Yes, leaving an air gap in black powder is perfectly safe.

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Dec 17, 2020
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From Dupont's own instructions, published in 1904.
"Other guns do better work when a slightly smaller charge is used, so as to leave an air space of about one-quarter or three-eights of an inch between the powder and the base of the bullet."

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In fact, the good old Ordnance Department's Frankford Arsenal would load 45-70 practice cartridges just like this, with a big 45-70 case filled with 20 grains of powder, 50 grains of air gap, and then a 240gr 45 cal revolver bullet.

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Air gap causing guns to rupture is a myth, any handloader will tell you that decreased seating depth = lower pressures. The same is true with black powder: try it for yourself with some handlodaed blackpowder wadcutters, seating some flush (no air gap) and some out (with air gap).

All the stories /photogrpahs of people with "bulged barrels" from shooting black powder because they left an "airgap" always suspiciously consistent with someone seating a full charge, and then short starting another bullet, in essence creating a muzzle-loaded squib. Of course shooting any bullet into a bore obstruction will bulge the barrel.
 
Yup, it's a myth, but still good practice when shooting muzzleloaders. Just as soon as somebody ignores it with a macho man charge there will be an accident where the nipple or drum blows off and now there's a new story about "how my gun blew up"

Back to the air gap, the percussion Sharps was designed WITH an air gap. Just look at how the block is designed and tell me with a straight face that there's no air gap.
 
Cartridge vs Muzzle loaders. Different?

My T/C Hawken Instructions
WARNING: NEVER FIRE A MUZZLELOADER UNLESS
THE PROJECTILE IS FIRMLY SEATED AGAINST THE
POWDER CHARGE AND THE RAMROD HAS BEEN
REMOVED FROM THE BORE. IF A PROJECTILE DOES NOT
FIT TIGHTLY, THEN JARRING OR MOVEMENT OF THE
FIREARM CAN CAUSE THE PROJECTILE TO MOVE FOR-
WARD, OFF THE POWDER CHARGE. IF THE FIREARM IS
FIRED WHEN A PROJECTILE IS OFF THE POWDER
CHARGE, OR THE RAMROD IS STILL IN THE BORE, THEN
THE PROJECTILE OR RAMROD CAN ACT AS A BORE
OBSTRUCTION. THIS CAN RESULT IN A RUPTURED BAR-
REL, CAUSING INJURY AND/OR DEATH TO THE SHOOTER
OR BYSTANDERS AND DAMAGE TO PROPERTY.
 
I do know this; it will cause a pellets to not go off of not seated directly in the breech. I've had to pull several out this season, for one customer twice, after he did not heed my advice to put 5-10 grains of loose powder in first to ensure ignition.
 
Comparing cartridge firearms to muzzleloading ones is like comparing orangutans to cumquats.

There are several fellows who can load cartridges with blackpowder and an air gap and ring your chamber each time. Or, they can breech seat the bullet ahead of the case and shoot competitive groups all day long.

Kevin
 
While the Sharps (and dry-balls expelled with small load of 4F dribbled in through the flash channel) are examples
of where some air gap is OK, big air gaps/or powder distributed throughout the barrel of a muzzle-loader is not OK
 
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Sam Fadala made muzzleloaders with copper plumbing pipe and concrete breeches and then tried to blow them up with short started loads. He published the results in the late 80s, and my memory is imperfect, but I believe he was unable to damage them until he introduced a second ball with a gap between the first one. I will look for the article when I get home today - I believe it is in the "Black Powder Handbook" 3rd edition - and will report back. At this point, I believe the OP is pretty much correct: a gap between ball and powder, in either muzzleloaders, cartridges, or anything else, is unlikely to cause damage by itself.
 
Sam Fadala made muzzleloaders with copper plumbing pipe and concrete breeches and then tried to blow them up with short started loads. He published the results in the late 80s, and my memory is imperfect, but I believe he was unable to damage them until he introduced a second ball with a gap between the first one. I will look for the article when I get home today - I believe it is in the "Black Powder Handbook" 3rd edition - and will report back. At this point, I believe the OP is pretty much correct: a gap between ball and powder, in either muzzleloaders, cartridges, or anything else, is unlikely to cause damage by itself.
My memory of this is the same as yours essentially… seems Dale Story was involved in the experiment and they could get a bulge with a short started ball (in type L 1/2” copper pipe with a wall thickness of .040”) and hunting charges. Seems like 80 grain powder and a 230 grain .530“ ball was the load.

This isn’t to suggest that a barrel can’t be damaged by a short started projectile, just that catastrophic failure seems unlikely.
 
I am utterly wrong. In referencing chapter 12 of the 3rd edition of Fadala's "Black Powder Handbook", I see that he was able to reliably bulge copper conduit with short started loads.

He found that common conduit was a very close fit with .54 caliber projectiles. He filled tin cans with lead as a "breech" and used cannon fuse to set the things off. Loads of up to 120 grains of FFg caused no damage when the ball was seated atop the powder, but the same patched round ball did result in bulged conduit when seated away from the powder charge. It seems apparent that pressure spikes can be expected under such conditions.
 
My memory of this is the same as yours essentially… seems Dale Story was involved in the experiment and they could get a bulge with a short started ball (in type L 1/2” copper pipe with a wall thickness of .040”) and hunting charges. Seems like 80 grain powder and a 230 grain .530“ ball was the load.

This isn’t to suggest that a barrel can’t be damaged by a short started projectile, just that catastrophic failure seems unlikely.
Yes, the same chapter contains some of those references. In particular, Storey made some guns with modern steel barrels and breeches, and then attempted to destroy them. Apparently they held up to severe overloads as long as the ball was in contact with the powder. Once an air gap was introduced, though, they were able to destroy several barrels - and one camera lens! The catch is that they could not do it on demand. The same conditions would result in no apparent damage time and time again, but every once in a while there would be catastrophic results.

So I apologize for posting incorrect opinions, and now suggest that it is a good idea to ensure that the patched ball is always in firm contact with the powder charge.
 
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I have a Podewils-Lindner breech loading black powder rifle from the 1860's that uses paper cartridges with a percussion cap for ignition. I had to order the bullets to fit the bore and then nitrided the paper and rolled my own cartridges. I know for a fact that there was plenty of airspace between the back of the bullet and the bolt face when the breech was closed. I have fired about 20 of these rounds from it without one barrel bulge or explosion. I did a lot of research on this rifle when I bought it and from what I found is that the explosions happened in the Franco-Prussian war when the French fired into the wagons filled with boxes of paper cartridges.
 
The kind of relatively-small gap space associated w/ paper cartridges and/or the Sharps
breech design will never be an issue -- demonstrated close to 200 years now.

A full powder load under a short-started ball ? -- well I've done it... as have everyone
else with any time in the muzzle-loading BP game.
Nothing happened.

`Wouldn't make a habit out of it though..... ;)
 
A friend loaned his TC Hawken and got it back with a bulge in the barrel. The borrower had gotten it heavily fouled to where he could not seat the next ball all the way and chose to shoot it out. Said borrower had also combined two containers of powder and returned a mixture of black powder and Pyrodex. Darn stuff shot like a champ out of the replacement barrel.

Small gaps seem not to matter much. The .41 Swiss Federal used the Wild System ramrod with a shoulder to stop the ball about 0.1" over the standard powder charge.
 
I looked for your position in this discussion and only found this post,
I am a Rock Head myself, and I make it a point to seat my bullet to the powder.
"So, I am Not Changing my Methods Either", and I do Care.
Gregor, CGVS
Been seating the ball/bullet firmly on the powder in my muzzle loaders and black powder cartridge guns since about 1958 and see no reason to change. I don't care what " they" think.
 
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