1st black powder muzzle loader

Rum and not the liquid

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 17, 2010
Messages
273
Location
New Zealand
Hi all.

I'm just got my grandfathers euroarms Kentuckian in 44 and I really have no idea what the hell to do.
if I make a list can someone help me out please?
I've always wanted to get into black powder and nows a good chance to get started. I want to hunt animals with it at i geuss less than 100 yards?
My question are

I want to cast my own projectiles but don't really know what size mold to buy

What is the best projectile "shape" for hunting

I see a lot about lubricating and sizing the projectiles I thought after the cast they should be the right size?

And powder charge. base charge? Ladder testing and how to determine max load.

I'm sure I've missed something

Thanks in advanced

Lucas
 
No doubt there's plenty of guys who could answer better than I but I saw that you asked back in September and haven't gotten a reply so figured I'd help if I can.

First you want to find out what twist rate you have, put the cleaning jag on and a tight fitting patch, now put a piece of masking tape around the ramrod so it makes a tail, then push the rod down the bore until that tape tail makes one full turn, 12:00 - 12:00, now measure how much length of rod that takes. hope that makes sense.
This will determine wether it will shoot balls or bullets best.
I'm not up on the exact diameter of .44 and which make/models are what size. That said, muzzleloader bore diameters tend to vary widely, this is one reason why sizing after casting is required. You might want to slug your bore or measure with pin gauges or even calipers would be better than nothing.

All the above will be a good start on determining which style of projectile mould sizer etc. you need. wads are often beneficial for accuracy with bullets and sometimes with patched balls, doesn't hurt to try them. I would suggest using .45 cal wads in your .44, helps to ensure your wad is tight and seals as well as possible.

lots of different lube recipes, generally it's best to use lube that is soft, as long as it doesn't melt on a hot day, this keeps the fouling softer shot to shot, without this you will wind up swabbing between shots which isn't something that everyone wants to do but some do.
Paper patching is another option if using bullets but then you generally load them with no lube and will need to spit patch between shots.

powder - again it may depend on ball or bullets but generally somewhere between 60 gr - 100 gr will be fine, I would explore the 70 - 80 gr range first.

There's a lot more that goes into it but hopefully this will give you a start!
Carsyn
 
For a 44 caliber I may start even lower, perhaps down around 50 grains of fffg. I saw another thread on the Euroarms and a guy was using a .433 round ball, no mention of patch thickness. I might try that ball and a .015 patch.

Did it come with a cleaning jag? If not, check out Track of the Wolf for that. I see they also have .429, .433 and .437 balls in stock. I'd experiment with those prior to investing in a mold .

Good luck and enjoy. I'd give it a good cleaning prior to shooting.
 
Top