In the thousands and thousands of rounds I have reloading over the past three decades I had never reloaded a black powder cartridge round - until now. I had purchased 100 pieces of new .44 Russian Starline brass from a fellow forum member a few months back, and decided they needed to be loaded with the "real black". I had an unopened can of Goex "Cartridge" black powder. All I needed was the appropriate bullets, so I ordered up a bunch of .357, .44 and .45 caliber bullets from "Big Lube Bullets". Took about 5 weeks, but they arrived and I was very pleased. Shipping was cheap for such a heavy package ($10), and each set arrived lubed, packed in XPS trays, and vaccum sealed.
Here's a picture of the .38 "Snakebite" round. 158 grains. As always, please excuse my lack of photography skills.
Here's a picture of the .44 bullet. The heaviest weight available was 200 grains. I would have preferred 246-grains to duplicate the original .44 Russian round, but this will do.
And here is the .45 bullets. They are 250-grain.
Here's the set up. Brass and aluminum to make sure I don't have any static discharges. A bit tedious, pouring each charge from the brass tray into the brass measuring tool, over the aluminum dish to catch any spills. Then into the case. I put in 23 grains based off a recipe from a John Taffin article, and the bullet compressed the load moderately.
A close-up of the components and finished product.
Well, semi-finished. I did put a crimp on the rounds. I loaded 50 with 23 grains, and 50 with 20 grains from another recipe I found on the web.
Looking forward to making some smoke soon.
Oh - my bonafides...
