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The loading lever is thin in a spot, and when you put pressure on the lever, it breaks at the weak spot. I welded it back together, and it was like welding sheetmetal, ground it down, reinstalled, had to fit the lever back together. It is thin there for a reason, as there is a lot going on right at that fulcrum, smallish clearances. I guess initially the .31 Remington didn't have a loading lever, and sales were not very good. When the loading lever was added, the sales increased. The loading lever also allows a quick removal and installation of another cylinder, quickly. If you needed a tool to remove a pin, it was not as convenient. I don't load mine with the lever anymore. I made a stand with a loading arm to press the balls into the cylinder.
As for the ffffg, David Pedersoli puts out a booklet that comes with their black powder guns, tells you how to clean them, loading information, stuff like that. In four or 5 languages. The table is in there, as to what type of powder to use. It goes by the caliber. I was surprised it says ffffg for up to .31 caliber. I don't have any ffffg but I wonder if it makes much of a difference anyway. fffg works fine. 12.5 grains and a 40 grain ball will imbed about half an inch into plywood. Of course it would be nice to see the ball pass through, and it may, that is why I was writing, to see what others have done. There is definitely a velocity difference depending upon how it is loaded.
I slugged the bore and the cylinders. One cylinder was much tighter than the other four. So I opened that up. Also the bore has some tighter spots, both at the breech end and at the muzzle end. So, I plan to lap a bit of the roughness off from the breech end, leaving the muzzle as tight as possible. That should help with the accuracy. I'm just enjoying shooting this spur triggered pistol. I have loaded this up with a wadcutter style projectile, and I did get some good results, but also some inconsistent results. That was some time ago, now I have been at it again. That is the fun of this hobby, you can put it away and pick it up at a later date. That is, if you clean the gun before you put it away.