Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR black powder for 30-30, 32 special or 35 remington

That's interesting concerning humidity. In the months I'm likely to shoot, July, August, September it is usually bone dry in my area of Montana. Even with a lubed bullet, a grease cookie might not be a bad idea.

Tim,
From my meager knowledge of BP history, scales were never carried by the ordinary shooter when BP was the only thing they had to shoot. As DD and Ranch13 have noted, the long-range shooters weigh their charges to insure the greatest consistency, which is always the name of the game when shooting at long range and you have to hit what you aim at, either animal or paper.

BP lends itself to volume measuring due to it's inefficiency, but smokeless is quite sensitive to changes in charge amounts, so it must be weighed. Of course, there are exceptions, BH209 and Trail Boss being two that come to mind.

BP is an area I am just getting to know more intimately since Greg, E.T. have turned me to the "Dark Side", with Brent and Paul39, and now Ranch13, adding to my interest.

I've been shooting BP in my side-lock muzzleloaders for almost twenty years now and thought I knew something about it until I "found" BPCR.

The advice you've been given about weighing your volume-measured charges to get an idea of their actual weight is a good one that I intend to also follow.

I have been "stuck" using GOEX because that is all I could get locally. Now that even that source has dried up, I will be ordering online and am looking forward to trying KIK.

PM me or give me a call sometime and we can talk handloading, BP, or just the price of tea in China.

Ed

Use SPG lube in the .40 slug rifle, so maybe that's why I found no issues out in Cody. Or was in Black Magic? The Shadow knows...

Sounds good and I might take you up on it in the near future.

I have an electronic scale and I will check loads from time to time but I use the Lee dipper system and I don't intend to weight each and every charge of anything. Even if I used a hopper charging system I would only spot weight charges to make sure nothing has gone a rye. Heck, progressive loaders don�t weight every charge. Now if I was competing for big money and every shot had a dollar sign attached to it well that would be a different kettle of fish.

Good thing you didn't say the Green Lantern or you would have been in deep do do.

This thread should probably be allowed to die, but with respect to the OP's question and for the interest of the order I'll offer this, concerning annealing and blow back.

These .40-82 cases were fired in a match this weekend, and the pic taken within minutes of firing. Note all the nasty BP fouling on the cases - NOT! None back in the action either.

I'm not sure just what factors contribute to a good seal and how much. Like Cross mentioned, I anneal my Starline cases before initial sizing and these days after each firing. Many BPCR competitors do the same, and some claim that it makes a difference in accuracy as well as contributing to good case obturation and sealing. Chamber design and tolerances probably play a part too. However, Brent doesn't anneal his cases - ever, and he doesn't have any problems.

Point is, the fears of black powder fouling getting back in your action seem overblown, or somebody isn't doing things correctly.

Paul