These are the new reproductions sold by Dixie Gunworks.
I have a pair that I plan to drill the flash holes in, and eventually shoot. Have a nice double cavity CNC lathed billet aluminum .52 caliber round ball mold and all the accessories, including a number of English and German flints. They will be displayed in glass wall cases in my dojo/den/arms room along with my other Scottish swords and shields and such, over the mantle.
What I am interested in is any experience/loads/knowledge that anyone can share with me.. particularly if anyone has experience shooting shot in these pistols. Seems maybe .22 shot to .25 caliber buckshot would work, and would have been very effective up close with the right load. thanks in advance for any help. My main interest is modern combat arms but these are heritage arms and I would love to shoot them a few times, and have alternative loads to the RB's, particularly shot since I want a brass barreled blunderbuss to go along with them, and it could use the same shot...

Are these actual black powder firearms, or something that is not meant to be able to be fired out of the box? Your statement on drilling the flash holes is what is causing me some confusion.

One of my buddies had his flash hole drilled out at a black powder shop and we shot it.. although he does not know much about it, only the basic load given by Dixie gun works. He does not even cast his own bullets or reload. I am hoping to come up with alternative load data.

These pistols are imported of course, and many such replicas are coming into the country sans flash hole to avoid either some sort of duty or some sort of shipping restriction in the country of manufacture... the Brass barreled blunderbuss I want is assembled in Canada by :
http://www.gosea.com/loyalistarms/

And it would be shipped without a flash hole, otherwise if they drill it, there is some sort of extra shipping hassle/cost, because it becomes a "firearm". Stupid, huh? ;)

I don't have the exact load data in front of me but it's a patched .52 cliber ball with either 25 or 30 grains of BP (forget the fff/etc.. but I have it somewhere around this remodeling mess I call a home) Problem is, how can I safely test a shot load without possibly damaging my pistol? Their main value is display in my arms room.

http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_92&products_id=943&osCsid=9b0e8d42fd330988e8db2ab59e83a030

30 grains of fff G with a .510 ball.. the bore is .52 and the patch is a .015 My mold is from NEI in oregon, it's on a Lyman handle and is exquisite in appearance, and seems precision, but I have not cast with it yet. I have cast many bullets over the years however, and this is one nice mold. What I want to try in this pistol is .22 to .25 caliber shot.. if I were to have carried these into a burg in the 1700's I would want the first pistol to be shot, the second ball.. then reloads could be either.. a musket or Blunderbuss could use the same shot from my shot snake.. all this is going over the hearth with broadswords, targes (scottish round shields) and dirks, etc.. thanks if you have any ideas for shot loads or how to get there.. !

If the guns are safe to fire, which it appears they are, you could probably use some sort of shot load. I haven't tried any shot in a muzzle loader, but you would need some sort of base wad below the shot, more than a patch in other words. You would also need something similar over the shot to prevent it from rolling out the muzzle when holstered. I'm sure someone on here has experience with trying this or knows what direction to send you.

Was commonplace in smoothbore flintlocks... they were usually used on waterfowl or grouse, etc... but sometimes in combat also. So there should be no problem there..

I asume a felt wad, maybe 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick would work, maybe with a small cardboard wafer over it, before adding the shot... maybe some type of wax dipped paper wrapped shot load would work over it, as a pre-prepped shot portion over the felt wad and cardboard wafer, and then a final felt wad over that??? Or the shot could just be dumped in and a felt wad could be rammed over that...


The REAL question is: How much shot? Can I use the standard 30 grains of fffG, and the same weight of shot as the .51 caliber ball? Or less weight? or more?

I want authenticity, and these will be displayed with a blunderbuss, so they would be like personal pistols, to go with the coach weapon, the 14 inch barreled blunderbuss. At the least in a pinch they would have been used with the same shot as the blunderbuss... it would be .69 caliber

Hi, AC_Pilot:
There's two rules of thumb for loading black powder shotguns. First, the weight of a round ball is pretty well a standard load, even with today's smokeless loads. So a 12 gauge ball weighs 1 1/3 oz. and a 16 gauge ball weighs 1 oz. .52 calibre is 33 gauge or about 1/2 oz. - 219 grains.

Second, load the same volume of shot as powder. That's 194 grains of 7½ in my BP measure set to 30 grains. Not much different from the first method. Standard technique with wads is a hard thin wad over the powder, then felt or fiber wads of 1/2" or more, then the shot, topped with a thin overshot wad. Ballistic Products has the wads and likely can tell you exactly how to load it. http://www.ballisticproducts.com

I've only seen one of those Murdoch pistols. It was nicely engraved in the correct style for the period by a gent who's almost close enough to here to be a local.

Bye
Jack

Seems I can try a simple load of shot if I just use a hole punch on some 3/8 inch felt sheet stuff, and glue some hard cardboard to one side with some "Gorilla glue", I can use this for the under and over wads... I'll let you know how it goes, it's not gonna be soon, I have 60 other things to do, standing in line first ! ;)

Hi, AC:
I should have mentioned Mr.Gates' "squared load", which is a bit heavier, by a few pellets. He's our resident shotgun expert and I defer to his advise. You may want to stay on the light side in the pistol, though. I'd skip the glue in case it stiffed your wad column too much. Two 3/8" felt wads should work. You want the thinnest top (over) wad possible. It's just there to keep the shot from rolling out of the barrel if you point the gun down. Try the .020" cardboard from small boxes.
http://www.shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=6581

Bye
Jack