I'm looking for starting load information for an original Smith carbine. I'm using black plastic tubes from lodgewood and a .518 bullet from a lee double cavity mold. 35 gr. FFFg fits perfectly with no filler. Dixie advertises 40 gr. FFFg for the repro shooting a .515 bullet. Any info appreciated, thanks in advance.
Shoot the brave officers, and the cowards will run away and take the men with them. -Jackson
Slug your bore! Original Smiths vary all over the map. I have three: One has a .510" bore diameter, one is .518" and one is .520". To make the darn things shoot it helps to have a bullet that is just at, or a couple of thousandths bigger, than the bore diameter. On some of the originals that can be a bit of a problem.
I think the old solution was a .525" ball with about 40 grains of powder, but even in the old days the ammo varied with the manufacturer. Standards were loose to say the least loose. The 7th Illinois Cavalry had Smiths in Mississippi but no ammo. They reloaded their own India rubber Smith cases with broken down Sharps ammo (.545" or so diameter
Jim Leinicke
114th Illinois
28/32 grains of 3f should give you something to work with. also did you check to see if the tube swells out to much that it has problems chambering. a friend had this problem with his plastic tubes and went to the brass ones. good luck marv
comp#11604 DEL BLUES
As a side note, you want to be sure that your Smith locks up fairly "tight." On some originals, the hinge screw has worn down to the point that there is some "play" between the receiver and barrel when the Smith is closed.
If this is the case with yours, you can buy oversize hinge screws to solve the problem. I think that Lodegwood Mfg.(he has a website, so you can Google him up) might have them. A friend of mine had an original Smith and until he replaced that hinge screw, he never got it to shoot worth a darn.
GOODS LUCK!
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