What's a good powder charge for 1842?

[Mike Hale]

I have a JRA 1842 two band and have been using .685 rd ball with 50 grains Goex FFFg; but what have others found to be an optimal load?


.......and, yes, I do dip thrice in the lube (Len's lube).

[Michael Bodner]

Recent scuttlebutt on using 3F in a smoothbore has been: Rasp the ball, coat with Alox, and use 55 grains 3F powder.

Decent place to start.

-Mike

[Greg Ogdan 110th OVI]

Depending on ball to barrel fit, you might want to shake about 25 balls in a 1# coffee can for 2 minutes instead of rasping. Otherwise, Bootie has it pretty much correct. The paper target will tell you. And don't forget that the Smoothie is the least forgiving of bad shooting technique.

[John Holland]

I've been told very recently that the "NEW Magic Formula" is 40 - 45 grains of Swiss 1.5, Alox lube, on an as cast ball, which is 0.001" under bore size.

I've got to try the NEW Magic Formula because the 2 1/2 Drams of 2 FFG and a bore size ball is beating the Bejeebers out of me. It shoots very well, but at this age I can't take the punishment any more!

JDH

[Greg Ogdan 110th OVI]

John, I feel your pain! Litterally! I used to shoot 65gr of Swiss FFF at 50. Now, I'm down to 50 gr oo Schuetzen across the board. Much less punishing!

[Michael Bodner]

You pansies!! Next you'll be wanting to put mufflers on the cannons!!

: - )

-Mike

[John Holland]

The noise doesn't bother us....we can't hear anyway. Just ask our wives!

[Eggman]

Not to sound negative but I was going to suggest about 8 oz. of C4 and a blasting cap as a "good" charge for almost any smoothbore.

[hp gregory]

45 grns 3f swiss a ball that will slide down the barrel easily after rolling on files and very very thin coat of alox. make sure the sprue is removed before rollin on the files. all you got working for you is the ammo. good well fitting ammo are where the good shots are. no sense suffering a concussion shooting heavy charges. with the load mentioned your site pic will be hold x ring at 25 and 10 ring at 50. the ball is still on the rise. if your gun doesnt shoot point of aim you can flex the barrel slightly to get it dialed in. the swiss shoots very very clean and cuts down on fouling.

hp gregory

[Maillemaker]

[quote]
Not to sound negative but I was going to suggest about 8 oz. of C4 and a blasting cap as a "good" charge for almost any smoothbore. [/quote

LOL, why the bad vibes on the smoothbore?

Last skirmish one of our guys could not make it but he sent his 1842 for someone to shoot anyway. He even included a target with dots for "aim here" drawn on it for 25 and 50 yards.

I took second place and it was my first time ever shooting a smoothbore. 'Course, it's easy when someone has done all the load development for you and all you have to do is hold still and pull a trigger.

Anyway, I'm digging some smoothbore action now! :)

Steve

[ian45662]

I am not so sure there is a load that is wrote in stone. I have tried goex and swiss. Shot swiss all last year and got to looking at my scores from my goex shoot and my hit times were better with goex. I made the swith back to goex and right off the bat my hit time was about the same. Best thing to do would be to try different things. I will say this about swiss and that is I was able to load a little quicker with it because of less fouling but not THAT much quicker. My go to load is 50 grains goex 3F with dimpled round balls and a thin coat of alox.

[Eggman]

No bad vibes. It's just my heart breaks when I see long lines of skirmishers struggling mightily to break pigeons with these guns, and failing miserably. But then again I myself do participate on the revolver range. Some of the things we do are difficult to explain.

[Maillemaker]

This guy's gun was SWEET. It was a Springfield 42, but it was some custom-made creation, I think he said it cost over $2000 when he got it some years ago. It was amazing to shoot.

I shot next to the guy doing individuals who got 1st place. That guy blew one ragged hole in the bullseye at 25 yards with his. He had to call a line judge to agree that there was a 5th hole in there.

[Koaltrane]

Buck and ball .69 cartridges called for 110 grains of FF powder as per the US Army in 1862.