Black powder shotgun question

[sdwooster]

I have a friend that bought a black powder shotgun. And we where wondering on how to load it. Sounds like a dumb question but we have never did it. Can anybody help? We would like to take it with use when we are hunting muzzle loading to shoot grouse.

                                     Steve

[Sir Charles deMoutonBlack]

It is a muzzle loader isn't it?

Read as much as you can before going too far.  The Lyman manual is good. Take it step by step.

Need caps & nipple wrench, same as for your rifle.
Worm, to remove wads if necessary.
1/8" card over powder wad,. (Need one of each type of wad per shot.)
Cushion wads, "circle fly" is the brand preferred, I believe, for all wads.
Thin over shot cards.
Load equal VOLUMES of shot & 2F powder, but a bit less powder works well enough, and can tighten patterns.
First, try 1 1/8 oz shot, and  about 70 - 75 grains of 2F

Browze the blackpowder forum above, and there are some muzzle loading forums, but I need some help with their names.

[Sir Charles deMoutonBlack]

Until your wads arrive, you can use plastic wads with an overshot card punched out with a 3/4" punch.  Only drawback is the possibility of plastic from the wads in the bore.  Clean it out with a bronze brush.  I've heard you can get it out with windex & vinegar.  (Rinse well after though.)

[leverfan]

I've heard you can get it out with windex & vinegar.  (Rinse well after though.)

I think what you've heard about is "Windex Multi-Surface Cleanser with Vinegar."  It comes that way from SC Johnson.  Straight vinegar would make pretty short work of a gun's bluing.  Lots of the black powder shooters I know use the Windex with vinegar, but I just use plain old Dawn dishsoap and warm water, most of the time.  If you use plastic wads with black powder, you can build up quite a bit of plastic in the bores, but a brief soaking with any good oil should loosen that fouling up enough to scrub it out with the correct size bronze brush.  If the breech plug is easy to remove, the plastic can be pushed out after the oil soaking by using a tight fitting jag and a patch.  It looks pretty gross when it comes out, like a rotten old snake.

There are plenty of outfits on the web that would be happy to sell you pre cut wads made of natural material, or punches to make your own, since the plastic wads will likely be undersized for your muzzle loading shotgun, anyway.  You also still need an overshot wad, unless you want all those pellets pouring out, so you may as well get a handle on what you need, order it, and don't worry about the plastic.

[sdwooster]

Thanks for the help. We will give it a try.

                                           Steve

[loco mato]

I shoot a 12 gauge double and loading is very easy here goes powder shop towel cut into 4 pieces and folded up so it just fits in the barrels ram home then shot then an over shot wad made of cork 1/8 in thick and i cut this out of a sheet of cork with a 3/4 inch piece of pipe and sharpened on one end and a cap on the other and ram home on top of the shot. Now as to powder and shot. I use 70 to 80 grains of 2f shot i use a 2 or 3 to one ratio of shot to powder. Just watch for fires because the paper towel has a tend to burn after the shot it is cheap and fun. Get creative and you can actually make easy loading paper cartridges for this and load everything at one time