Loading blanks 1858 Remington

[Frenchie Pete]

Howdy!

Can you explain me the way to load my Remington for my first reenactement, just a normal charge of powder, a wad and grease?
Thanks.

 

[Curator]

Frenchie,

Don't load wads in reenactment blanks. Most reenactments expect revolver shooters to use a "frangible" wad of some kind of compressable cereal. Some guys use Cream of Wheat, others use Coca-Puffs. In all cases the loading is similar: first load about a half-chamber of FFFg black powder. Next, fill remaining space with cereal and compress with rammer. Then refill chamber with more cereal and compress again. The compressed cereal acts like a wad but blows to dust once the gun is fired. Watch out! Cereal can act just like fine birdshot out to about 20 feet. In fact the Mounted Cowboy Shooters use Cream of Wheat like fine shot to bust balloons at 10-15 feet.

 

[DixieTexian]

I've heard of reenactors using floral foam also.

 

[Frenchie Pete]

All right!
Can I put some grease at the top of the chamber so that my loading doesn't "fall"? I hope that everything is stuck in the chamber.

 

[HT]

Yes, I load & compress powder, fill cylinder with cream of wheat, compress then coat with Petroleum jelly.
Understand the floral foam is considered safer & even heard that food products have been ruled out as fillers by some of the re-enacting groups.
(legal disclaimer) sure you realize that any filler, as well as unburnt powder, will be ejected & can cause harm.