Pyrodex P FFFG equalivalent

Pyrodex is measured by equal weight to black powder. Pyrodex comes in several grades including cartridge. You can probably get 50 -55 gas of pyrodex in a 45/70 case. I have more experience with Triple 7,should you decide to try Triple 7 it's more powerful than black powder reduce your charges by 15% and do not compress the charge. The other thing you may want to do is bring a jug with a mixture of water and dish soap to throw you fired cases into this will make cleaning your brass a lot easier. If you can find Windex
with ammonia d a 50/50 mixture with water will work also. Last point you don't have to worry about a double charge as it will overfill the case.

Pyrodex is measured by equal VOLUME to black powder, not weight. Using a measure made for black powder - but for cartridges originally made for BP basically you do fill the cartridge so that bullet will just compress the powder lightly when seated. If you want to go lighter you need to use a filler or wadding. Not sure about using plating bullets without lube grooves though, unless I'm wrong about those not having grooves. Might make for a tough cleanup job

Pyrodex is measured by equal weight to black powder.

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No it is not BP and substitutes are grains volume not weight.

If you don't have a volume measure you can use this chart to convert grains weight to grains volume.

http://www.curtrich.com/BPConversionSheet.htm

au_prospector said:

I want to load some FFFG substitute behind the Berry's 350 grain plated flat points and have never done so before. This would be for my H&R reproduction .45-70 trapdoor.

Any hints or tips on this? I have some RP brass and was simply going to fill to slightly compressed with a seated bullet. But wholly smokes what if????????

Thought I would ask you guys first.

If this a) presents a cleaning problem or b) dangerous .... I would stick to smokeless.

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Take a bit of time and determine the seating depth of your bullet. Then pour enough of your powder in the case to come up to the level where it will make firm contact with the base of the bullet, add a bit more to allow for a bit of compression. Weight that charge out to determine how many grains the charge should weigh.
Then load 5-10 rounds test fire and see what the target tells you.
Be sure and do a very thorough job of cleaning your gun and oil the bore. You will need to wash and clean the cases to remove the residue from them as well.
In the end, outside of being able to buy Pyrodex at the local big box store it has no benefit over using real blackpowder.

No lube on the bullets will cause some pretty severe fouling , and that will lead to some really nasty leading of the grooves and lands.
Clean up isn't a big problem, the problem is the chemicals they treat Pyrodex with are more corrosive than blackpowder. You must get all that out of the barrel and a good coat of oil after you're thru shooting.
High humidity will aggravate the corrosive action of Pyrodex.

I use Pyrodex P in .44 cap and ball, and my .50 Hawkin. I got the brilliant idea of loading some 45LC with it after seeing load data in the old Hodgdon #25, which by the way, also has the black powder to Pyrodex conversion chart. (100gr BP = 80gr by weight of Pyrodex)

It was fun and nostalgic to shoot with all that smoke, right up until cleanup time. Pyrodex is nasty and corrosive, and will turn your bras into colors you've never seen before!

If you are going to load cartridges Id highly suggest either real black powder, or one of the other newer, non-corrosive black powder substitutes. 777 is cleaner, and there area couple others that claim to be that I haven't tried.

I'm still using it in my blackpowder guns but will switch when what I have is gone.