BP charge question

[older than dirt]

Hi folks. I just aquired a new-old (1990) never fired .36 cal Police Pocket Revolver made by A.S.M. of Italy. No paper work on what kind of charge of BP to load in it. What would you recomend? By the way, I`m a BP shooter as I have 3 replica .44`s & a Ruger Old Army 45 that I shoot. This is my 1st .36 cal. & a little one at that. Thanks in advance.

[dave]

I would have to look it up, but it is very low, less then 20 gr. I'm sure. If you get no difinate answers I will look it up and get back. There are several soft cover book out on shooting BP arms. you should get one --- BP guns can be overloaded regardless of what some think!

[Embalmer]

I use about 16 -18 in my replica navy. Rule of thumb is start at 15 and slowly work up to a acurate load on a .36

[cwartyman]

Depends on what you are using it for. Im shooting 17 grains of 3f goex in an .44 1858 rem with cream of wheat filler for 25 yd N-SSA competition. I have an Uberti 62 police that im going to start with 10 grains of 3f with C.O.W. filler topped off with a hornady .376 swaged rb and see how it does at 15 yds than move back to 25 as this only needs to go through the paper im more concerned about grouping than power.

[mousegun]

Whatever the ideal charge is, two rules of thumb always apply:


A full charge is enough powder to fill the chamber while still leaving enough room to seat the ball with only mild compression of the powder.


Under no circumstances leave an air space in the chamber. Light loads require deep seating or a neutral filler.