Whack a 540 round ball with a mallet, paint it with a magic marker, oil it up and drive it through the rifling from the breech end. Measure the groove diameter with a dial caliper. (If the grooves are still black from the marker, you need a bigger ball.)
Use a mix of 1 part wheel weights to 3 parts pure lead and cast to .001" to .002" over the groove diameter. That alloy is just a hair under Lyman #2 and is what I use for all breechloading black powder firearms, be they Maynard, Ballard, Henry and Sharps. I also use it for smokeless powder loads in pistols and low pressure rifle cartridges.
The only round balls I shoot have spit patches on them.
Can't help you on the caps. I'm sure no one will have any extra to share unless they are charging exorbitant markups. Good luck on that.
BTW - Don't turn your nose up at the Spanish made Schuetzen caps from Back Creek and other sellers. I've tested them and they are plenty warm enough to light black powder.
Isn't the Gallagher the one that was approved to use Maynard (Sorry, check that, I meant Smith) cartridges? If so, whatever works in one should work in another.
Most of all, have fun until the hoarders and flippers drive our sport into the ground.
Last edited by bobanderson; 02-25-2022 at 07:53 AM.
Bob Anderson
Company C, 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry
Small Arms Committee
"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."
- John Wayne in "The Shootist", 1976
.54 erma gallager questions?
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Erma Gallager
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