What kind of load for a .68 caliber Flintlock pistol?

[clang]

I picked up a Flintlock pistol at the funshow last weekend that appears to be .68 - .69 caliber. It's got a 1/2 round 1/2 octagonal smoothbore barrel marked "JAPAN" on it.

It looks to be in decent enough shape, so I plan on shooting it. Does anyone have a suggestion on a safe load?

 

[ofitg]

I used to shoot buckshot out of mine..... nine pieces of 00B, with 40 gr 3Fg made a nice boom with lots of smoke. Used crumpled-up aluminum foil for wadding.

 

[Oyeboten]

I think the old Rule of Thumb was -

Put the Ball in your open Palm, and, however much Powder is needed to just cover it, that then is the Charge.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Clang, just a word of caution. There were some cheap 68 caliber guns sold on the market back in the late 1970's. There were long smoothies and pistol smoothies all flintlocks. Unfortunately the way thhe barrel was constructed was three parts. A breech plug screwed into the octogon shaped few inches as the breech and then the round barrel screwed into front of the octagon rear of the barrel. They were recalled, when I worked at a sporting goods store near Phila back in 1978. There are some others that look similar that have one piece barrels (and breech plugs.) But they tend to be larger like 69 cal. The barrels on the dangerous ones were left in the white. Inside the barrel where the octagon and round were joined there was a noticeable ridge or ring depending on how well the gun was put together. There were some nearly identical guns with safer barrels but they were generally blued. In addition, the frizzens on the junkers were soft and rarely sparked. I see these clunkers come up on the web auctions every few months. Get it checked out. You may have one of the better ones or one of the pipe bombs.

We sold the finished pistols (clunkers) for $28.00 before the recall.

 

[clang]

Thanks gents - and thanks for the warning. I believe this gun is older than the '70s, and looks to be pretty well made. I found some pics of a similar gun in the internet - it looks like this:




There is a small circular stamp on the barrel that might be an old Miroku logo, the same guys who make Citoris for Browning. I'll start with a lighter load and see how she shoots.

 

[BHP FAN]

 

[BHP FAN]

the one above is one from the 70's, I DO shoot it, with shot, but I'll never load it with patched round ball. Marked ''made in Japan'' on the barrel, and ''Tower'' on the lock.

 

[batteran]

Hello.

Not for your particular pistol, but I recently read a french book (1806) about "manufacture of small arms of war". (Mémoire sur la fabrication des armes portatives de guerre)

The french flintlock pistol of these years (.69 caliber smootbore), for cavalry or police, was loaded with the same undersized bullet than the rifle: 16mm (.59!) lead round ball weight about 24g (about one ounce), wrapped into paper (the paper seal the bore) whith the powder.

The powder charge was 7.5g (114 grains!) of black powder. (rifle charge is 12g - 180grains)

In fact, same ammunition is used for pistol or rifle on the field, they just drop 1/3 of the cartridge powder in case of relading a pistol instead of a rifle.

(sorry for my poor english)