Black powder cartridge

  Mike,

  Yes.... I FL size my cases. After that, for neck tension I use a Lyman “M” die I've modified with an expander that's the sized bullet diam. With spring back of the case that gives enuf tension (about .001” to .002") to hold the bullet well without deforming it. I've found with anything more the relatively soft bullets (1-25) I use will be sized down slightly. I do bell the mouths enuf so the bullet base will enter the case without deforming and when I seat the bullet the seating die will straighten the case out. No crimp as I feel this just adds another variable and in order to get a consistent crimp you have to make sure all your cases are the exact same length.

  For primers I like Lg Rifle as I mentioned. There are some who like Rem. Lg Pistol primers, and I do use them in the smaller calibers like the .32/40. For a coupla years some of the guys were using magnum primers. Then they went to magmum primers with a newspaper wad between the primer and the powder charge. Then they went to lg Rifle primers with the same wad, and now their back to just using Lg Rifle primers. :) Right back to where we started.

  For sights I like to use MVA's LR tang sight with Hadley eye cup, and their bubble level windage adjustable front with an apperture in it. Once you get used to an apperture you'll prefer it over the post. That front sight allows me to set the tang sight on zero for windage and adjust the front sight to make any adjustments needed to get a zero on the target. For doing any kind of accurate shooting you need that bubble level front sight. If you'll look at a trajectory chart for any of the BP catridges you'll see soon enuf why.

  You've got the right idea about just changing one thing at a time. That was something I had to learn the hard way many years ago. My latest “problem” was I got to thinking possibly a 30x Lyman STS had gone bad on me. The rifle it was on was not a known quantity so put the scope on a rifle of known ability to see if it was the scope or rifle. Turned out to be neither. Was the way I'd been loading the rifle for breech seating.

  Yep! The NCOWS Buffalo Match was a lot of fun. I live about 35 miles South of the National range. The Shilouettes are set in the dirt rather than on a rail like regular Shilouette shoots. The Buffalo Match and their LR match were all I ever shot. The first year I used the .45/70 with the above load but found it was just barely acceptable. So next year my buddy I had our rifles converted over to  .50/90 SS. We started to get complaints that we were bending the Shilouettes. :) But these days I just shoot Schuetzen at our twice monthly shoots.

PETE