Hello gang-

I have an absolutely fabulous pinfire double. It's a two barrel set with twelve bore shotgun barrels and sixteen bore rifle barrels, probabally made in the mid late 1860s.
Both barrel sets are in near new condition, with what is likely original laquer over the finished damascus.
Once I get myself set up with some brass and make some loading equipment, I'll have it out somewhere in the woods of California and Oregon.
Hopefully someone out here on the list is running a sixteen bore rifle and can help me get started with a load and some suggestions for projectiles.
The gun's cased in oak and leather, there is a pile of round balls that mic out to about .666 in diameter.
The gun's bullet mold has somehow gone lost over the years, but I recently found a sixteen bore ball mould (a nice belgian pistol came with it at no extra charge...) that seems as if it'd throw a ball of similar size.
I just got a brick of chamber casting alloy and will likely cast the chambers later this evening or some time tomorrow.
I'll post what I find here on the list when I have something to note.

I really don't know where to start with bullet alloy. I'd like to hear what others have done with bullet types in the sixteen bore size too. I'm guessing that the balls that were in the case may have actually ended up working out with this gun, but I don't have a proper hardness tester for bullet alloy or even know if these are of a batch that even worked with this gun.
As yet, there are no bulges in the rifle (or shotgun for that matter) barrels, so at least no one's murdered this thing yet. I'd rather not harm it myself before I get the chance to run it as a hunting gun.

I expect the immediate -good luck finding reloading gear and hulls/brass- comments, I'll likely manufacture the cartrige cases myself out of brass, using pistol primers in the cases and some sort of semi-hard bronze rod for the striker pins.
I'd happily take directions to find case dimensions (web, base...) from anyone who knows where to find them.
I'll be making my own loading tools too and would love to see a decent capper/decapper that someone knows to work well and somewhat elegantly.


Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say here, thanks for taking a moment to read my note.


--John