Black powder revolver questions

[dwarven1]

This morning I was up at HSC at the black powder shoot. I was giving my [STRIKE]Remington[/STRIKE] Uberti 1858 Army (.44) revolver a workout, and trying to sight it in - I'd only shot it once or twice before.

It's got an 8" bbl with an adjustable front sight blade (adjustable for windage). I was surprised to find out that with a 25 grain load of Pyrodex P (equivalent to FFFg, according to the label on the bottle) it shoots about 4" low from point of aim at 7 yards, and about 11" low at 25 yards!! Now, on advice of a CAS shooter who was there I'm not going to do something like file down the sight to adjust it, but just hold high (the silhouette of the front sight blade makes it easy to hold high - I just put the spot where it flares out wide up in the notch and I was hitting right on at 25 yards), but I was wondering a few things.

Is this kind of ballistics normal? That much of a drop? Am I using too light a load? One of the other shooters (who was even more of a newbie than I am at this!) had some Pyrodex pellets which were 30 grain and the package said that they were specifically for .44 and .45. Should I get a 30 grain spout for my powder horn?

Any comments or advice would be welcome. Thanks.

 

[JohnFH]

I would first get an adjustable powder measure, like most guns, there will be a sweet spot for your revolver that might not match others loads.

You will also have to play with ball diameter, my 50 cal Hawkins rifle is accurate with a .490 ball and a .010 patch, other combinations I tried were hit or miss, literaly.

Other powders or powder sizes (2f, 3f etc) will also have an effect, I gave up entirely on substitute powders and only use real black powder, the gun was designed for it, and I have gotten my best results with it.

 

[dwarven1]

John, it seems to be accurate enough - once I knew where to hold I could group well - but that 7" drop from 21' to 75' surprises me.

 

[JohnFH]

but that 7" drop from 21' to 75'

Normal, we are talking 500fps loads here. Being 4" low at 7 yards, sounds like you could go up on the charge a bit, I would try about 2 grains at a time.

Just remember we are still dealing with antique technology and early revolvers were not expected to be used at much more than point blank range.

 

[dwarven1]

Ah... I had no idea of the velocity. And, as I said, I was using 25 gr loads - one of the other shooters was using 30 grain pellet for a load.

 

[JohnFH]

Black powder/muzzle loaders are their own animal, you kind of have to throw away everything you know about modern firearms when you start with them. I think thats why I like them so much, so much more user influence over the end result.