Fun with black powder

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Continuing with the "Fun with..." series.

I thought I'd try some black powder cartridges in the new New Vaquero, in my Great Western .38, and in the .45 Henry.

For the .38s, I loaded up 52 rounds using a 158 grain RNFP over about 16 grains of FFFG Goex. Also, I used Magnum primers. That gave me satisfactory load compression. For the .45s, I loaded 39 rounds of using the about 31 grains of the same FFFG but with regular primers since I was out of the magnums. I used a 255 grain Keith-style LSWC.

To get the obvious out of the way; it was hella messy. Cleaning single-actions is a piece of cake. I've never taken a Henry apart. Clearly I wasn't thinking about the consequences with that one. :?

The biggest surprise was how much more accurate the loads seem going through the Henry. One gong hit after the next, and that's using the shitty buckhorn sight that I so despise.

So, then I break out the virgin New Vaquero. I ran a box or two (who counts when you're reloading, right?) of smokeless rounds I'd made up a week or two ago. About what I expected: fun. I was hitting steel point-shooting as often as by actually aiming. Not sure if that's attributable to the natural pointability of the weapon, or to the lousy sights. (disclosure: I knew they were lousy when I was buying it, but I like the lines of the Vaq better than the Blackhawk).

So then, I'm ready for black powder. To my surprise, it makes for a rather stout load, and it smokes like a mofo, of course. Although it seemed that the smokeless loads were hitting the steel harder.

After running through about 24 rounds of the stuff, I decided to change gears and try the 1950s vintage Great Western. I got two cylinder's worth before something went hinky. Half cock disappeared and I still had a live round in the cylinder. Eventually I emptied it and decided I'd rather not tempt fate with this one. It's a great gun but it has a scary hare-trigger.

This picture does not really do justice to the unholy mess.
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Well, I'm off to clean up this mess.
Hell is where:
The British are the chefs
The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
The Italians make everything run on time
And the Germans are the police

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