Pauly, those Federal papers aren't good for anything. I'd be happy to take them off your hands.:bigbye::rolleyes:

When you load BP do you use fiber wads or can you use shot cups like we use in smokeless loads?

If you use plastic wads with black powder you will have a mess in your bores. The high temps made by the black powder will melt the plastic. Always use fibre wads with black powder loads.

I never use plastic wads with black powder. I use fiber wads in brass, zinc (Alcan) or Federal paper hulls. I have used Fg and FFg. I want to try loading some very light smokeless load in my Damascus guns. I shot some Polywad vintners in my PH, and it seemed to like them. I have shot standard factory smokeless loads in it (and in my GHs), but they are getting mighty old. I have some 3" brass shells I am going to load up with Fg for my Ithaca heavy duck one day soon. That may be fun.

I guess I'll give CB a call and ask them about using these 0175. Alliant shows a pretty good 7/8 recipe using Clay Dot and CB2100-12 (12S0) only 6400 in pressure! I may just try that one.

That 1F can get dirty - I used it years ago in a 8ga muzzleloader I made but now a days I use 2 or 3F in my 12 or 10ga guns. 75grs of 3F and 1oz of shot is a nice load. At one time I loaded 94grs/3f and 1oz of shot - now that's a nice load to scare the dickens out of guys on the skeet range when they don't except it. Problem is with the cost of BP that extra 20 grains adds up in a hurry. If all I have is 2F I'll go around 85grs/ 1oz of shot, and 75grs/3f with 1oz. The 3F burns quicker than 2F so a little less is needed.

Thanks. I'll make sure to load fiber wads when shooting BP.

To date all of my BP shotgun shooting has been in an antique muzzle loader and it is a great shooter. It is an English gun and has all of the attributes of those slim, light English shotguns.

boy some of them old big bore guns were power eating monsters..i read of one guy using 16 drams of black..said it gave him bad bad head aches....ive fired 7 drams and it aint to pleasant to shoot but 16 drams not for me....always liked what a 2 ga shooter once said when asked how much shot and powder he used in the gun...he said powder by the handfull and a pound of shot or so.... charlie

Charlie, in that 8ga muzleloader I made I use to shoot 15drams [ 400grs ] of 1F and 4oz of shot. Good thing it weighed 15 pounds. Twice it pushed me over flat on my back.

sounds like the recoil was very severe...did the old gun throw a good pattern...boy you was actually shooting 4 ga loads woulda loved to have seen you shooting that 8... charlie

It was more of a hugh shove than a kick. I put about .010 choke in the barrels and at 60yds with #2's it would completly cover an open newspaper. Was great on geese coming in to decoys in farm fields. Roll them babies over. That's the one that went off in my brothers pickup as we drove down a farm lane. Took the back window out and caught the seat on fire [ the top was glowing and smoking ] . My poor brother rolled out the door doing about 10MPH. Man, that sucker was loud with the windows rolled up. We laugh about it now - well, kind of did then when the shock wore off.

we nned to more about this storey...im smiling now thinking about it... i just can t get over 15 drams of black powder....charlie

It was a 8ga O/U muzzleloader with sidehammers - no half cock notch. Made it with a monte-carlo stock and recoil pad and I think now it was more like 20lbs - my 48" barrel 54cal flinklock chunk gun weighed 15lbs. Anyways, three of them were made. One for my friend who made the locks and triggers, one for the brother-in law who made the barrels, and one for me - I inletted, stocked, browned the barrels and finished them up. First year couldn't hit anything because I was shooting buck shot - 30, 30cal round balls. That was when the brother and I were going down a lane in his pickup and he wanted me to unload it. The gun ws resting against the seat between us and I bent over decapping the top barrel. When I tried to take the second cap off the hammer slipped out of my finger touching it off. BIG BOOM. I was just dumping the buckshot down the barrel after the OS wad. Was told latter if you do that the balls will try and squeeze in the air pockets as they go down the barrel. They should lay in flat layers. Anyways, I patterned the gun with #2 shot [ and had choked the barrels about .010 ] and they would cover an opened newspaper at 60yds. Gun shot great after that.