Art- it may be easier, but you have to do it a lot more often.

I find BP vs WP discussions a bit absurd, especially after Swiss BP became available on USA market. Here is a brief description of my personal experience with BP vs WP since early 1950s.

At age 13 I got my first CF rifle, a Winchester LW in 32-20 and a box of true HV 80gr Winchester loads. I was allowed to reload my ammo, but only with the only BP then common in USA, Dupont. Quickly learned that only way to get small enough 1st shot groups with BP was to totally clean and lube bore after each shot. That resulted in small enough groups to head shoot foxes at 100 paces with my BP loads.

Much later in life I was resident in a state with a BP deer season. Bought a T/C .54 caliber muzzle loader and quickly learned that, again, Dupont BP was only good for 1st shot hunting groups from cleaned and lubed bore, that were small enough for deer hunting in woods. Pyrodex as good for 3 shot 3" groups at 100 yds. Lotsa deer dropped with that rifle using Pyrodex.

Even much later in life I tried cowboy action shooting, using 44-40 Winchester 92 (Brazilian made) carbine and Ruger 44-40 or replica Rem C&B revolvers. Initially only Pyrodex gave good enough groups for clean matches with no cleaning (5 or 6 10 shot groups with rifle and half that in two revolvers) -- I only cleaned guns after each match, 50-60 rounds through rifle and 25-30 from each revolver. When Swiss FFg became available, found that I could also shoot all day matches, with no need to clean bores, and often no missed targets. This was comparable performance to what Winchester advertised for its 44-40 BP ammo & 1973 rifles.

Most recently I tried BPCR with replica 1885 in 40-65. My goal for load testing was 10 shots in less than 2,00" at 100 yards using Swiss FFg or 1,5Fg, NO WIPING BORE. So long as I used BP bullets of known ability to give excellent groups, as well as proven BP loading methods, this was easy goal to attain. I was only able to do BPCR for 1+ season before failing eyesight and fine muscle control put stop to this. That was enough to determine that, so long as I got off good shots, I could score a few 10/10s, and many 6-8/10 scores on pigs (300M), turkeys (385M) and often on rams (500M). NO fellow BPCR shooters were willing to forego wiping after each shot.

SO, by no means do I consider BP shooting with Swiss BP to be much, if any, more difficult, than with White Powders. At least not for hunting, cowboy action shooting or BPCR.

DO NOT TRY this with Goex BPs!!

calledflyer wrote on Dec 10^th, 2017 at 5:44pm:

I wanna know where it IS, so I can go steal it.  Gotta be worth millions!

"I wanna see pictures of that M1917 03-A3."   
Sorry - been a few years since I shot the 03-A3. Different gun I had in mind. Still wouldn't put BP in it though.

Vall, it's kind of like that but not really. Some considerations: Brass - which? (capacities vary) - Remington, Winchester, Starline - annealed or not? - sized or not?- neck tension - none or how much? Primers - LRM, LR, LP? - which brand? - overprimer wad or not? Powder - which brand? what size? how much? dumped or drop tubed? Compression - none or how much? Wads - fiber or LDPE? - what thickness? - how many? - newspaper wad under bullet? Bullet - weight? - nose design? - alloy? - seating depth? - paper patch? (grease cookie or not?). Almost forgot lube choice and wiping (with what and how much?) or blow tubing (how many and with what temperature and humidy?)
And for many of these options the choices affect other options. Serious black powder is more an art than a science. Sure, fill the case with powder, stick a bullet on top and shoot and holler s---. Good luck!

Chris, I agree 100%.  After the first international match at Ottawa, the next was in South Africa. There was a #10 ammo limit for flying then.  With 525 gr slugs, #10s doesn't go very far. They would have powder available on the other end.  Flying half way around the world to start developing a load to shoot 1,000 yards didn't appeal to me. 

oneatatime wrote on Dec 13^th, 2017 at 4:58pm:


Sounds like a 10yr project, maybe even 10hrs X 5 days/week for all those years.  By then your rifle might need a new barrel and and your wife, if you ever had one, has moved on.