After a long hiatus, the wife and I are getting back into the shooting game.  We purchased a pair of Browning 1885 BPCR - her's in 40-65 and mine in 45-70.  We're both looking to get into the black powder shooting pretty soon but I would like to start her out with some low recoil smokeless rounds.  I am sure there must be some recommendations out there.   

Appreciate recommendations for molds as well - am an experienced caster and have pretty much everything else I need for casting.   

Would also appreciate a link or reference to beginner BPCR equipment list and sources so I can start assembling that.   

Thanks

or that same bullet, or similar, backed by 10 - 12 grains of Unique.

Like shooting a .22 LR.

I'm curious, what's the cork for?

I use a .030 Walters Wad under the plainbase bullet. Serves as a gas check and it's more accurate with the wad.

There are a variety to choose from.

I've used 1/16 and 1/8" thick cork gasket (NAPA) and a variety of other materials (made a punch for .40 cal).

You will find the harder 'vegetable fiber' wads (hard to cut so the .030" is very workable).  I've gotten sheets of the material from McMaster-Carr.

There are a number of vendors that will sell pre-cut disks - good place to start.

When using reduced loads just keep in mind that very low density loads (meaning the ratio of powder volume to case volume) of fast smokeless powders under some conditions can create unusually high chamber pressures, possibly resulting in a blown up firearm.  So stay away from fast powders in reduced loads.  But even with slow burning powders seriously consider using fillers with reduced smokeless or even black powder loads.

If slow smokeless powder is used, in many situations fillers aren't required for shooting reduced loads for general plinking.  But I doubt anyone will disagree that even & consistent powder ignition is required for accurate loads.  Depending on several conditions: type & amount of powder, case capacity, orientation of rifle when fired, etc., fillers hold the powder against the primer & reduce powder burning variations that result in reduced accuracy.  But using the wrong type of filler can result in problems such as ringed chambers.  If a wad is used & the cartridge has a relatively large gap between the wad & bullet base, the wad can accelerate & hit the bullet base with sufficient force to ring the chamber after repeated firings, similar to what happens when a bullet hits a bore obstruction.  The same can happen if certain filler material are used such as synthetic pillow padding, kapok, plastic wrap, etc., that’s consists of mostly air.  It will quickly compress, forming a projectile that'll hit the bullet base similar to a wad with an air gap.  What you want is a filler that minimizes the amount of air.  Therefore, the filler should be compressed to eliminate the possibility of chamber ringing.  Since anything between the powder column and the bullet is a “filler”.  One can use cork, fiber wads, LDPE wads, wads punched out of milk cartons or cardboard, & many other substances.  But I recommend using stuff like corn meal or cream of wheat and compressing it slightly.

It’s highly unlikely that reduced loads of black powder will result in chamber ringing.  E.g, when breech seating with black powder there's normally a gap between the bullet & powder & I've never heard of breech seaters ringing the chamber.  In fact there was some extensive testing with reduced black powder loads by a well known Schuetzen shooter named Charles Dell.  He was unable to ring a chamber even when the chamber was made out of brass.  Charlie documented his ringing experiments in the book he coauthored with Wayne Schwartz titled, Modern Schuetzen Rifle.

Wayne