[jerryv]

i have a brass and a steel 1858 pietta a friend gave me ready to shoot but i dont have a powder measure and there is not one locally to buy. i have powder scales. can someone tell me what 20 and 30 grains volume of pyrodex p weighs on scales? thanks jerry

 

[cayugad]

Using my digital FRANKFORD ARSENAL DIGITAL SCALE and setting the weight in grains I got the following readings using Pyrodex P.

powder measure set at 20 grains by volume... 14.6 - 14.2 - 14.4
powder measure set at 30 grains by volume... 20.2 - 20.0 - 20.0

 

[cayugad]

Jim Shockey Gold 3f is what I have been shooting out of my 1858 Pietta with a .451 roundball.

20 grains by volume weighs 16.2 on average. That is a real good load for me to shoot. Lots of smoke and pretty good accuracy. Clean up is easy and I don't have to break the revolver down on the range. Last time out I shot 42 rounds without swabbing or cleaning.

 

[jerryv]

cayugad thanks.
what do you think of this idea.

i have the lee manual and black powder and subs are listed along with other powders. a friend has a set of lee dippers and it has cc by each dipper size on the box. i used the dipper to dump powder into a syringe and the measure is the same.
by the chart 1 cc dipper of pyrodex p= 12.1 grains volume. if i take a 12 cc syringe and fill with pyrodex p i will have 6 loads = to 24.2 grains each for use in my brass gun? 2 1/2 cc = 30.4 volume so a syringe with 15 cc in it will load six shots at 30.4 for my steel gun?
the syringe is now my powder measure, funnel and powder dumper. i just mark the syringe with marker to make it easy to see where each load starts and ends?

 

[cayugad]

Well that might work but I have never done it this way. I went to a site and bought a powder measure. It throws 20 grains of powder with each use. Plus it stores your powder for you. http://www.blockaderunner.com/ Go to that site and click on the specials. About 3/4 of the way down you will see some powder flasks on sale. The round one (cylinder) throws 20 grains of 3f. The other throws 15 grains. I own both of them. I like the cylinder one the most.

Also I have a loading stand for my revolver. It makes things go a lot faster, and also saves on the revolver's loading lever.

 

[oldbrass33]

I'd keep it around 20gr in the brass frame. One simple solution that I used for BPCR was to cut down a brass pistol case, soldered a #10 copper wire around it for a handle, makes a great dipper. The other caution I will offer has to do with the Pyro P. Watch your cleaning procedure! If you let the gun set for more than a few days between firings, check the barrel grooves carefully with a clean patch, or better yet a piece of lead remover cloth. Pyro is very hard to get completely clean. I had this problem with two of my revolvers and escaped with no major damage, but I have never had this problem with real black. Pyro is OK, I use it in the pistols, but I pretty much double clean and use a lot more brush than I do for real BP. good luck