dilburrito

Hello, I' am a N00B when it comes to Black Powder. I recently acquired some stuff from a family members estate. I am trying to identify a few things and can use some help.

I got a .44 Remington Arms New Model Army (Percussion) and a .44 Starr Arms cap & ball, and a Midd Conn 1847 Percussion. I'll research these things, maybe see if they can be fired but that's a project for a later time.

What I am interested in is some of the supplies that came with these things.

1) Lyman 457 Bullet Mould Block. From the Lyman website it looks like the 457 is for a .45 bullet, but there are several versions of this block. The block I have has 457 476 stamped on it, the 476 does not appear on the Lyman website. The top of the box has 457-RB hand written on it, I'm guessing RB stands for Rifle Bullet? I am interested in figuring out if this bullet mould is for one of these guns I received, or just learning more about the thing in general.

2) Also in this stuff are several unlabeled small boxes with what appear to be round pieces of black or white paper/cloth that measure about 3/16 across. I'm assuming these are wads?

3) A few small cans of black powder, the stuff has to be 40 years old at least. Any chance it is still usable or should it be destroyed? I have heard about smelling gun powder when it gets old but I don't smell anything unusual with this stuff.

4) The last thing is another small unlabeled box full of round black pieces of what appear to be paper, but these are big, 1 inch or so across. I can't imaging how these are for these guns, maybe some odd thing thrown in the gun box. Does this make any sense to anyone?

Thanks in advance for your time and comments.

Olde NE Hunter

With my limited knowledge I will offer some thoughts. It's free so take it for what it is worth..

#1. The 457 bullet mould is probably for casting bullets for your pistols. The RB probably stands for "Round Ball" which is the favored projectile for percussion pistols. And the 457 probably stands for the diameter in inches of the round ball that is produced by the mould. In the only percussion pistol that I own 0.457" round lead balls are reccomended/required. I have no clue as to what 476 means.

#2. A wild guess. If your Midd Conn pistol is a smaller bore, like 0.36" or less the cloth pieces could possibly be used as patches for the bullet. Do they feel like they have anything on them? Bullet patches are lubed with many different compounds. The loading procedure is pour measured quantity of powder down the bore, place patch over muzzle, and push bullet down on patch and into bore. This may require a tool known as a "short starter". Then a ramrod is used to finish the load by firmly seating the bullet on the powder.

#3. If the powder is dry it will still work. If it is real black powder and even if it got wet at some time the powder can be allowed to air dry and it will still work.

#4. Could be patches used for cleaning.

Others may chime in and correct any inaccuracies that I have mentioned.

NEVER EVER USE SMOKELESS POWDER in any of these pistols.

dilburrito

Thanks for the comments. That Midd Conn is at least 9/16 inch diameter, never seen a bore so big.

I think these things I thought were patches are something else. There's no lube on them, tasted one and tasted like paper. I think someone mixed up some odd things together. There must be a thousand or more of these things, can't imagine what they would be for. Almost looks like the holes you get from a paper puncher, why would someone keep those in a little box, odd.

I managed to get the bullet mould apart, it was stuck together pretty well. You are right, it was for a ball and I'm assuming for the .44 pistols, that would make sense. It seems like it would be a lot of screwing around making your own balls, one at a time.

This is getting interesting, looking forward to trying out the two smaller pistols, not so sure that Midd Conn is safe to shoot, looks pretty interesting though.

Thanks again.