Rolly, Ken eloquently has given you all the technical reasons why not to do this. I'll give you the layman's terms.
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<br>When I was about 10 yrs old, A friend of mine and myself acquired an old smooth bore musket. I can't remember how we got it, but probably not by proper means. As this friend was about as close to Retch Sweeny in Pat MacManus stories as you can get.
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<br>We found an old sinker mold that we cast bullets with by cutting off the eye of the lead sinker and using newspaper wadding. Then we stoled shotgun shells from our fathers gun closest and took them apart to get the powder.
<br>Shooting the shot wasn't very exciting, but those 1/2 inch sinkers sure put holes in everything we could find to shoot at.
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<br>We did this all one summer, luckily not getting killed or caught.
<br> Towards when school was getting started, another friend heard about our exploits and begged us to shoot it.
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<br>We finally relented and figured that if one shotgun shell worth of powder was a hoot, just think of what two would do.
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<br>We were obviously not ballisticians nor did we know the difference between black powder and smokeless.
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<br>On that night, we dunped two shotgun loads down the barrel, paper wadding and all the shot from both casings. We figured we should use the shot, cause we were close to buildings and it would be safer.
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<br>The other friend torched it off, lotsa smoke, whole lot of screaming& blood and musket was in two pieces with the barrel peeled back about a foot and breech completely blown open.
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<br>Lucky none of us was killed and all still had our eyes intack. But we were full of shrap metal and shot.
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<br>We got back to one of the houses and the parent took us down to a neighbor who was a dentist. The hospital was an hour away.
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<br>That dentist set each one of us down and dug all the metal out with no pain killer. I was the last and by that time, I was scared SH**less.
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<br>We all healed, but there was more ahead for us. Back then it was not called child abuse. I think the term was parental guidance.
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<br>Don't know about the other two. But my dad took me out back. I had to lean forward and grap a post in the barn. He warned me if I let go , I would get double. He laid into me with an old miners equipment belt that was about 3 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick.He explained that the punishment was for obtaining the musket improperly, stealing the shotgun shells and being stupid enough too shoot it. He did not say it hurt him more than it hurt me.
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<br>Damn , that took as much healing as the metal and shot.
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<br>But that was the end of it. There was no such thing as timeouts, counseling, being grounded, etc. My use or access to firearms was not restricted after that, as I still had rats and groundhogs to kill.
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<br>And that is why you do not want to use smokeless powder in a black powder firearm!
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