Muzzle Loading Gun How to Load the Cap Lock

Before we start to the loading process we will go over some safety tips and things you will need. Most important is that you use black powder or one of the substitutes for it that is out in the market today. NEVER NEVER use any kind of smokeless power in a muzzle loading gun. This would be the fastest way to get injured or killed. It will blow up your barrel due to the extreme pressure it would cause on firing. Also you must have the right black powder grain size. FFFg for 36 caliber or smaller Rifles and most pistols and FFg for larger caliber rifles. Also make sure that your firearm is in good condition. You will need a powder measure, Lead balls of the proper size, patch material to go around the balls in your barrel, knife to trim the patch, ball starter to tap the ball into the barrel, ram rod to seat the ball onto the powder and caps to set it off.

First thing to do is to fire 1 or 2 caps just to clear the barrels breach so that the fire path for the cap is clear to get to the powder. After you have fired the caps you should be able to blow air down the muzzle with the hammer in half cock and hear the air coming out of the nipple. If it seems hard to blow the air or you cannot you may have a build up of oil in pathway from the nipple to the powder chamber. You can run a patch down the barrel and see if you get any oil from you last cleaning. Next you can put around 5 to 10 grains of black powder down your barrel. Keep the gun pointing up and try an other cap and see if you lights the powder. If the powder goes off you should have dried it out with that firing of the black powder. With a slightly damp patch go ahead and clean out the barrel all the way down to the breach. You can blow down the barrel again and this time you should hear the air coming out the nipple.

Now lets measure out your black powder load for the proper amount for your muzzle loading gun. If you don not know how much to use you can do like the old timers did. Take a ball and lay it in the palm of your hand and pour enough powder on it to just cover it up. This is a good starting point with riles. Pistol you might want to use about half of that. You can get an adjustable measure and measure the amount. That will be your starting point. Go ahead then and pour that down your barrel.

Get your round ball and patch material. Dampen a spot just big enough to cover your barrel end with your tongue. Put that on the muzzle and start to press a ball down the bore of the rifle. You will have to use your ball starter to tap the ball into the barrel. Tap it till the entire ball is below the muzzle. Gather up the patch material as though you were tiring to pull the ball out of the bore. Take your knife and cut the patch flush with the end of the barrel. Your ball starter should have two ramrod size rods on it. One will be only about one half an inch long with the other as much as six inches long. Take the short one and start the ball down the barrel. Then take the long one and run the ball down the length of it. Take your ramrod now and run the ball all the way down to the powder not grabbing the rod more than a foot above the barrel at a time. This way you will not break your ramrod trying to push the ball down the barrel all at once. The ball should have some resistance when ramming it down but not so much that you have to fight it. Make sure that the ball is all of the way down on the powder too.

Time to put your cap on the nipple. After you have done this do not put the hammer down on the cap. Always leave your hammer in the half cock position until you are ready to fire. If you leave the hammer on the nipple and it gets knock hard enough it will fire the gun.

Note if you are loading your gun and not going to fire it right away you should use a patch with just a little oil on it. This will keep the powder dry. Always wipe your barrel out after each shot before loading to make sure you have no lit sparks in it to set your powder off on reloading. This will also help in keeping the barrel cleaner between shots and make it easier to push the patched ball down to the powder again and keep the rifling clean so you will stay accurate.

After you are done shooting no matter if it was one shot or one hundred you will have to clean your gun. Black powder is very corrosive if the residue is aloud to stay in the barrel. Use plenty of hot soapy water to clean it out. Then oil good to prevent rust.

This might seem like allot of work just to shoot a muzzle loading gun but after you get on to the process of loading you will get faster. No matter if you are hunting or target shooting, black powder can be allot of fun.