doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com where can I find black powder shells

I use federal paper hulls and a set of wooden handtools,I get very nice rolled crimps,no spinning of the hull required,actually it is a push crimp,looks like a normal spun crimp.

My old Lee Loader that I purchased new back in the early 60's contained instructions for producing a roll crimp. You simply worked the rammer up & down as you pushed the crimping shoulder against the end of the case, instead of pushing the crimp shoulder all the way down to start the fold crimp.
This would of course be slower than a rotary crimper, but would work if not a lot of shells were required.

It's been a while since I put up some blackpowder shells so today I loaded up 50 hulls. I'll shoot them over the clays course this weekend. Once fired Winchester cheapo Univeral hulls, Cheddite primer, 80 grains of old Elephant 2fg, hard nitro card followed by a Circle Fly lubed fiber wad ( I soak them in left over old blackpowder bullet lube and drain them on wax paper) overshot card, 1 oz of #7&1/2 shot with a fold crimp. The wad column is put down on the powder with a wooden dowel and I use a bit of compression from the ram on my MEC press. Not much compression is required but make sure there is no air space in the column. If one uses the fiber wad without any lube it blows apart and the debris can come back at you depending on the wind direction. With the lube the wad stays together and deposits some lube in the barrels. Have shot them both ways and perfer the lube wads. ( next time I just may try the Circle Fly waxed fiber wads to save a bit of mess and fooling around). Hot soap and water clean up with a bronze brush takes care of the fouling and any plastic or lead left in the barrels. I either brush at several stations or shoot a couple of smokless shells to keep the fouling under control over the course. Great fun but both you and your scorer will have trouble spotting broken birds on true pairs due to the voulme of smoke!

I've been loading blackpowder shells for Skeet and Sporting Clays for quite sometime and have settled on Remington Gunclubs,any primer, 70 grs. 3f Goex and 1 oz. shot. The hammergun I use patterns better with card wads than plastic wads, the way I load the plastic is over a nitro card and I haven't noticed any melting. In the matches I shoot only the hull can be plastic so I didn't see any point in adjusting the choke for the TGT wad. During a 100 bird Sporting clay round I use an unlubed felt wad and spray a few shots of soapy water down each barrel after leaveing the station by the time it is my turn again the water has drained out of the barrels and the fouling is soft. See Ya: Mike

Mike, when I've used a plastic wad, I cut the shot cup off and load that on top of the nitro cards and fiber wad. Either way works well. Today I did not use the shot cup but just put the shot down on the wad column. I like you method of fouling control. I may just have to dig out a spray bottle and give it a try. The soapy water spray is enough to clear out some of the fouling and keep what remains soft?

thanks
I probaly have ten life times of 2 3/4 plastic AA hulls. I am guessing I need to cut them shorter. I have not measured the bores yet I'm guessing 2 1/2

I think the reason this gun shoots card wads better than plastic is because it has a short forcing cone, when I lengthened the cone on one of my other hammerguns from that point on it didn't shoot blackpowder cartridge shells as well as before. The cone in my blackpowder gun is only 5/8ths inch and the other one is 1 and 1/2inch neither has any choke.: Mike

Jeweler, I wouldn't bother to cut the hulls back. With blackpowder loads you are going to be shooting low pressures and the little bump you get in pressure at the forcing cone will be more than offset by the lower pressure of the roll crimp. However cutting the hulls shorter in not a time consuming issue and you can do it with a homemade cutter made from a 1/2" dowel and blade from an exacto knife. If you need instructions PM me and I will explain the cutter's construction.

Kent may still sell black powder loads. They were in 2003 in 12, 16 and 20 gauges in 6 and 7, 2 1/2 inches. Call 1-888-311-5368 in US.