My first BPCR today

[alemonkey]

I've been shooting smokeless out of my Pedersoli 1874 Sharps, but I recently decided to make the jump to black powder. My local club has an informal BPCR silhouette shoot where they allow smokeless, and it's a blast, but I want to try some real competition with it.

So, I loaded up 60 grains of Pyrodex (haven't had time to track down the real stuff yet) under a 500 grain bullet with a .015 wad I punched out of cardstock. One of the guys at the club was good enough to loan me a Lyman mold, so I'm learning to cast at the same time. Went out to the range today to give the new loads a try....

I'm hooked....this is so much more fun than shooting smokeless out of the same gun. I don't know why, but I had a huge grin on my face the whole time. My lube seemed to work pretty good (50/50 parraffin & Crisco). I didn't have a lube star on the end of the barrel, but the fouling was so soft it was almost runny.

I'm still playing with seating depth and compression. I'm not getting as good of accuracy as I was with smokeless, but it's close. I think if I mess around with it enough I'll get it figured out.

So tell me why again anyone uses smokeless?

 

[scrat]

Dont know i really dont. As soon as you find the real stuff you will be amazed. Make sure you are using soft lead. not hard cast lead. Soft lead must be pure. Crisco bore butter is the way to go. Make sure on top of the powder is a wad or fill to make sure there is no air gap between the powder and bullet. Unlike smokeless you do not want an air gap. If need be you put more powder in it. Since your using pyrodex you can. now triple 777 you can not as it burns hotter and more explosive than the og stuff (goex). Re adjust your sights and you going to get hooked really hooked. Also your rifle needed to be very clean from the smokeless. As they do not mix. However Black powder is so much easier to clean. just warm water and dish soap. You can almost go home take a shower with the rifle. Come out dry off and then dry off the rifle. Then oil it and your done. Wow i bet thats a real redneck gun cleaning. How many have done that before.

 

[Jim Watson]

Real black powder works better than Pyrodex or other fakes.

Get some black powder bullet lube, paraffin is a petroleum product and does not play well with black powder. There are lots of recipes but I just buy SPG.

Don't use hard bullet metal, 20:1 lead:tin is the most that is useful. I have heard of people casting BPCR bullets from wheelweights, but lead-tin is the easiest to make run.

Compress the powder charge with a compression die, not by ramming a soft bullet down hard on the wad.

Read up.
http://www.ssbpcrc.co.uk/Resources/Introduction to BPCR Loading.pdf

 

[alemonkey]

I definitely plan on using Black when I have a chance to track some down. I'll probably just have to mail order it, since it doesn't look like anyone near here carries it.

From what I've read, paraffin is an exception to the no petroleum products rule. It doesn't seem to be causing any problems right now, but I'll keep my eye on it.

 

[jrfoxx]

I agree, "real" black powder is just way cool for the smoke, smell, and nostalgia factor.My 1st 2 BP guns were a muzzleloader pistol, the a flintlock rifle, which had me hooked on BP and muzzleloaders right there. Then I restored a rusted up hulk Mauser 71/84 and got my first BPCR experiance. Also WAY cool.I say lots of info on loads for it with smokeless, but wanted to use BP for the reasons I mention in the beginiing, and am glad I did. Same deep boom, same great smell, same smoke, and being a 120+ year old gun, and the neat fact its in that sort or "crossover" period where muzzleoaders were going out and cartridges cming in, but there was now smokeless yet, it seemed a shame to NOT laod it with BP for the sake of uniqueness and history of firearms. Its now one of my favorite guns to load for, and to shoot.

77gr 1F Goex BP with a 370 LRN bullet. just like the original military loading for the rifle in 1884. How cool is that!
Next step is to learn to paper patch the bullets like they "should" be, to complete the originality.....

 

[sundance44s]

I do use wheel weight lead for my 45/70 bullets ...soft lead is just too expencive for me casting .405 gr bullets for target shooting ...thats a lot of lead....but I have gotten much tighter groups useing a hollow base bullet design with a Lee mold and no over powder card needed ...even with this harder lead ...my hunting loads are cast from the soft ..round ball lead ..and they do expand well in game ...the wheel weight lead won`t expand at all ....I have a friend that uses it in his hunting loads and he never has a clean kill .The soft lead hits like a ton of bricks on game even boar hogs out of the 45/70 . I do use real black ..( Goex )and same lube you are useing beeswax /crisco ...50/50 mix. In the woods you have to wait untill the smoke clears to see ...lol but ain`t it great ! I love the smell and the 3 ft flame .

 

[sharps59]

I used sundances 50/50 mix for 15yrs up until to 2 yrs ago
switched the crisco went to olive oil instead. Just as good just it does not go rancide over time. and holds up better.