No offense intended but talking about Trapdoors and smokeless powder just seems wrong some how! (smile)
Dave
quite sure 400 years a go I would be burned at the stake for heresy but my intention is to shoot Holy Black from the original 88 TD and load 45 colt with bp when shooting the original. I have come to believe there is a lot of Voodoo associated with shooting holy black and best results can best be obtained if one loads on the second tuesday following a full moon in months not containing an "R" or is it the 3rd thursday after a new moon in months containing an "R"? In either case one must hold one's mouth right while dropping the powder or all bets are off.
This is not to say shooting black is not historically correct and even fun in a masochistic sort of way. Having said that it is expensive, messy and in my experience difficult to obtain consistent results. One needs to find not only the right bullet but the right alloy for the bullet so that the bullet is soft enough that it upsets to engage rifling and prevent blow by while simultaneously being hard enough not to strip out of the rifling. Don't even get me started on the magic of BP lube, books are written on that subject. We can then talk about the powder itself some swear Only Swiss others Olde Eynsford some like GOEX or Schuetzen. Then is it 1f 1.5 F or even 2 or 3F. If you can get past that is it 1/16, 1/8 .300 inch compression or some metric value greater than one of those but less than the next. We then move on to bullet seating depth that works best for the particular chamber which necessitates either varying the charge or the compression or both to have the bullet when seated correctly to be in contact with the powder. Once that is all worked out we move on to neck tension and crimp. All this makes my head hurt and I confess have yet to find loads that shoot consistently out of any of my rifles an Armi Sports Sharps, Navy Arms Rolling Block or the 1888 Trapdoor all in 45/70. This is not to say that I will not continue on the quest for the holy grail of a 1/4 min group at some unbelievable range, but is to say it is much easier to find a decent smokeless load. Given they are not making original trapdoor springfields anymore I will not risk damaging the one I have with smokeless loads but it is open season for the other rifles. I will say the 65 grains of 2F Olde Eynsford under the 500 3R Lee bullet is not fun to shoot. OMG I forgot to talk about wads - number, material and size.
The modern gun if one can call a 1970s ish trapdoor repro a modern gun will be shot much more economically with either 5744 or Varget using about half the powder and accompanied by 5 grainish load of AA2 in the pistol. Something about 1200 rounds per pound vs 250 appeals to me. It may be parsimony. Any money saved will be wisely or not so wisely invested in other toys. For some reason I feel a need to acquire an 1886 japaninchester or possibly a pair of 5.5 inch 44-40s to round out my collection.