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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Pyrodex P Question


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Fellas

 

As I could not find BP, I got some "Pyrodex p" at the shop.

The questions are:

 

What charge would you use in a .44 steel frame cap and ball revolver?

As I recall, I used 24 of Goex.

 

It clean up done the same way...hot water..clean and oil?

 

thanks

Karl

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Fellas

 

As I could not find BP, I got some "Pyrodex p" at the shop.

The questions are:

 

What charge would you use in a .44 steel frame cap and ball revolver?

As I recall, I used 24 of Goex.

 

It clean up done the same way...hot water..clean and oil?

 

thanks

Karl

 

Karl you use an equivalent amount of Pyrodex. Not by weight but with a measurer. Next time try Triple 7, works better than Pyrodex, easier to ignite and it is non-corrosive. Cleanup is the same.

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Thanks Az. karl

 

Karl just re-read your question. In regards to the 24gr load I just don't recall as it has been at least 10 years since I shot my cap and ball Remmy. One thing that does stick in my memory was the recommended starting charge ended with a zero. Just for safety sake you might begin with 20 grs. We were shooting hollow based conical slugs. A stiffer charge with a round ball would be logical but I can't honestly remember where the starting point was. Unfortunately I have the revolver stored with the owner's manual at my son's house. That pound of Pyrodex will last you a long time but do give Hodgden's 777 some consideration next time. The best thing with 777 is you clean the revolver at your convenience, the same as you do with smokeless powder.

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Karl,I don't know if this foreign site I visited is any help, but a guy at http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055924753 "Pyrodex is indeed classed a [very] low-grade propellant, and with an ignition temperature some 250 degrees higher than black powder, it needs hot percussion caps to set it off successfully - trying to use it in a flintlock is a pure waste of time, without a small BP charge in the pan to start things off.

 

I've been shooting the stuff since the early 1980's in my BP Ruger Old Army, and have now changed over to Triple 7, a newer forlulation that is sulphur-free, based on sugar beet, if you can believe it. It is more powerful than Pyrodex by about 25%, which means that you use less for the same effective velocity. But instead of the sulphurous BP smell we all love, all we get from Triple 7 is a whiff of the local sugar-beet production plant. The benfits are that it washes out of the guns with water and nothing else, and is about as corrosive as milk.

 

I save my BP for my Colt Walker, Whitworth rifle and Musketoon carbine."

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