FFF powder loads for 45cal. carbine

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7mmstalker

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My son got a new rifle for Christmas. It's barrel is quite short, 19". For shooting patched round balls, would FFF be a good choice?
FF seems to be reccommended most often, but usually for bigger caliber, heavier bullet, longer barrel.
Does anybody use FFF as their first choice, and why?
 
Honestly, I use FFF for most everything, even in my .50 Hawken. It might not be THE best for a rifle, but it burns well enough for me, and I don't have to stock two different kinds of powder.

I had a .45 cal revolver with an 18" barrel that I turned into a revolving carbine. It also shot just fine with FFF.

Honestly, for a .45 with a shorter barrel, FFF might be your best bet. Just try it and see! YMMV
 
Hey 7, see your from WA. as well; I am just north of Spokane myself. At any rate I use 3F in near most everything-even the .58. Your .45 should do extremely well with 3F. For the most part you will get a "cleaner burn" with that granulation. I even use it as pan powder in a flinter, works out great. Having made these statements I might add each gun has its own "needs" as to what works (group size) for that given rifle. 3F is a great start for .45
 
Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking, what did the young one become the proud owner of? Might ask too, is the rifling twist designed for PRB (slow twist)?
 
Rifle made by Navy Arms, doesn't have a model name or number stamped on it.
This was a good starter for him, very short stock, lightweight, sidelock,uses #10 caps.
Not sure about twist rate, though the rifling is cut very shallow, had to look hard with a bright light to see it in a shiny clean bore.
The style suggests it may be designed for RB lead, kind of a plain/mini hawken with shortened forend.
 
Generally speaking, shallow grooves will benefit more from Minies, accuracy wise. Not to say PRB can't be made to work in that style of rifling. Is it 3 lands and 3 grooves found on the majority of Navy Arms rifles? Can you post pics? Maybe you got one of the Navy Arms' Hunter or Hurricane I believe they were called.
 
Heres a few quick ones, it's very compact, about 34" total length, 12"length of pull. Cleaning rod marked, turns about 1/2 in 19" of barrel, so 1 in 38 twist,
8 lands/grooves.

DSCF1120.jpg
DSCF1123.jpg
 
I bet your son is proud of that one! Looks alot like the Hurricane, although the specs don't quite match up to any of my resources. Does the barrel have any manufacture stampings? Whatever the case may be, looks like you will be in for some good quality time working up a good accurate load.
 
Not much to offer for markings anywhere, barrel stamped CL45, and closer to the breech 0135 . Assuming that is a serial #. We have disassembled it for cleaning and found no other markings. Hoping that the drum is removeable. Maybe a better plan would be to add a cleanout hole and plug?
I have to say, the lock looks to be pretty well made- stout springs and tightly fitted together.
He put almost 20 shots downrange Christmas day, and likely will do his best to wear it out before outgrowing it!
 
I actually never remove my drum or snail clean out screws; sooner or later they always get buggered up, if not already by the time I get rifle. To clean I remove the nipple, after the swabbing of the bore with breech in very hot water I will take a stout q-tip and clean the area under the nipple then take a pipe cleaner and run it through the flash channel; good to go.
 
Thanx for the good words of advice. Pipe cleaner idea sounds like an excellent way to avoid unneccesary wear from his young hands -or my hamfistedness.
On a side note, Huntsman, my boy got his first deer near your backyard in Oct.
The area is somewhat familiar to me, I grew up in the Spokane valley area. Didn't get to hunt big game though.
The Whitetail doe hunt for kids and seniors was a good opportunity for his first year. We saw more Mule deer than Whitetail. Do you think the Whitetail population has peaked? We spent three days, hunting morning and evening, between Colville and Ione. Saw more Muleys than I could count (mostly on private acreage); only three Whitetail in the Natl. Forest, including the one my son tagged.
 
I use 3f because it's what I've got. And that makes the choice easy... :D

For the chamberings of .5 and less it would appear that 3f isn't a bad option. The .500 Hawkins I shot recently for my first time delivered some of my best ever 100 yard groups for this old guy dealing with plain iron sights. The load I used was 58 to 60 gns of black behind a patched .495 Hornady ball. Me and the rifle both seemed to enjoy this load.
 
I am southeast of Colville; Chattaroy area. I don't know about the whitetail population peaking or not. In my backyard that is all that is to be found; and pretty plentiful too! Even had a band of about 15 elk pass through, nice bull too; before season of course! I will have to get a photo of last years buck posted up; all I have is the rack though as I have yet to mount it. Really nice deer for stepping out my front door. Not really a hunt but a harvest none the same! If you ever get to this area you will have to PM me and maybe get out to make some smoke. I have a make shift range right off my porch.
 
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