First BP Rifle: Tips/Tricks
- Thread starter bratch
- Start date
- Status
Armored farmer
Member
Tamp your bullet solidly down on your powder. No air gaps allowed.
Black powder is easily cleaned with warm water, and is less corrosive than substitutes.
Clean your rifle thoroughly. Let it sit for 48hrs, and clean it again.
For me personally.....BP is more fun in traditional type guns than it is in modern designed guns.
Black powder is easily cleaned with warm water, and is less corrosive than substitutes.
Clean your rifle thoroughly. Let it sit for 48hrs, and clean it again.
For me personally.....BP is more fun in traditional type guns than it is in modern designed guns.
J-Bar
Member
Don’t be in a hurry.
Take your time sighting it in. Swab out the barrel after every two or three shots. Yes it means you are cleaning more than shooting. Maybe you will make 4 or 5 shots an hour. But with patience you will find out the exact powder charge your gun likes with your projectiles of choice. The confidence you will gain offsets the inability to just pull the trigger and make another quick shot.
Shooting fast is exhilarating fun. Shooting Blackpowder is relaxing fun.
Using granulated powder enables you to fine tune your load more precisely than using pellets.
Learn about which lubricants work best for the powder you use. The ideal lubricant varies with the powder and is VERY important.
As Armored Farmer says, be diligent in cleaning your rifle. Do it soon after shooting, be thorough, learn to enjoy it.
Blackpowder rifles are breathtakingly accurate when you find the right combination of projectile, powder charge, and lubricant.
I like the book “The Muzzleloading Cap Lock Rifle” by Ned Roberts for information and inspiration.
Take your time sighting it in. Swab out the barrel after every two or three shots. Yes it means you are cleaning more than shooting. Maybe you will make 4 or 5 shots an hour. But with patience you will find out the exact powder charge your gun likes with your projectiles of choice. The confidence you will gain offsets the inability to just pull the trigger and make another quick shot.
Shooting fast is exhilarating fun. Shooting Blackpowder is relaxing fun.
Using granulated powder enables you to fine tune your load more precisely than using pellets.
Learn about which lubricants work best for the powder you use. The ideal lubricant varies with the powder and is VERY important.
As Armored Farmer says, be diligent in cleaning your rifle. Do it soon after shooting, be thorough, learn to enjoy it.
Blackpowder rifles are breathtakingly accurate when you find the right combination of projectile, powder charge, and lubricant.
I like the book “The Muzzleloading Cap Lock Rifle” by Ned Roberts for information and inspiration.
American Finn
Member
As other posters have recommended (and I also strongly recommend) purchasing books on the subject; in addition here are two YouTube channels that are excellent sources of information as well:
https://www.youtube.com/c/capandball
https://www.youtube.com/user/duelist1954
Cap and Ball is a channel from Hungary and he has lots of information about rifles, shotguns, cleaning techniques, etc. as well as Duelist1954; in addition I find both of their channels to be entertaining as well.
Welcome to the world of blackpowder! Betcha can't stop at one.
https://www.youtube.com/c/capandball
https://www.youtube.com/user/duelist1954
Cap and Ball is a channel from Hungary and he has lots of information about rifles, shotguns, cleaning techniques, etc. as well as Duelist1954; in addition I find both of their channels to be entertaining as well.
Welcome to the world of blackpowder! Betcha can't stop at one.
Armored farmer
Member
Reading between the lines on the above posts....BP guns are for people who love to fiddle and fuss with guns.....and shoot a little too!
hawg
Member
True, they're not for people that require instant gratification.
Jonny2guns
Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2020
- Messages
- 675
Well nuts, now it sounds like I need to get into BP as I do more tinkering than shooting.
They also force improvement on marksmanship skills. Everything that happens in a modern arm is the same as in a black powder muzzleloader, only much, much slower and that means your shooting fundamentals become much more critical and flaws in technique are greatly magnified. Take a look at this picture, that's me instructing and look closely at the shooter's cheek and notice the gap. That little gap is the difference between 10x and a 5 ring at 50yd and it only gets worse the further the distance.
Back to the OP, use real black powder and quality components. Subs have their own level of problems.
Jonny2guns
Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2020
- Messages
- 675
Being new to black powder, what are the good REAL black powders?
J-Bar
Member
In these times of scarcity, any you can find!! 
I prefer Schuetzen to Goex and Kik. Swiss and Old Eynsford are premium powders.
2F and 3F work dandy in most rifles and handguns. 4F is used for flintlock flash pans, 1F is used for re-enactors, But you can start arguments with these guidelines.
I prefer Schuetzen to Goex and Kik. Swiss and Old Eynsford are premium powders.
2F and 3F work dandy in most rifles and handguns. 4F is used for flintlock flash pans, 1F is used for re-enactors, But you can start arguments with these guidelines.
I prefer Schuetzen and Swiss. Swiss is top drawer, hands down best. It's a bit more expensive, but since it's a bit more energetic per grain, you can shoot lower charge levels for the same velocity and accuracy. Schuetzen is a less expensive powder but you have to use more to get the same velocity as Swiss and the fouling is a bit more. Think of it as regular and premium racing gas. Caps by RWS and Schuetzen are good to go as well. I won't use any current production CCI. In black powder, lubes are also a critical item in accuracy. Real black plays nice with natural based lubes. I use beeswax/lard on minies in my Civil War muskets and mink oil in my patch round ball guns and flintlocks.
In the world of real black powder, Goex is a domestic brand and their "premium" was Old Eysnford which I used for quite some time. I started out with Old E since there was a distributor less than 20mi from my house but they went out of business. After that, I started to experiment with Swiss and was starting out a project with some friends in doing shooting instruction with kids. Since then, I have been working with kids teaching marksmanship and safety, Schuetzen Energetics supports us with donations of powder and caps. Goex wouldn't even return my phone calls or emails. So I don't care one bit for Goex, nor that they got sold, good riddance. I'm completely Swiss/Schuetzen/RWS now.
LaneP
Member
Agree with all the advice given, there is always good info from many seasoned long time users in this forum.
As to powder, I too am biased toward "real" BP. Not that subs are a bad thing, I just like knowing what I'm touching off is giving me the experience a shooter would have had centuries in the past.
When I grew up there was only one brand of BP in the local stores and that was Goex. I never knew there were others until many years later, lol. With Hodgdon shutting down the Goex division there will be a hole in the supply chain but the hope is the foreign imports, much of which is of very high quality, will see this as an opportunity to increase their market share and keep store shelves well stocked. In absence of real BP, of course I would shoot subs as opposed to nothing at all.
As to powder, I too am biased toward "real" BP. Not that subs are a bad thing, I just like knowing what I'm touching off is giving me the experience a shooter would have had centuries in the past.
When I grew up there was only one brand of BP in the local stores and that was Goex. I never knew there were others until many years later, lol. With Hodgdon shutting down the Goex division there will be a hole in the supply chain but the hope is the foreign imports, much of which is of very high quality, will see this as an opportunity to increase their market share and keep store shelves well stocked. In absence of real BP, of course I would shoot subs as opposed to nothing at all.
In these times of scarcity, any you can find!!
I prefer Schuetzen to Goex and Kik. Swiss and Old Eynsford are premium powders.
2F and 3F work dandy in most rifles and handguns. 4F is used for flintlock flash pans, 1F is used for re-enactors, But you can start arguments with these guidelines.
Aint that the truth...........
woodnbow
Member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2007
- Messages
- 2,092
As J-bar says, anything works and anything works very well for the most part. Some powders are dirtier leaving more fouling behind, but they’re all very dirty so that’s a matter of degree. Bp is generally consistent so there’s great potential for accuracy from any of them. Powder can be difficult to find right now so finding a couple pounds of ANY 2 or 3f powder will be just fine. Hopefully better days are coming but meanwhile take what you can get.
Why do you prefer real black powder to the substitutes? If read real black is better in traditional guns because it will ignite easier but hadn’t seen any mention of using it in inlines.
Inlines, the "next" evolutionary step in a "traditional" muzzleloader had cartridge guns proved to be a dead end. In the quest for velocity and ease of use, they're the next step. Guys with them are usually looking for modern rifle velocity and many completely lose sight of the fact that a traditional gun is just a capable if they practice and use good fundamentals.
Real black v subs- Pyrodex was the first sub out there and was touted as being as good as real bp. I seriously beg to differ as the fouling is much harder and more abrasive and corrosive if not cleaned immediately after shooting. Every ruined modern gun I've seen was shot almost exclusively with Pdex. There are those who differ, but sorry, I even have personal experience with this problem. We put away a replica 1858 Remington after being shot with Pdex and detail cleaned and oiled. In the safe over the next year, the bore was pitted and there are minor rust pits all over the areas where the Pdex fouling was before cleaning. This level of pitting wouldn't have happened had we cleaned it again in a couple days as the acid from the fouling found it's way into the microscopic pores of the metal. But the claims for Pdex were "easier to clean"... NOT. Real bp also has a different pressure curve in ignition and that can have an effect on accuracy. Real bp is easier to ignite meaning it's the only reliable powder for a flintlock. Yeah, I shoot those too. Real bp is VERY easy to clean up. Windex is the best cleaning solution I've seen as it has water, alcohol, and ammonia. Water will cut the fouling, ammonia is a base so it neutralizes the acidic fouling and alcohol aides in drying. With Windex, I can clean my competition muskets in about 10 minutes flat and that includes oiling and there will be no rust when I break it back out at the range. Barring Windex, plain old soap and water will clean up real bp, just takes a bit longer.
Finally, I shoot black powder competition and our rules stipulate real black only. In North South Skirmish Association, we shoot Civil War guns in competition and many are original arms. The corrosiveness and different pressure curves of a sub would be detrimental to an original.
But what the heck do I know about this stuff.................
Flintlock. 54cal Kibler Colonial. 530 ball, Swiss REAL black powder
1863 Sharps carbine. Paper cartridge. REAL black. Old Eysnford
1862 Colt Contract. 44gr REAL black, Old Eynsford
Last edited:
.38 Special
Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2006
- Messages
- 7,370
I'm a bit grumpy, but it seems to me that most inline shooters are under the impression that traditional muzzleloaders and blackpowder are either useless antiques or some kind of dark art, and that the solution is to buy a "modern" muzzleloader and feed it "modern" powder. I suspect a great deal of that came about as a result of advertising.
Jack Ryan
Member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2019
- Messages
- 778
First thing to know about shooting BP is you are gonna need some black powder.
Steel Horse Rider
Member
Powder, patch, ball. Keep repeating that when you are loading your rifle. Don't ask me how I know.....
J-Bar
Member
Every soot lord has forgotten to load powder before the ball at least once. Those who do it more than once belong to a special club.
TwistingInTheWind
Member
This might be low hanging fruit, but I make sure my breech plug has some anti-seize on it.
One of the nice things about the CVA's is that you can take the plug out by hand if you keep some shmootz on the threads.
Another thing I do is the first time I load my new gun and I'm sure everything felt right is-
Leaving the ramrod sitting on top of the load I draw/scratch a ring on my ramrod right at the muzzle of the barrel.
This gives me confidence for all my following shots that I've got things seated down about right using this as a sight gauge.
Black cloud
Member
I'm a member of that club. Did it twice.Every soot lord has forgotten to load powder before the ball at least once. Those who do it more than once belong to a special club.
American Finn
Member
I would add just one more item to this thread and that is I strongly suggest the OP invest in a quality range rod; I found it sooooo much easier to load and clean my muzzleloaders with one; it also makes it easier on you reloading at the range.
- Status
