This is not new I know. But when I'm shooting my 16 ga 1847 muzzleloading shotgun at sporting clays at Bull Run, people get upset at the time I'm taking to load (unless I let them shoot a round). I ordered these small test tubes from Amazon....with gradations...$6.00 for 50. I'll load powder and shot aforetime...with 170 year old barrels, don't what to make a mistake in the field with shot dispensers and power flasks. And they're a lot cheaper than the advertised "quick load" stuff you can get at Cabellas. With the percussion cap linear dispenser...it greatly reduces load time..(and I still let good people shoot it...never seen such joy on hard core, O/U shooters). Just thought I'd share. - oh...and the little plastic wine containers you can buy at Giant for cooking and stuff are better for holding shot than anything....I tried the miniature Smirnoff vodka bottles...not big enough.

Looks good. could you use a bigger tube and put a wad between powder and shot and keep in just one tube?

There are lots of different vials on Amazon. I found some that I use for weighed charges for long-range rifle shooting. Some of them can have a little bit of static electricity problems that keeps some of the powder from dropping but they get better after a time. Wiping with an anti-static rag or clothes dryer additive may help as well.

This is my field quick loader setup. Two sample vials scotch taped together one holds powder the other shot, a homemade wad starter, and a capper.

Steve

I hadn't thought of taping them together like that....we did it with magazines for the CAR-15 in Vietnam. I'm always afraid that I'll dump two 70 grain charges of powder into one barrel while chatting with the interested crowd...that might solve the problem.

I have no chokes on the gun of course...and seating the wads and overshot card is not a problem for the shotgun. And I'm putting a cushion wad liberally soaked in olive oil on top of the set up...it's slick.

A friend came up to Iowa to hunt pheasants with a 4 bore singleshot. He used the traditional shotbag over the shoulder, and (iirc) premeasured powder vials. He was really quick with that and he did some damage to the pheasant population (and a flushed turkey as well).

I do two shots at each station, and generally keep up. (Powder flask and shot snake.)

I thought about using the little Vodka bottles...better to use the test tubes...cheaper and easier on the liver:

Indeed there are several muzzle-loading tubes, etc but I've always wondered how to manage the caps. Is that a vintage device/tool in the picture?


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

ellenbr,
that is an inline capper sold by many muzzleloader suppliers, sporting goods shops, etc. Another popular capper is a Ted Cash capper. Also easily found. Try www.trackofthewolf.com Put it on a string around your neck or in your pocket.

Many of the commercially available speedloaders have a notch or some similar structure for holding a percussion cap.

The taped centrifuge tubes look pretty functional however. They appear to have the screw on tops, which I found have strong advantages over snap on caps - esp. if you do a lot of elevational change.

I used one of the snail-shaped cappers by Ted Csh for many years. It worked well on my double shotgun, Pennsylvania style rifle & Colt reproduction revolvers. I accumulated a number of plastic tubes which 3/4" endmills came in while still employed as a machinist. These had a tight-fitting slip-on Redcap on each end. I would put powder & over powder wads in one & shot with over powder wad in another.

This worked good in the field hunting. In a situation where shots might come fast &numerous, as in a hot dove field I carried as many as practical & then in a lull reloaded them from shot & powder flasks. Early on in my muzzle loading, I was advised to NEVER load the powder charge directly from a flask.

The two Ted Cash variants have always been the bar for everyone else to match. They are still good, but like Ted, they aren't as good as they used to be in my opinion. Still best out there, save for a few custom jobs that will set you back a couple of Benjamins.

When i did a lot of muzzle loading i made paper cases out of cartridge paper - you can nitrate the paper if you want but its not necessary i experimented with both. nitrated paper was harder to glue.. i just used prit stick type glue

I turned a mandrel just smaller than bore diameter and would roll the paper around the mandrel and glue one end shut. In to my paper tube i would put one measure of shot, then the wad then the powder charge and then fold the end over or tie it off with string if i wanted to look really cool.

When out shooting you would simply take a cartridge, tear the end and then ram the whole lot down in one. Still cant keep up with the center fire guns but it is a lump quicker - you can use a wad marginally smaller than the bore once you ram it all down it works fine

My Tedd Cash capper is the teardrop shaped style, not the "snail" shape, but I second the motion that they are very well made, and very useful for hunting or target shooting. Raise the lid, pour caps into it, gently shake the capper side to side horizontally, and they all turn bottom up. Works perfectly for rifle or shotgun. Mine is old, but very well made. If I lost it I'd buy another just like it.

My loads for hunting are contained in little clear plastic tubes, like the ones shown above, but shorter. They are a little smaller than a 28 ga. loaded shell. I don't carry them in my pocket to jostle around, for fear of static electricity build up on a cold, windy day. So, for quail hunting I use a brass flask for the powder, even tho' I know it's a bit slower in use. But, for dove shooting the plastic capsules of powder and shot are in a little camo 20 ga. shell carrier someone gave me many years ago. There is a block of foam inside it with pre-punched holes the perfect size for the little bottles. It will hold fifty, as I recall, plenty for a dove shoot.

One other hugely useful tool for dove shooting with a m/l shotgun is my loading rod. I built it out of hickory, put a flared brass wad rammer on the end, and an old antique solid brass doorknob on the other end. After loading it rests in a piece of 3/4" metal conduit pushed into the ground. The length of the holder is such that, when I drop the loading rod into it, the base of the doorknob catches itself on the flared, top end of the conduit. The bottom end, that is pushed into the ground, was flattened in a vise, then ground on two sides into a flat point. Since you stay in the same spot, for shooting on a dove field, the apparatus is shoved into the ground on arrival there and is always right beside you with the doorknob end at the right height for reloading. I've got pictures of it all but photobucket has me messed up, right now.

SRH

Argo44,

One thought comes to mind. I use to do a lot of muzzleloading back in the day and using anything with Black Powder that could create a static charge was a no no as a static spark will ignite black powder. The powder measures like the lyman used for Black Powder now have Aluminum hoppers and back in the day they had Brass hoppers for that reason. Also as you may have noticed most powder measures are brass for that reason.

A thought would be to do to the hardware store and pick up some brass tubing or even copper tubing, cut it to the length you need then soldier one end & use a cork on the other end or cork both ends. The advantage with corking both ends is if you seal the tube half way down you can put powder in one side and shot in the other. Usually a wad held in place with some silicone rubber is all that is needed. Just put a little red paint on the "powder cork" so you get the right one in first.

I noticed you had some powder particles stuck to the sides of the tubes which indicates static build up.

Just a thought, take it for what it's worth. But I would think loading a Muzzle loader with one hand might be difficult.


WBLDon

WBLDon, the static electricity from plastic loading hoppers and speed loaders has been well debunked, long ago. Just like the "no-petroleum distillates" and "bore seasoning" fads that swept the net. You can use your RCBS, Redding, Lyman, etc. powder measure with total confidence and safety.

BrentD,

Thanks for the update, I stand corrected! Been a number of years since I was seriously into smoke poles and the information I was relying on came from some old timers that passed on long ago but shared their knowledge before doing so. We weren't surfing the net back then, more word of mouth than word of internet.

WBLDon

When M/Ling shooters shoot at my SxS event they usually shoot first [ always two shots ], step aside and reload, step back in for two shots, step out and reload, etc, etc. That way there isn't a big wait for the M/Ler.

Don don't believe everything you read on the Internet...

I will add, Don't believe everything you read on the Internet OR everything you hear by Word of Mouth. I will note that for many, many years the old Ideal & then Lyman powder measures were all cast iron with a brass measuring cylinder & were recommended for use with black powder, in fact, they were introduced specifically for that purpose. I do not recall ever hearing of anyone experiencing an explosion from their use. I have measured a good bit of black with a Lyman #55 which is the measure Lyman decided neede to be replaced with the new measure having an aluminum tube.

Prior to Jim Legg's decease when he was an active member here he once showed a video of an experiment that someone had conducted. A "Static Spark generator was shown throwing a continuous stream of static sparks onto a pile of loose black powder & it did not ignite.

The reason that static electricity is not very likely to ignite black or smokeless powder is two-fold. Static charges tend to accumulate mostly on the outside of vessels or containers, and any static discharge is more likely to go to ground, and away from the powder inside. Also, powder grains are coated with graphite which makes them a bit harder to ignite. Not all static electricity charges are equal in energy, and a static electricity charge of sufficient energy can be a source of ignition. I have also never heard of black powder exploding in a reloading powder measure, and I have used small plastic vials for many years to hold pre-measured loads for hunting.

However, Black powder, especially fine granulations and black powder dust, certainly can be, and has been, ignited by static charges, as can many other explosive dusts or vapors. That is why workers in plants where these gun powder products and fireworks are made are required to wear cotton clothes and grounding straps, and all of the hoppers and equipment are carefully grounded. The IEC, OSHA, and the NFPA introduced these regulations as a direct result of explosions.

https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15285

Fine dust is, of course, a totally different aspect than what we normally encounter in ordinary black powder. Dust is a hazard in a flour mill for instance. Rudolf Diesel's first attempts in developing his engines used finely powdered Coal Dust as a fuel source. After an explosion that almost cost him his life, he switched to low grade fuel oil which was more controllable.

Another aspect of black powder is it is not volatile, A good friend of mine came extremely close to losing his life from filling his riding lawn mower with gasoline. The mower had a plastic tank but he was pouring from a steel can & using a steel funnel. Apparently a static charge was built from the pouring & then a spark produced between the can & the funnel. Had he been pouring black powder instead of the volatile gasoline it is EXTREMELY unlikely the spark would have even hit the powder, much less ignite it. I don't mean to imply that one should not use care in handling black powder, but do feel the Warnings concerning static charge explosions have been greatly exaggerated. I do feel that Lyman's motive for the new "Black Powder measure was primarily to create a new market. I do not feel there was anything at all wrong with their old standby, the model 55.

In the 60's in Special Forces the "dust initiator" explosive was well known...a small explosive in a sack of flour in a closed space would provoke a massive explosion.
That is the problem in all factories producing dust...I toured textile factories in the mid 1970's in Pakistan where dust and consequently the threat of a catastrophic event was a major problem. So dust would seem to be the issue...not necessarily black powder. But of course...defer to the experts.