Mick,

As a Limey, you should remember that, during the Napoleonic wars, the British has muzzle loading Enfields, and that powder was packaged in paper tubes.  It was pre-measured.  All the soldier had to do was tear off the top of the tube with his teeth, and pour the powder down the muzzle, insert a patch and ball, and ram it home. The paper power charges were carried on a belt, much like a cartridge belt.  Just thought you might like to know.

mick wrote on 03/21/11 at 22:16:05:





And I refuse to use a hammer, Justin.


Well, Youre just no danged fun at all...


Back when  those guns ere daily use, everybody had trouble with the cap staying on, till they discovered Scotch brand double sided tape, Theyve dug up HUNDREDS of rolls of tape in the old war fields..
what? You dont Bu LEEVE me?

On a 45/50 cal. Hawkin or Kentucky rifle, especialy a kit gun DO NOT excede 110 GRAINS as a MAXIMUM load! Load a 150 grain magnum load in a rifle not designed for it and you stand a GOOD chance of ruining the rifle, loseing some fingers and an eye or two.
MOST inlines are rated for 150 grains, MOST caplocks are only rated for 110 grains. Check your owners manual.
Dont go under 50 grains as a minimum either. Pulling a bullet/ ball is a pain in the arse.
Youll find around 90 grains will give you the best accuracy though it will vary 5-10 grains from rifle to rifle.

Simple tips. NEVER use anything that might cause a spark in or around the muzzle.
NEVER smoke while loading the rifle.
ALWAYS hold the muzzle away from you and your face.
NEVER place ANY part of your body over the muzzle! Even just the powder can burn or tear chunks out of your body!
Its a REAL GOOD idea to wear a pair of shooting glasses while loading and shooting the rifle. This will protect your eyes from any possible flash and small parts of the percussion cap. They will fragment sometimes.

To help keep the cap on give it a GENTLE squese on the sides after placeing it on the nipple. Be gentle cause if you get rough it can and WILL roll the meat back away from your finger bones.
Buy and use a capper to place the caps on the nipple.
NEVER let the hammer rest on the cap. Dont dry fire it either because it will flare out the top of the nipple to where you cant get a cap on.

Patched round balls are good for plinking, cheap. They will do a bangup job on a deer as well cause they kind of rattle around inside tearing things up. They dont bust bone well and wont hold their accuracy well though over about 75 yards. Differnt thickness and types of patching will affect the accuracy.
Buffalo bullets or other conical style will shoot more accurately and break bones better. Their more likely to do a through and through as well. Hollow points are nice for large bleeding wounds.
The newer powerbelts work real well. Just dont go to too heavy a bullet and if you change bullet weights and/or powder weights your point of impact will change more then with a modern rifle.
Make sure and use the right powder as well. There are four grades of pyrodex(safer then real black powder) and actual black powder(touchy).

Black powder/pyrodex draws moisture like honey draws bees. Dont leave a load in the rifle or a rifle uncleaned for long or it will rust/corrode the bore.
Use a good solvent or just plain soap and HOT water to clean then throughly dry the bore. Give it a nice light coat of bore butter, especialy if your ging to store it any amount of time.

Dont tamp your powder in to solid, it needs a bit of air to fire right and consistant. About 3 good taps useing the weight of the ramrod works well.
Try to load the rifle the same way every time, this helps accuracy.
Get a mental checklist going and dont get in a hurry. Its not uncommon for someone to get excited and load a double load of powder, two bullets ect. NOT GOOD. Make sure the bullet is seated all the way down on the powder as well or it can create over pressure and blow the breech. Lil tip is load a clean gun, make sure all is in order then mark the ramrod. This way you always know your bullet is fully seated.

Cap locks are fun to shoot and hunt with but you have to be extra cautious with them. They can and will bite you if your not carefull.

Mick, you'll have to make the pistol now so you have something to shoot too.

Excellent advice Wolfman.
The one piece of advice I haven't noticed (or missed  ) that may seem like common sense but bears repeating: DON'T pour from a powder horn/flask straight into your barrel.  If there's an ember in the barrel that sets off the flask, congratulations, you're now holding a hand grenade in your hand!  Depending on the construction of the container, it can be pretty messy.  I've seen the aftermath of a thin-walled horn blowing up at someones side.  Lots of severe burns.
One local store that has a surprisingly good selection of muzzleloading supplies is BiMart.  You can get an adjustable powder measure there real reasonable.  They also carry balls/bullets, solvents, lubes, patches, the whole enchilada.

As to the caps falling off, you can get different sized nipples, and different brands may also be slightly different sized.  Ditto for the caps, and they also make different sizes of them as well.  The one you see most in stores is CCI's #11.  If those are falling off, you can try a #10; CCI and Remington both make them:
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/advanced_search_result.php?s=1&keywords=percussi...

Oh, and for those not into muzzleloading, when Wolfman was talking about bore butter, it's not the stuff you put on your toast.  It is actually food grade though; it's basically a vegetable based grease.

Yeah i did'nt want to do an overload on info..lol
An adjustable powder measure is a MUST for safety and accuracy. I like the brass style in 5 grain increments. Runs from 50 to 110 grains.
Clear plastic is popular as well with shooters.
Another thing is avoid the pyrodex pellets in caplocks. The rear pellet will partialy burn and spit the rest out as well as the bullet about 30 feet in front of you...lol #11 caps dont burn hot enough. Use loose BP or pyrodex.

I like pyrodex better then BP myself. Slightly cleaner and safer then real black powder.
My hunting load is 90 grains of pyrodex with a .50 cal 295 gr powerbelt. Either a hollow point or areotip(hollow point with a plastic tip that blows out when shot). Makes it eaiser to load, no deformed tip and still makes one he!! of a hole.

DONT use a petroleum based product like regular gun oil in your bore! Its next to impossible to get out and will foul your powder. Hence the bore butter. It protects but is fairly easy to remove after storage.
Run patches untill they look clean then fire off about 50 grs with only a heavy patch, no bullet.
Also dont expect good accuracy out of a clean barrel. Fire off a couple of squib loads(no bullet, light powder) then run a couple of patches down the bore.
THEN load and shoot for accuracy.
Also if you run a patch or two every 4 or 5 shots your bullets will load a lot easier.
I usualy run a damp spit patch and then a couple of dry patches every 5 shots or so.

Ed, pyrodex works fine in a flintlock though you may want to use real BP for the flash pan. It WILL touch off slightly easier then pyrodex. IN the chamber though it works just fine though. Cant tell the differance.

When you get serious about powder conservation and accuracy heres a tip. Grab a big white sheet and lay it out flat on the ground about 10 feet in front of where your muzzle ends. If your not getting a complete burn of the powder youll have unburnt powder show up on the sheet.
Drop your powder weight 5 grains at a time untill the unburnt powder isnt showing up.

Accuracy wise check your patches after their shot. Shoot 3 or 4 times then collect your patches. They wont be more then 10 or 15 feet in front of you. If their burnt through you need a thicker patch. If their just darkened and have rifleing marks your ok.
You also dont NEED to use a patch for conicals, their base expands to cause a gas seal.

If you do another mick and want a real old style 'blueing', use vinegar.
The old timers(mountain men) would rub their barrel down with vinegar and set it in the corner. It develops a nice fine brown rust like patena on it. Let it set a few days them lightly clean it up with a very fine scratch pad or sand paper. Repeat the process untill you have the color you want. Then oil the outside down well and let it set a bit.