Smoke (and fire) is impressive but the clean-up afterward is not a lot of fun.

Here Bob Weeman shoots Frank Cronin's big 10 bore D grade with a load that Frank cooked up in his loading shack set back (by necessity) a hundred yards from his house.






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If I'm correct in 1906, they were using smokless powders in most of the comercial shells.

if you try to clean black powder like modern stuff its a mess.

a shotgun is not near as hard as a fixed breach like a flintlock

take the barrel off, and leave the foreend off

get a pail of hot (need a glove HOT ) water stick one one end in the water and with a tight fitting mop you will get a piston action pumping the hot water up and down a few times

a couple more times in clean same hot water - dry it (easy since its so hot) wipe inside and out with oil

only takes a few minutes

I shoot corrosive ammo and some bp guns so cleaning is no problem the parker would be one of the easier ones to clean
The chamber is 2 ¾” would that need a 2 ½” shell?
Have pryodex and triple 7, ½ lb 71/2 shot and 209 primers should be everything but filler
Assuming that a filler would be needed for the shot was thinking about trying airsoft bb that way wouldn’t need to order anything just need to find someone to reload them at the club

Loading some black powder shells is going to be harder than I thought
If anyone knows where I could buy some let me know
Thanks


Was looking at sites that recommended getting equipment from eBay or antique stores but after a little more searching found you can still get everything new
It really don’t look all that hard or expensive can get brass shells or get a roll crimper for $31 and use plastic hulls

Read up on the chambers it will need a 2 ½ well it’s probably actually made for 2 5/8 but going to use 2 ½

Ron reloading black powder shot gun shells is simple. Go on You Tube and type in Reloading blackpowder shot gun shells. You need no special tools. Can all be done by hand. Use 1F black powder. You can get all the wads you will need from precision reloading. Brass shot gun shells for 12ga is inexpensive and there are lots of sources for it. Keep them clean and they will last for ever.