doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Black powder 28 ga loads

I have an Army Navy CSL 28 ga hammer gun with BP proofs. It is a 2 1/2" gun with 28" brls. I have not loaded any black powder and after looking at various sites was wondering if the brass hulls or 2 1/2" plastic would be the way to go. Has anyone used the metallic cartride? I roll crimp most of my field loads with the plastic hulls but how to you maintain your crimp on the metallic hulls. Also what black powder would be the best to use in the small bore 3/4 oz load. Thanks for any info. Dwight

With brass hulls, you glue in the over-shot wad. I use the traditional water glass (sodium silicate) but others have had better success than I using Duco cement.

I'd use a 2fg or 1.5fg Swiss or Goex Express powder. Shouldn't really matter which.

Brent

What is the load recipe you use for the 3/4 oz load? Can you do it volume per volume shot and powder? Thanks for info

Oh, I'm going to duck that question. I don't have experience with a 28 ga. I do, however tend to load my guns a little heavy so 85 grs of Swiss 1.5 fg with 475gr of leadin a 16 and 100 grs of the same powder with 535 gr of lead in a 12. I forget what I've been loading into a 10.

I'd probably start with equal volumes and see how it fits and how it shoots. I'd probably go up in powder from there. But like I said, I tend to be heavy on the powder side.

Brent

Equal volumes will be safe. I would use 3f, though. JL
Charge Table
Adapted from various old books and catalogs
Gauge/powder/shot/notes (a dram is about 27 grains)
.410 25 grains 3/8 2 inch shell
.410 30 grains 1/2 21/2 inch shell
.410 35 grains 5/8 3 inch shell

28 1 1/2 3/4
28 2 3/4

20 2 1/4 7/8
20 2 1/2 1

16 2 1/2 1 Light
16 2 3/4 1 Normal
16 3 1 1/8 Heavy

12 6 Blank 1 thin card wad over powder; nothing else
12 2 1/2 1 Light
12 3 1 1/8 Normal
12 3 1/2 1 1/4 Heavy

10 8 Blank 1 thin card wad over powder; nothing else
10 4 1 Light
10 4 1 1/4 Normal
10 4 1/2 1 1/2 Heavy

You will probably want to use 24 ga. wads in the brass cases and if space is a problem you only need an over powder card wad(no need for a filler/cushion wad). I don't use them in my muzzle loader.

I have not loaded any 28ga black powder shells. However I believe a big problem with them is going to be one of "Space". My old Lyman shotshell handbook had a chart showing length of shot column for 1oz of shot for the different gauge sizes. For the 3/4oz load in a 28ga this will work out to about .907", so doubling that for equal volume of powder you have 1.814". Suptracting base wad height, wad column length & allowance for sufficient crimp, you aren't going to have a lot left for an increase. Of course you gain a little in that the internal case dimension is larger than the .550" nominal bore dia this was figured on & the powder charge will compress some in loading. I suspect though you aren't going to get much over a 2dram (55gr) - 3/4oz load in a 2½" 28ga case, with an efficient wad column. The brass case will have thinner walls, less base thickness & not as much length lost as is not crimped, so more capacity.

I see there are a couple of makers of the brass hulls so I will have to figure out the ones with most capacity. Perhaps the 1 1/2 drams with 3/4 oz will work out ok. The loads will be used over my small munsterlander pointers mostly on quail. The shots are pretty close. Thanks for everyones helpful information.
Dwight

Dwight; I have a few of the CBC 28ga brass shells (ones with berdan primers). I believe newer ones are available with LP primers. These have an ID of about .580 near the mouth, didn't check them all the way down, but don't think they vary much. If using card & filler wads these would require oversize wads, (24ga I believe) available from Circle Fly & also Grafs I think. These hulls should take 3/4oz with equal volume BP (about 1 3/4 drams) with ample room for a good wad column. The Rocky Mountain brass is turned from bar stock & has thicker side walls for regular size wads thus less internal capacity. They are high quality I understand, but being turned as opposed to drawn renders them much more expensive as well.

Grafs & Ballistic products carry the magtech brass. I think the spec. said 2.4" for the 2 1/2 28 ga. Guess I will try some of those and see how they work. I have some Goex fff that I have had for a long time and this will be a good time to use some of it. I have some 24 ga over shot cards but not the over powder cards. Will they work or do you need the overpowder cards as well. Have 28 ga but as you indicate may be too small. Dwight

While you are waiting for wads to come in, you could use 3 or 4 OS cards for OP wads. JL