cheap plastic one,

lee do anything good are you mellowing in your old age?

greenshoots

[dromia]

I am and always have been mellow.

[meles meles]

Even more amazingly, Krank's sell the dipper even cheaper than it can be found on fleabay !

The only powdah we have found good loading data for, so far, is Vesuvit, from Czechia (which is probably a recommendation in itself.) Their loads look to be very much in the same ballpark as Dromia's suggestion of equal volumes of shot and powdah. It looks to be a mid price offering too, between Krank's coal and Swiss.

[dromia]

Krankies have a new line, Zloty Stok black powder made in Bromberg, Poland, I have some but have not tried it yet.

[450 Martini]

When i was competing i found that 1-1/8 ounce of no 7 shot over about 75 grains of coarse to medium powder did the trick. (This is the same as the load data as presented on the Goex website, link below). Any old nutty slack should be fine and finest Swiss is a bit wasted on shotguns.
Also get a good piece of wood dowel for loading wads as the rods on the gun are a tad weak and are prone to breakage if used extensively.

https://goexpowder.com/wp-content/uploa ... 6/mlss.pdf

[meles meles]

Thinking a little further ahead, is it a big step from muzzle loading with black powdah to loading 12 bore cartridges with black powdah? Some of our older shotguns were originally BP guns, subsequently re-proofed for nitro rounds. If we find we likes the smell of BP and the pretty flames and sparks, is it a whole lot more effort to start reloading 12 bore cartridges with BP for ye olde authenticke experience?

[dromia]

Not really, I used to reload black powder cartridges for my Coates 10 bore.

I used simple tools mainly an ancient roll crimper and some bits and pieces from an old LEE Loader set, nails, dowel, dod of wood with some holes drilled in it and of course the universal loading and telescopic sight setting tool the 1/4 stone mash hammer. Before I got the roll crimper I used water glass to hold the top wad in place.

I was shooting the gun once a month on a 30 bird sporting set up so putting up 40 cartridges this way was not a hardship.

The trick is getting the powder wad and shot column right to fit the case, I liked the fibre wads as they were easy to shave if needs be for more powder and or shot. any compression of the powder needs to be the same for every cartridge

I had a Hornady shot shell progressive for smokeless loads but I never did black powder loads on it just because it seemed inappropriate.

Again a pattern plate is the key so that you know what your load is doing.