Back from a few days away for the holiday.
Thank you all for the great info, although being "urgently advised" to buy a Tolley sounds like a hard sell.
Those vintage adds really answer a lot of the basics regarding what was available and to some extent what they were capable of.

I have been shooting black powder for about 12 years and I was originally going to make a ball gun.
I am sure that I will end up with something that works but I also wanted to look at all of the options. (most of which are around 100 years old).
As far as stability, I know that there are cases where a bullet is accurate at close range and less accurate further out (and the opposite can be true as well)but I don't think that this is one of those cases.
Range will be open in three weeks or so.
I'll have the loads ready by then.

Cheers.

Tom


Carbonation without fermentation is tyranny