Blue Grouse,
First you can load black powder in modern plastic hulls. The heat of black powder will melt the inside of the hull a bit so only use them once. so use those cheapies from the trap or skeet range nobody wants. Second, do not use a plastic wad with black as it will melt the wad and make plastic deposits on the bore you will not like. Black powder is not hard to hand load. Here is how. Run your hull through the sizing die and primer seating die on your press. Then pull the hull aside and put in your volume measured black powder (you can make up a little plastic or brass scoop for this to throw the size charge you want) insert the over powder wads, press them into place with a piece of dowel and put the shell back in the press for the shot drop. Now comes a different crimp. Cut away most of the star crimp back to the rolled edge of the crimp almost. Actually this is the first operation before starting the loading. Place an over shot card on top of the shot. Adjust the crimp punch a little deeper than normal and crimp the shell so it looks like a roll crimped hull. While loading make sure to limit the amount of black powder in the container you are scooping from and take the same precautions necessary for smokeless powder safety. The finished hull will fit your 2 1/2" chamber and because you have removed the star crimp material it will be very close to a 2 1/2" hull after firing. The roll style crimp will also drop your pressure by a couple hundred more PSI.

The biggest safety issue is getting spilled black powder in the press mechanism where it can be crushed, igniting it and any other open powder in the vicinity. That is why I remove the hull to the side to load powder and get the overpowder wads seated before returning the hull to the press. Make sure there is no powder clinging to the exterior of the hulls.

There is something of a split on which granulation is correct. Most written material says FFg best, but most shooters I know use FFFg for performance. You can try both on your own. This isn't difficult reloading. The old time market hunters loaded hundreds of rounds by hand without mechanical presses using wooden hand tools and a roll crimper.

Last edited by Jerry V Lape; 10/13/12 12:48 AM.