Well I should be getting my underhammer in the mail in a few days. Can anyone tell me a good site to explain to a newbie the basics of "charcoal burners"

By the way it's 50 cal. does anyone have a starting place for loading it? any other info would be nice.

thanks

Bob's Black Powder Notebook is a handy guide http://home.insightbb.com/~bspen/ Seyfried has a couple interesting articles here http://www.98.net/ibha/ one on percussion shotguns, the other on flintlock rifles, but if you read them both you'll be able to glean more than a few useful pointers.

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
Well I should be getting my underhammer in the mail in a few days. Can anyone tell me a good site to explain to a newbie the basics of "charcoal burners"

By the way it's 50 cal. does anyone have a starting place for loading it? any other info would be nice.

thanks

What is the rifling twist? What do you plan to use it for? Have you choisen a bullet type for your load development?

I could give you a few suggestions if I had this info.....

It's 50 cal 1:60 twist (I think) I'll be using prb to start and might take a doe or two this year. I might go to a minnie or something like that later-suggestions here would be wonderful.

I guess I'll take it in to wholesale sports when it gets here and load up on goodies there. I'd like to know enough about it before I go so that I don't load up with all the wrong stuff. I'm under the impression that I use FFG is this right? What kind of primers should I be looking for. Are all 50 cal balls created the same. Should I slug the barrel before choosing balls and patches?

wow lots to learn!

thanks to all the help

Hi Calgarychef1.

We have a great site over here in South Africa where we have a nice core of experienced shooters and quite a few newbies as well so there are always a lot of good questions and answeres on the list.

Try us at www.whitesmoke.co.za

Sean.

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
It's 50 cal 1:60 twist (I think) I'll be using prb to start and might take a doe or two this year. I'm under the impression that I use FFG is this right? What kind of primers should I be looking for. Are all 50 cal balls created the same. Should I slug the barrel before choosing balls and patches?

Look for a copy of Fadala's Black Powder book to guide your efforts. As for powder 3f or 2f will work; 50 grains of either will get you started. I use 3f in my .62 smoothbore (70 gr) and a .54 rifle (90 gr); the fouling is a little less and easier to swab out. As for ball diameter I'd try an off the shelf swaged .490 and play with 0.005 and 0.010 wonderlube patches to start with. You can branch out from there if you need to.

Thanks for the info. I also went to Canadian gunnutz they have a BP forum. There is gads of info there.

thanks again

If you get Fadalas's book, get the older version, I think it is a lot better for a newbie.
Black powder shooters are quick to offer opinion as absolute chipped in stone fact.
BP shooters also love gadgets and baubles . . . Luckily many can be hand made to fit ones own personality.
Shoot BP and learn what you learn, you shoot enough to realize some thing just have to be tried and accepted or rejected.
BP is best, but VERY HARD to find in many areas.

Just look up in the Big Game hunting section and many "war stories" should be posted for the BP shooters on the range and off, also.

Go forth and make smoke.

My one bit of advice . . . the strongest fie, does NOT make it the best percussion cap . . .
OK, JUST one more BP is best and then there are all the distant second place finishers.

Well it took some gunsmithing to get the "underslapper" into the shape I thought she ought to be in. But I finally shot her this weekend and I had a HOOT!!! Damn these things are just plain fun. I didn't shoot for accuracy yet-just for fun, I think I'll try for accuracy this weekend. Thanks to everyone for their opoinions.

the chef

Chef,
What sort of underhammer? Is it a Hopkins and Allen knock off?

Made by whom and what was the problem with it on delivery?

I have an underhammer (an H&A knockoff made by the Blue Grouse guy). It works really well, but has one very important issue. The nipple is very close to the breechface so it is easily clogged when wiping in an empty barrel.

Mine has an 18" twist .45 barrel that I use with 475-550 gr paper patched bullets. With your 60" twist, I think you will be happiest sticking with roundballs. They will be excellent deer/elk killers for you.

Brent

Yup, it's a H&A style and I bought it second hand so who knows what's happened to it since the factory. I honestly don't know who made it. The breech plug was a piece of junk and wouldn't stay tight, the stock bolt was the wrong thread size, everything was sickly on the poor old gal.

Anyway I took it to Cactus Machining here in Calgary-the owner is great and he "speaks black powder." he did some nice work and I'd recomend him for just about any job.

My nipple is a ways away from the breech face and I had no issues with clogging. My first cap took three tries before it went off-maybe I didn't have it on tightly. I hope it's just operator error. Anyway after that first time it never misfired again.

I don't think it's 1:66 twist although I haven't measured it yet. It's a little faster, I was wondering what kind of conicals would be recomended?

After further consideration I think it is 1:60ish.

A 1:60 is a roundball rifle, but maybe the Thompson Center Maxi-Hunter 50 Caliber 275 grain Hollow Point is short enough to work.