"Clean Shot" black powder substitute

l-girl

July 21, 2003 13:27

Anybody had any experience loading the "Clean Shot" brand of black powder substitute in cowboy loads? I am particularly interested in .45 LC and 45-70.

The directions say to substitute for black powder on a "volume basis" and to fill the case completely without compressing the charge when seating the bullet. This sounds pretty straightforward, but what is the risk from having an airspace (not completely filling the case)?

Also, is Clean Shot really cleaner? I understand you still have to clean as if you had used corrosive black powder.

Thanks for your input.


Best regards,Rich

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  gskyhawk

  July 21, 2003 16:14

  I've used clean shot in my muzzle loaders , it works great for that and yes i used it on a Volume basis same as black powder , sorry can't help you out with the 45lc or 45-70, but can tell you that it fouls much less than black powder and is much easier to clean up, hope this helps a little bit [:)]

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  Rafter-S

  July 21, 2003 18:32

  If the brass case doesn't fill with powder, fill the void with Malt-O-Meal.
  
  This is what we did in competitive shooting black powder percussion revolvers (using black powder). We would use a 20 grain charge of FFF and about 10-15 grains of Malt-O-Meal on top of it as the "filler." Then, when the ball was seated, it came flush with the end of the cylinder.
  
  I am sure Malt-O-Meal will work the same with a black powder cartridge like 45LC and 45-70.
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  Respectfully,
  Rafter-S
  
  
  
  "What is truth? No wonder jesting Pilate turned away. The truth, it has a thousand faces -- show only one of them, and the whole truth flies away! But how to show the whole? That is the question."
  --Thomas Wolfe, "You Can't Go Home Again" (1934)

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  rldowns3

  July 21, 2003 18:49

  l-girl, The cartridges made way back when black powder was used were made their specific lengths to accomodate exactly the right amount of powder they needed. Now normally with real black powder they used a lubed cast lead bullet, they have grease grooves along it's circumference where they applied the lube and then seated the round into the cartridge but they also stuck a wad between the bullet and the powder.
  
  Overcharging them with traditional black powder shouldn't be a problem....the cases won't hold a double charge and with traditional black powder you'd be hard pressed to get a +10% charge. I haven't used this clean shot so I don't really know if it truly is grain for grain the same loading as black powder but this is information I am passing along from my old man that was explained to me.
  
  Just about anything that you can use for a small "wad" to fill the gap between the bullet and the powder should suffice as long as it dosen't affect the powder...I'd just stick a dry wad in there and seat the round. Some rounds you have to crimp pretty good with the lubed bullets so the shock of the recoil dosen't start to seperate them.
  
  Again, perhaps somebody here can either confirm this or dispute it here, I am not an expert and I will say to get a second opinion as I am trying to recall information from my memory here from 15 years ago.
  
  ______________________
  
  Your life is not my fault.

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  allechalley

  July 21, 2003 20:02

  I've read quite a lot on this, and tho reading and doing are altogether different, there's no need reinventing the wheel, either.
  
  The problem with not filling up the air gap in the case is the same as not seating a ball fully on a muzzle loader. If you're lucky, it will bulge the barrel. In a revolver, it is quite common to blow the top strap off and/or split the cylinder. This doesn't just happen with black powder, but reduced pistol loads in smokeless as well.
  I believe Mike Venturino has written on this subject a couple of times. Speculation in the past was that people forgot to put powder in one, jamming the bore, then firing the next one. It seems Venturino and someone in the firearms industry tried to blow one up and couldn't make it work consistently. But they were successful in having one destroy itself and found out the reasons aren't all that set in stone. It has to do with the caliber, the type of day, pistol pointed up or down before shooting, ect. In any event, it is playing roulette with something that could damage your hand, eyes, face, ect.
  
  The suggestion of malt-o-meal, cream of wheat, or corn meal for filler I understand was the suggested way or a felt filler wad
  was the suggestion that I had heard of as well. The conclusion they had was it was better to load nearer full case capacity than to try to down load too much. Better that than to blow up a pistol or part of your anatomy.

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