Category: Black Powder Cartridge Rifle

The Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Reloading Guide: Care and Storage.

The Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Reloading Guide: Accuracy.

The Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Reloading Guide: Lubricants and Cases.

The Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Reloading Guide: Load Development.

The Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Reloading Guide: Powder Charge

The Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Reloading Guide: Powder Selection.

The Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Reloading Guide: Bullet Selection and Primers.

This is a different kind of reloading instruction text. You will not just be advised how to do things but you will also be given the reason why it is done that way. The shooting of black powder cartridge rifles is a great challenge and one which has very few finite rules. It involves almost continual experimentation with old and new components and equipment.

Young eyes usually have little trouble using the rear tang sight which has a single pin hole or the “Hadley type” eye cup which has many pin holes of increasing sizes. The following instructions apply to both young and old eyes but there is need for special advice for older eyes.

This past week [2008], a coterie of hardy souls attended the American Creedmoor Cup (ACC) at the Ben Avery Range, 23 miles north of the I-17 / I-10 interchange located in Phoenix, AZ. This particular 2-day BPCR long-range match (800, 900 and 1,000 yards) is unique in the USA that no coaching is allowed once the competitor hits the target while shooting sighters. Only 2 more sighters are allowed after hitting the target for the first time whether they hit the target or not before the competitor must go for score. And, each shooter has only 20 minutes to fire sighters and 10-shots for record so waiting for a condition is not a workable option most of the time. This is a real rifleman’s game where one must turn the windage and elevation knobs quickly and precisely to stay in the game.

Today more PP testing was done to refine the load shot at the American Creedmoor Cup as well as do some testing with the 45-cal BACO PP bullet. A 0.4410″ diameter PP mold was the prize for being high PP shooter at The Cup. The bullet actually mics at 0.4424″ when cast in 20-1, which was the only alloy tested today. The 16-twist, 45-90 with a replica of an original Sharps PP match chamber was used as the test platform. A number of different powder charges using Swiss Fg and 1.5 were tested.

Headwind-tailwind effects have been a topic of discussion with shooters. While spotting/coaching special attention has been paid to try and better understand and quantify these effects on our bullets’ trajectories.