I have a Hi-wall action(not original) which I barreled and stocked as a custom gun. It is chambered for a 360 Ex. Or 360 Linenbroker which is a wildcat I designed based off a 348 Win case. The bore dimensions are .358/.366. I am currently shooting 66 grains H4831 in it behind a 286 grain Hornady jacketed bullet. 

I would like to get a mold made for it, and was entertaining the idea of shooting black in it with PB bullets. I have never loaded black powder in anything but a 45-70. 

Is it safe or reasonable to load black powderyh in a bottle neck case? Any info, warnings, or words of advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Jesse

I never thought about that! . 

I shoot the German Mauser 11,15x60R (.43 Mauser'ish)
And the Swedish/Norwegan 10,15x61R (see above)
Both bottleneck's, I use a 3/10" grease cookie in both

And as mentioned: fouling control of some sort is key!

As pressure rises BP will burn cleaner, but only to a certain extent. So duplex is no stairway way to heaven, but it helps.

In the Texan dry heat whiping between shots is almost paramount, but here in shitty cold Denmark i can shoot 40-50 shots without blowing or cleaning in winter time!

I dont see as much fouling as a ss case and that might be because the bottleneck itself restricts "gas-venting", thus keeping the burning pressure up thus fouling down.

When the temp is low and humidity is up you might see a dark orange/red-ish discoloring in a newly fired case. It's called "dragonsblod" and is a rare sulphur bond that indicates good/pure BP burn.
It is a S8 bond: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

JESSE:

I have been struggling for MANY years with 38-56 rifles.  I have gotten them to work fairly good, but they seem to be squirrelly compared to straight cases.   E.g., people seem to have better luck with 38-55 or 38-50.   I am on the 3rd iteration of chamber, twist, etc., variations.    

It is possible that the old timers knew something that we didn't -- remember that they quickly went from BN to straight cases, especially for target work.

The late Dick Trenk played with the 375 H&H as a BP ctg, referring to it as the "poor man's 38-90", and used a number of innovative loading methods to get it to work for him.

Most all of the old time BN ctgs for BP were very moderate BN's.   The most exaggerated were the Peabody ctgs.  Of course, the Peabody needed some sort of BN to make the ctg go around the corner to enter the chamber.

I continue to hope that I can get the 38-56 to work  -- I know several others who are also going down that road.  The recoil is like a .22RF, almost, compared to many of the big target ctgs, which is one of the main attractions to me.

RGCHRIS

In a recent conversation with John King, I asked what he though of re-chambering my Shiloh 40-65 to 40-70BN. John said he tried to make it work for years, but to much fouling. Told me to stick to the straight cases. Said it will work but plan on wiping between shots.   

     Joe.

I shoot Swiss 3f black in my 40-50 Sharps BN.  It’s a re-barreled lever action Win 71.  I do a lot of gong shooting with it, and it is has performed very well out to 500 yards.   I haven’t shot farther than 500 yards.  I blow tube between each shot.  Many times the match is a 15 shot string for score (and of course there are few more shots for sighters).  I’ve been very pleased with the BN’s performance.

That's too bad about your 38-56. Mine is quite accurate. Especially at 200yd/m where it generally holds <1.5MOA and scores in the high 90s in our mid-range matches (same at 300yd) and generally knocks over 7+ pigs at 300m. Won't comment on how many chickens (200m) it knocks over as that is a "shooter problem" with off-hand and not a rifle/cartridge problem. But, there is no question that it has taken me a while to develop loads that shoot well. Believe my being new to BP shooting and selecting a relatively obscure cartridge was the primary problem and using a well documented straight cartridge like the 38-55 or 40-65 would have made that journey considerably quicker. My belief is that the keys to doing well with BN cases (at least my 38-56) are a load slow enough to not lead the barrel, which means enough powder to keep the wads in the neck (I use a min of 3 x 0.060" wads), a heavier bullet (325gr is my smallest) and not sizing the brass after fire-forming. I say this knowing full-well that this is for my rifle and yours likely is different.

As far as the "old days", all BP cartridges pretty much died together around the turn of the 19th century with the advent of smokeless. The primary reason the 45-70 stuck around for so long is large number of gov't rifles chambered in same. For the 38-55, it was the pretty much the largest BP cartridge that could be chambered in the Model 94 lever gun.

I shoot a 40-50BN in a Shiloh #1 with 30" barrel.  That was the easiest 40 caliber cartridge I have ever loaded [others are 40-65, 40-70SS, 40-82 Win].  The very first load was a keeper, so I actually have never done any load development with it.  Swiss 2 or 1.5 is a simple way to load: no compression, just drop tube powder up into the neck of the case and set a wad on top, then seat the bullet.  I was shooting a gg bullet made by Steve Brooks, but now days it is all PP bullets.   

One thing I have noticed with a BN case, the MV's are higher than the same load in a straight case.   

Another observation is, you cannot reduce the load in a BN because the powder must reach the base of the case neck.  Going with a coarse powder would be the only way to reduce MV.

Keep on hav'n fun!
MikeT