Took a family trip to Gettysburg Monday and bought a black powder 45cal John W Booth pistol. First time for us having a black powder gun. Needed some TLC but now its cleaned and repaired. Now the ?. Where is the best place to buy powder around southern York Co if you even can now? Found some balls, patches and other stuff.
Black powder ?
- Thread starter Dave M
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budman93
Ultimate Member
I haven't bought any for a while but the pyrodex black powder substitutes seem to be easier to find than real black powder.
budman93
Ultimate Member
no. 11 caps are a very common size for black powder percussion guns. If its like the pedersoli derringer repros it probably takes that size.
Walmart used to carry Pyrodex and caps in PA. Bass Pro has Pyrodex Pistol for $26 a pound. Their caps were around $8 per hundred.
BigRick
Hooligan #15
Black powder can be found online. Powder valley and Midway have it. I would recommend goex 3f for a pistol. number 11 caps will work but if they are falling off you can pinch them or try number 10's. Not sure how far you are away from shippensburg but if you need a pound I can hook you up. I'll be shooting a BPCR match Saturday but will be there Friday afternoon to practice.
Thanks all, Found a shop on rt 462 in York that had the Goex FFF. Bought a pound of it. Tomorrow I have some places to call from on line for caps. A lot are out of stock. The pistol is what people call the Lincoln pistol. Has a small nipple. About .175, about 5/16. Son and I can't wait to fire it. Son wanted it real bad. In the store I thought it was a no firing replica. I said nah but when the man said it was a real black powder pistol, I said O yeah. And he we are about to embark on another firearm journey. Thanks for the offer to help use BigRick. Good luck with the match.
Or prices as we all know are crazy.
He ain't cheap but Reddings hardware in G-berg has pretty much everything.
Redding's has caps? I will call them. Can't fined them anywhere.Thanks. I ordered 45cal .440 balls today from Brown and measure tool from Amazon. Going to try and use Mink oil paste on cotton cleaning wads which I have to get started. Seen a guy use that on utube.
j8064
Garrett Co Hooligan #1
Congrats on your first step into shooting BP. Be aware, making "white smoke" is very addictive!
I encourage you to first disassemble, clean and become familiar with how your pistol works and its cleaning procedure. BP is very corrosive so you'll be cleaning it after every range trip.
Your Philadelphia Derringer is a single shot pistol. Either #10 or #11 caps will work fine. It's not the same a shooting a C&B revolver where the caps need to be snug enough to stay in place as the pistol is cycled.
As said, 3F powder is what you need. For 45 cal you'll need .445 lead balls. The balls need to be patched so be sure you pick up some patches. And the patches need to be lubed if they aren't already. Bore Butter works fine.
Before you load your pistol at the range, fire a couple of caps to clear any oil in the nipple, channel and barrel. And, you'll want to have some accoutrements readily available:
- A small powder flask/dispenser and a powder measure to load your pistol. Pouring powder directly from a 1 lb can down the barrel can be dangerous.
- A ball starter and ramrod to drive the patched ball on top of your powder charge.
- The appropriate size nipple wrench.
- A nipple pick to clean the nipple channel when required.
- Some pipe cleaners to clear the flash channel if/when needed.
- An appropriate size ball puller jag in case a charge will not fire after repeated attempts.
- This is only a basic list of tools you want to have when shooting BP.
When you load make certain there is no air space between the components before you fire your pistol. "Air Space = Obstruction" when firing BP.
Plan on cleaning your pistol thoroughly after shooting. Did I mention BP is corrosive?
Have a great time learning your pistol. Shooting BP is a ton of fun. There are plenty of Hooligan threads here of us making white smoke. Below are links to a few videos that may be helpful. The first link is some of us shooting a colonial pistol.
Please post some pics and vids of your shots!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU5AVWOcdSo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHFnjU6rnoU&t=305s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7mnT0E6WVY
Oddway Otts
Active Member
I haven't bought any Black Powder or caps since Covid hit, but the best place price & availability was at W.E. Sells, Co, on Route 116 (I think) in Hanover Pa.
Thanks all. Well today was a great day for son and I. Well let me start by saying that Redders is now one of our favorite shops. Great people, nice selection of guns and fair prices for the times. So much so that I bought a Henry H001T 22lr lever action rifle for my son that I had promised him. Of course it's mine until he is of age. Shot it this evening and he and I had smiles all across our faces. Did a segway tour in Gettysburg too and it was great also. And it's all because of a tiny BP pistol. So back to the BP pistol. It had a lot of things wrong with it. I guess that is why it was cheap. I did completely take it apart. The trigger was trashed, Had to machine by hand a spring spacer out of a nut because spring had no tension at all. Side bolt for plate is 4mm and end was stripped so I went to Home depot and bought some bolts. Cut them in half and mig welded the two good ends back together after measuring length. Epoxy bedded the barrel in because of some small cracks in wood. Someone ground out to much. The sear had a small chip in it and also the catch notch in which I filed and wet sanded to new again. It was causing premature wear. And the trigger its self someone had ground so bad that the trigger play was about 3/8 of an inch. I welded it an file fitted it. Play is about 1/16th now. Lot of work but a lot of fun doing it. 3 days to finish. Balls will be in Wednesday supposedly. I'm using .440 and 15 grams power like the guys on Utube used to start with. Did fire caps in it and it seems ok. O and they had a pistol like it at Redders for $200.00 dollars. A buddy has a flask he is going to give me and i forgot to get bore butter. Dang. Have to get some or I guess use my mink oil for a couple of shots. With my new phone I will have to figure out how to up load some pics.
Thanks all. Well today was a great day for son and I. Well let me start by saying that Redders is now one of our favorite shops. Great people, nice selection of guns and fair prices for the times. So much so that I bought a Henry H001T 22lr lever action rifle for my son that I had promised him. Of course it's mine until he is of age. Shot it this evening and he and I had smiles all across our faces. Did a segway tour in Gettysburg too and it was great also. And it's all because of a tiny BP pistol. So back to the BP pistol. It had a lot of things wrong with it. I guess that is why it was cheap. I did completely take it apart. The trigger was trashed, Had to machine by hand a spring spacer out of a nut because spring had no tension at all. Side bolt for plate is 4mm and end was stripped so I went to Home depot and bought some bolts. Cut them in half and mig welded the two good ends back together after measuring length. Epoxy bedded the barrel in because of some small cracks in wood. Someone ground out to much. The sear had a small chip in it and also the catch notch in which I filed and wet sanded to new again. It was causing premature wear. And the trigger its self someone had ground so bad that the trigger play was about 3/8 of an inch. I welded it an file fitted it. Play is about 1/16th now. Lot of work but a lot of fun doing it. 3 days to finish. Balls will be in Wednesday supposedly. I'm using .440 and 15 grams power like the guys on Utube used to start with. Did fire caps in it and it seems ok. O and they had a pistol like it at Redders for $200.00 dollars. A buddy has a flask he is going to give me and i forgot to get bore butter. Dang. Have to get some or I guess use my mink oil for a couple of shots. With my new phone I will have to figure out how to up load some pics.
I hope that you mean grains and not grams!
I'm glad you are getting into BP shooting. It is one of the best ways to learn what the early settlers had to deal with when protecting and feeding themselves.
I would like to suggest that you cut the powder down to 10 grains. Those little barrels don't need much. As for lube, just go to your local food store and use Crisco shortening. I use it all the time in my BP pistols as it is readily available and cheap.
as you suggest. Balls came in today. Waiting for the small brass measurer now. Should be good to go soon. 
Have fun!
jt2100r
Active Member
I can't locate it but there are charts that show how much an empty cartridge will hold
Blacksmith101
Grumpy Old Man
- Jun 22, 2012
- 22,269
Here is a link to Modern Reloading by Richard Lee, on page 704 it lists the VMD's of Black Powder for the various granulation:
https://marvinstuart.com/firearm/Ma...eloading 2nd Edition by Richard Lee - ocr.pdf
https://marvinstuart.com/firearm/Ma...eloading 2nd Edition by Richard Lee - ocr.pdf
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