RCBS rock chucker press and RCBS .45-70 Cowboy dies
*Black Powder - Part 3 (Cartridges)*
So now we know how to load a black powder revolver that was covered in part 2. For all their popularity during the War Between the States, cap and ball revolvers and front loading muskets were on the way of becoming obsolete. Cartridge firearms began to appear during the war with such notable weapons as the Spencer and Henry rifles to name just a couple. Later, black powder revolvers were converted to handle the new metallic cartridges until eventually, guns like the Colt 1873 Peacemaker, S&W Schofield and 1875 Remington revolvers came about. Other former black powder guns like the Sharps rifle also began to see a new life as in the form of a metallic cartridge as well. What all these cartridges and the guns that fired them in their day had in common was that they were still using a black powder charge. Smokeless powder wasn’t invented until late in the 1800’s in France so many of these older cartridges had their beginnings as a black powder cartridge. Even the .38 Special started life this way, explaining why the case is overly long for the amount of powder it receives.
So how do you reload black powder cartridges anyways? Well, there are similarities between smokeless reloading and black powder but there are also some important differences as well. First you start with your regular reloading press and reloading dies much in the same way you would start with any smokeless powder reloading setup. For this article, I’ll be working with some black powder loads for a .45-70 Sharps rifle. In this case, I am using new cases that have been sized, their mouths expanded and have been primed with regular Federal 215 magnum primers before I began this article so we can skip that part.
The thing about black powder reloading that is very different than reloading smokeless powder loads is that the powder charges aren’t measured in weight as with smokeless but by volume instead. Just because we are going to use 70 grains of 2F powder doesn’t mean that my charge will weigh 70 grains if I weighed it on a scale. Instead we use a powder measure like this one to measure out our charges.
We know that the .45-70 cartridge calls for 70 grains of powder in the case so I set up my powder measure for 70 grains. Now it’s true that the older balloon head cases would take a full 70 grains of powder and that the newer cases this might be pushing it a little for room but I haven’t had any problems with this load as of yet. Really, it’s very hard to overcharge a case with black powder. The case won’t hold enough powder to over-pressure the action of the more modern cartridge guns. Now here’s another difference between smokeless reloading and black powder loads. With smokeless, you can just drop your powder straight into the case. With black powder, it has to be dropped from a height in order to pack itself into the case better. Here’s where we use a drop tube.
2 foot drop tube for black powder reloading
I made mine out of a couple wooden sticks and a base with a piece of 3/8 inch copper pipe and a Lee powder funnel shoe-goo’d on the top. By placing the case underneath the drop tube, I pour the powder into the funnel; it is dropped from about 2 feet above the case and has a chance to settle before it gets into the case mouth.
Dropping powder through the drop tube
Now we are back to reloading the rest of the cartridge as you would any other smokeless round. With my ammunition, I stick with the basic 405-grain cast lead bullet just as the originals were. Really, isn’t shooting a Sharps rifle with a jacketed bullet sacrilege or at least something that will land you in purgatory? Here you can either use a gas check or you can go without one. Really this depends a lot on your type of bullet however you can also use wax gas checks as well. What these do is to keep the not gases away from the base of the bullets to prevent them from being deformed and aid in accuracy. Word of warning here though, if you use a gas check, do NOT fire it over a chronograph. The gas checks can come free from the bullet, slam into the chronograph and destroy it. No, I never did it but a friend of mine did so yes it DOES happen! You want to make sure though that your case crimp is over the grove in the bullet to prevent deforming the bullet when you crimp it in. If you want an extra level of protection, you can also seal the primers with fingernail polish just like any other case.
Now keep in mind though that a case that has just fired a charge of black powder will turn green in a VERY short period of time! My solution for this problem has been to de-prime the cases immediately after shooting with a Lee decapping die.
Lee decapping die
This die doesn’t make contact with the case other than to knock out the fired primer so you don’t have to worry about lubing cases or having them cleaned first. What you want to do here is to remove the primer so no black powder residue can get caught in the primer pockets. Next I throw them into a bucket of soapy water, wash and rinse them like dirty dishes then throw them into the brass tumbler for a while. As long as you are fairly quick to clean your cases, there shouldn’t be any problem using black powder in them.
So there you have it, how to load and clean your cases with black powder. Now it’s true that many reproduction firearms like the Sharps, single action revolvers, Trapdoor Springfields and Winchester rifles can safely be fired with a smokeless powder load. But really, doesn’t using black powder in these old time guns just bring about a whole new flavor to shooting them?
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