I recently acquired an Alex Henry hammer falling block rifle in .450 BPE with Henry rifling.

Does anyone have experience in loading for this caliber with this rifling? Prior owner states it is a 450 BPE and has shot it with said 450 BPE many times but barrel has Birmingham proofs with .440 markings. Groove depth as best I can measure the 7 lands/grooves is about .464. Twist is about 1 in 36 in a 28" barrel. Bore is perfect and rifle retains about 95% of case coloring on action and heal and toe plates.

I am considering trying Seifried's load of 48gr of 4198 behind a 300-325gr bullet. He says in numerous articles that Henry and Metford rifling almost demand a paper patch. I have not shot paper patch before but have Matthews book on paper patch and it looks pretty straight forward. Also Seifried and another writer for Double Gun Journal say it is essential to use Dacron as a filler over the charge of 4198 to hold the power in place. Is Dacron simply a trade name for polyester?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Mollydog

Not familiar with this one but doesn't "BPE" stand for Black Powder Express? If so, the paper patch fits in and would likely be of benefit to more defined grouping. PP is not difficult once you get it...could be real annoying until you get your pattern sized right and getting to know the right wetting time for the paper and so on but the results are usually well worth the effort.

I would suggest at least trying the BP loading, just be sure to allow no air space between bullet & powder. Matthews books are ok but I don't agree with some of his views/proceedures. Not saying they are wrong, just disagree with some things. His writings on PP are pretty good but a hint I will give you is to add a few drops of starch to your water which will help glue the paper on better. Another thing is not to over stretch the paper or you'll end up with an uneven wrap thickness with the center area thinner than the ends, use a thinner paper or smaller bullet diameter and stretch as little as possible, just keep it snug for a tight wrap instead. I don't care for overlapping the ends either, I like the PP to meet at the ends with little to no gap and use a wad under the bullet to ensure a good gas seal.

Under the bullet, I prefer a carton/veggie wad, thin grease cookie .030" to .040" max and another carton/veggie wad. Carton wads I cut from paper milk/half&half cartons, veggie wads I get from http://www.circlefly.com/ Also, if you want to run reduced loads, you can use Circle Fly's fiber wads for filler.

I wish I could help with that one... I'd really like to take one of those into the field.

Seyfried seems to be the best, if not only, good source on early big stuff. It seems to be a process to get the accuracy and velocity to match the original loads. That rifle and round are one of the more common hens teeth, though, so you should be able to find a good starting point.

You might drop him a note. Might save you a bunch of time.

I recently acquired an Alex Henry hammer falling block rifle in .450 BPE with Henry rifling.

Does anyone have experience in loading for this caliber with this rifling? Prior owner states it is a 450 BPE and has shot it with said 450 BPE many times but barrel has Birmingham proofs with .440 markings. Groove depth as best I can measure the 7 lands/grooves is about .464. Twist is about 1 in 36 in a 28" barrel. Bore is perfect and rifle retains about 95% of case coloring on action and heal and toe plates.

I am considering trying Seifried's load of 48gr of 4198 behind a 300-325gr bullet. He says in numerous articles that Henry and Metford rifling almost demand a paper patch. I have not shot paper patch before but have Matthews book on paper patch and it looks pretty straight forward. Also Seifried and another writer for Double Gun Journal say it is essential to use Dacron as a filler over the charge of 4198 to hold the power in place. Is Dacron simply a trade name for polyester?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Mollydog

The Alex Henry falling blocks are beautiful guns!! I have a little Alex Henry in 360 x 2 1/4" Nitro Express....love it!

About the only thing I can answer for you is your question"is dacron simply a trade name for polyester" ......yes it is.