no help from hodgedons

[coonan357]

I looked over at the hodge. site for a recipe for my 45-70 to load out some pyrodex "P" FFFG equiv. in cartridges for my rifle and couldn't find any I have several pounds of this owder that was given to me and I don't want to throw it away i want to use it up as it would be kind of interesting to shoot BP in a 1894 Marlin ( I know the volicitys are going to be down but this for target shooting anyways ) did anyone try this before?? I was reading on the filling of the cart to the top (apx 64 gr ) then capping it to the Oal is the propper way to do a BP round? ( if you don't want to post publicly you can Pm me with the details also I as going to do some for my Bisley .357 by Ruger

 

[HSMITH]

I am no expert but FFF is too fine and pressures will be too high. You want FF, or buy a cap and ball pistol to use the FFF in.

 

[Jim Watson]

A modern gun will have no trouble with Pyrodex P.
Measure to see where the bullet seats to and fill the case about 1/16" higher, that is all the compression you need with Pyrodex, no need to fill it up and pack it down.

Clean the gun, Clean The Gun, CLEAN THE GUN.
Pyrodex does not accumulate fouling that will hurt accuracy like real (black) powder but what is there is actually MORE corrosive. I clean my Winchester with Windex but I load real powder. Hodgdon sells a cleaner that ought to handle Pyrodex if you want something fancy.

 

[coonan357]

hey jim I hear voices all the time that tell me to clean the guns!!! thanks for the advice on how to charge the load , windex eh ??have you been watching My fat greek wedding?? your the second BP shooter that told me to us it .I'll give it a try .

 

[Ol` Joe]

Give Hodgdon a call or e-mail. They usually will give new data or help with loads beyond what is on their website or in their manuals if they can.

 

[Gewehr98]

FFFg is just fine in a .45-70 cartridge rifle.

FFg is preferred, but you're not running a weak Trapdoor Springfield, it's a Marlin 1894 levergun built for smokeless loads, for Chrissakes. I've run FFFg in both the vintage leverguns (Marlin & Winchester), Rolling Block, and my Ruger #1. It drop-tubes better, offsets the lack of modern day balloon-head brass, and appears to burn cleaner than FFg. I've even gone the extra step of putting 5 grains of WW231 or WST in the case before drop-tubing in the 60+ grains of FFFg in my cast bullet blackpowder cartridge loads. Exceptionally clean burning, low pressure, and excellent accuracy with all the white smoke one could ask for!

The Pyrodex P FFFg equivalent should also work just fine. Make sure there's no air space between bullet or wad and powder, and 1/16" powder compression or more works great.

 

[BluesBear]

I concur with G98