Soon, I will start shooting this .45 muzzleloader, with patched round balls and FFFg powder.

I have gleaned enough to figure out that I start with 45 grains by volume of powder, then work up to a load.

Now more than likely at some point recoil or accuracy will say when to stop, but not all rifles are equal and if I should stray into unsafe loads, what are the signs that you are nearing the limits?

Accuracy will suffer your groups will open up.
If your load is to hot or your patch is to loose the patch will have burned holes upon inspection.
If the load is to hot the patched ball will skip the rifling and accuracy will suffer.
Skip the rifling refers to the ball not rotating with the rifling down the barrel.

If you are shooting a percussion rifle and the hammer goes to half or full cock when you fire the rifle, then you have too much pressure reguardless of how small the group is.

I have no experience whatsoever with the various substitutes, when I got out of front loading about 10 years ago there was only Pyrodex and I wouldn't use it because
pyrodex residue is actually more corrosive than blackpowder
fouling, but with real black powder if you were shooting over a chronograph you'd see velocity taper-off relative to the increase in powder charges .

Another thing you'll see is if you shoot over snow or
a white sheet is unburned powder granules on the
ground. Yeah, I learned this trick from the Hodgdon
manual.

Another one from the Hodgdon manual
suggests that recoil will increase as the powder
charge is increased past the velocity peak giving
you the perception that you are shooting a faster
load than you really are.

AllanD

If it looks like this... You might be over pressure

It is very hard to over pressure a muzzle loader as long as the right granulation is used for the caliber. The .45 should use FFG and you can safely go to 100 gr's. 90 always was accurate. Use no smaller then a .445 ball and a .020" patch. The most accurate is a .450 ball and a .010" patch but they are hard to start. You have to use a karate bang on the starter with both sizes, don't pull the smack, from then on the ball will go down easy.
Too much powder will burn out in front of the gun or blow unburned powder out of the muzzle. Velocity will actually decrease as you load too much powder. The weight of unburned powder behind the ball will slow the velocity.
Use a good lube like Young Country.
If your hammer cocks or goes to half cock, the nipple is no good. A lot of the foreign nipples have way too large a hole in them. Use a Hot Shot nipple.
I also like CCI or Remington caps. Don't use RWS unless you wear safety glasses (a good idea with any gun) because the cap is brittle and can stick pieces in your face or eyes. I have had a lot of blood from my chin and nose from them. It hurts too.

There is over pressure for good shooting, and then there is over pressure that is dangerous.

Everyone here has given you a description of pressure that screws up your shooting,However, unfortunently, dangerous over pressure, the first sign may be the one that un-plugs your nipple, or bursts your barrel! The dangerous pressures are far more common in foweling pieces, or black powder cartridge rifles, than muzzleloading rifles.

I agree with MacD37. I think the nipple will leak with blow-by. Of course, you are looking at repair.

I have seen a nipple leak once. The fellow thought he either double-charged it or put in two balls (maybe both). Mark your ramrod, and if it does not go down to the mark when pushing down the ball, then you have double-charged it. Or maybe the barrel is so dirty the ball will not go down on the powder. Either is a potential dangerous situation.

Everybody (and I mean everybody) will miss-load thier gun at least once in thier lifetime. Do not panic.

Pull the ball, do not shoot it out. To pull the ball, get a steel ramrod and a ball puller (looks like a wood screw that fits the end of the ramrod). Put a little water down the bore to loosen the fouling. Screw the ball puller into the ball. Hook the handle of the ramrod onto a fence post and pull on the gun to get the ball out.

If someone at the range has a CO2 tank and a fitting that goes over the nipple, you can blow it out.

It would be good to find an experienced round-ball shooter to help you get started, but I can not help you over in Italy.

Good luck and be safe.

Years ago when I started making muzzle loaders I would proof my barrels by double charging and loading as many as 3 balls. I would fire from behind a barrier. Those loads went through 2 4X4's and took huge chunks out of a brick wall.
Some company took a length of barrel and filled it pretty full of black powder and screwed plugs in both ends. They had a touchhole for a fuse. All of the pressure vented from the touch hole without doing any damage to the barrel.
Modern barrels are strong but I would worry about old rifles or ones with thin barrels.

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:

Some company took a length of barrel and filled it pretty full of black powder and screwed plugs in both ends. They had a touchhole for a fuse. All of the pressure vented from the touch hole without doing any damage to the barrel.
Modern barrels are strong but I would worry about old rifles or ones with thin barrels.

HUMMMMMMMMMM HUHHHHHHH! If they had filled it half full so the flash could egnight the charge better they would have had a damn good pipe bomb. It is my suspicion, however, that this never happened, and is only a syber space legond! IOW, a lot of BS!

This was done before cyberspace existed. Yes, a lot of airspace might be dangerous and make a bomb, but when do you leave airspace under your ball or bullet?