Sealing Chambers with Melted Beeswax

[whughett]

Again, much more work than necessary. I load 45 Colt, 45 Schofield, 44-40, 44 Russian, and 38-40 with Black Powder all the time. I pour in the powder, then seat and crimp the bullet on top of the powder, compressing the powder by about 1/10" when it is seated. Of course I have been using the Big Lube series of bullets for many years. These carry plenty of BP compatible lube so no wads or extra lube is needed.

Some of my boxes of ammo have sat waiting to be fired for years. They always go boom.

Just so you know, I did accuracy experiments years ago. I loaded some 44-40 with Black Powder for one of my Winchester rifles.

One set of ammo was loaded just as I described, with a Big Lube bullet sitting right on top of the powder.

The other set was loaded with powder, and a wad between the bullet and powder.

I could find no difference in accuracy between either sets of ammo, so I stopped putting anything other than powder and a bullet in my BP ammo a long time ago.

My intent for the trail run was to see if I could bypass the task of lubing the home cast bullets intended for black powder cartridges. I’ve cast pistol bullets for both smokeless and black powder for decades now and the task of lube sizing these is a tedious task at best. So over the past couple of years I’ve been moving most bullet casting to Lee’s Tumble lube line of pistol bullets and their push through sizing method, (for those bullets that need sizing) . Those intended for black powder cartridges are tumble lubed then loaded over the powder card and wad I described.
If I ever stop hand casting and start buying bullets I’ll certainly go with your suggestion.