Another short update on the project rifle. Last weekend I finished a replacement forearm for the "draft" version I made from scrap wood. While I'm not totally happy with the wood to metal fit, it's ok for now.
I also made a couple of screws from W1 tool steel, then heat treated so the slots wouldn't bugger so easy. That turned them a nice blue color also. One was a filler screw for the tang sight screw, a 3/16-36 screw. Another I made was the finger lever screw to fit the Uberti finger lever. The original Winchester lever uses a .190" body diameter screw while the Uberti is about .198" diameter body. The original Winchester screw allows the Uberti lever to wobble a good bit.
Yesterday I loaded up 3 rounds of black powder. Filling the case 100% level full with take almost 50 grains of GOEX FFg requiring compression for depth of seated bullet. 40 grains is amount required for minor compression with a lubed felt spacer between powder and bullet. Since I wasn't sure about how heavy a load this would be, I opted for 40 grains.
Not sure why #1 shot was a tad higher fps, but perhaps it was due to a harder crimp I put on one round?
I was impressed with the black powder and think I'll load up some more BP. Cleaning is easier than I'm accustomed to with muzzle loaders. I used a solvent on brush thru bore a few times, then a dry patch. Seems to be clean? Is there a special solvent I should be using?
Ken H>