Brown Bess Powder Charge?

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CLydesdale1812

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Hey All,

I picked up a repro Brown Bess awhile ago, and I want to take it out to shoot. My problem is I am having issues finding how much powder to put in before the ball. Does anybody know of a resource I could use? Or even better, does anybody know how many grains for shooting a ball? So far my research has yielded anywhere from 70-120 grains (2.5-4 drams IIRC), and with a margin like that I would rather see if the gurus here could point me in a right direction. It is a .75 caliber and was measured as a 12 gauge. I'm typically better with cannon loads but we measure those in ounces as opposed to grains. Thanks for taking the time to help!

Clydesdale
 
I have a 76 Cal Bess from Loyalist Arms I do believe it is 11 gauge. I use a 735 ball with a .010 thou patch and 100 grains of Goex 2F. yur milage may vary. have fun and stay safe.
 
You'll see loads (no pun intended...) of often conflicting information on the subject, as well as even more misinformation.
Let's start the answer by asking you a question: what do you intend to fire from it? Many modern shooters find old original data indicating 6-8 drams of powder (165-220gr), and then wonder why their shoulder hurts so badly or they damaged their musket.
Brown Bess type muskets were used for a long time, and quality, specifications, & quantity of powder varied, but the ball size stayed pretty consistent: 0.685" nominal, (0.680-0.690") or '.69cal', as wrapped in period-correct paper cartridges.
Modern shooters using tight-fitting cloth-patched round-ball of .715" or larger are asking for trouble (or at least significant discomfort) if they use max original charges, especially if they are also substituting finer-granulation modern powders.
Those 8-dram (220gr) charges came from a time when musket & cannon shared common powder granulation, and also some of that charge was intended for priming, and powder loss during loading could be expected.
Improved powders (post-Congrieve) led to reduction to 6-drams (165gr), and by the time they went to percussion the charge had dropped to 4.5-drams (124gr), still remembering that a paper-cartridge with sub-calibre ball was used.
If you plan tight cloth-patched ball perhaps someone more knowledgeable could step in with more info? As for me, I do not own a Bess, but have researched them a bit and am almost ready to take the plunge. I have owned a Sprigfield 1795 pattern .69cal smoothbore flinter and have fired period-correct paper-cartridge ammo (using modern cast .648" ball and/or .310" buckshot, wrapped & tied in cartridge-paper to period-correct U.S. Ordnance specifications, using modern 1FG or 'musket' grade powders) almost exclusively. It's fun, & gives you a good appreciation of the capability of those early muskets.
 
Looks like I spent so long typing someone more knowledgeable on cloth-patched loads already did step in; cool.
My current dilemma is deciding between the late Short Land-Pattern, & India Pattern....and to make it worse a really nice blunderbuss has caught my eye...
 
A general rule of thumb with blackpowder is that whatever the calibre is, that will also be close to your load in grains. I generally shoot around 80gr of ffg or fffg and it seems to work fine in my Bess. Keep in mind that the blackpowder of today is more powerful and consistent than the powder of days gone by.
 
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