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