grrr! broken black powders

[recurve shooter]

sooo of the two .44 cap and  ball revolvers and one .58 cal cabellas hawken i have, only one of the revolvers is functional. the little arm on the colt navy that pivots off the hammer and rotates the cylendar when cocked broke in half, and a 120 grain charge (at least i think thats what did it) cracked the stock from just behind the lock about halfway down the stock. sooo, about four hundred bucks worth of toy is now out of commission. im mad. 

[Eric Krewson]

I bet Cabela's will replace that gun, very good customer service.

[mullet]

 I'd send it back, too, Trey. I don't think I'd mention the 120 grains though.

[recurve shooter]

i bought the gun online from another guy. would they still take it back?

but i have Mr. Kieth on the job. should be done in a week or two.

[Dane]

Are you sure you want to shoot such heavy loads? If that is what caused the stock to crack, I'd be a bit alarmed. You had better have the entire weapon checked out, especially the barrel, by a trained gunsmith.

Dane

[mullet]

 That .58 should be able to handle that load, but it's not recommended.

[Dane]

I agree with Mullet. Still, scale back a bit. A bulged barrel is no fun.

You should start working up some optimal loads, and that will depend on the powder or pyrodex, ff vs. fff, the barreling (twist, etc), and what type of projectile you are using. Lay a large white piece of paper or sheet on the ground, and examine it after trying out different powder loads. When you start noticing unburned grains of powder, that is unburned powder. Thus, the load is too large.

That is the simple explenation of what I am trying to get across. Tons of stuff written on all this, so do some research on optimizing loads and get to work.

If you really want to shoot cannons, you can actually get black powder cannons if you have the bucks or ability to build them I used to do that, a lot of fun.

Dane

[recurve shooter]

thanks for all the replies guys. the gigantic charge was just for the heck of it. it hurts to much to do regularly. me and a friend were trying to put a rb through about a 5 inch thick chunck of pine knot (which we did). as soon as i get it back im going to start tinkering with the load. still trying to get a patch not to burn through. .017 linin is desentigrating, and .014 or so denim is just getting a neat little round hole burned through it. idk what the deal is. 

[stickbender]

     Trey: Google Dixie arms, and go to the black powder parts and accessories, and look for your model gun, and look for a "Hand", which is the part that broke.  If it makes you feel any better, I had to replace mine,  and it was also the part that most often broke on the originals, that and the cylinder stop.  They are not that expensive.  You might want to get two, for later down the road, when it might happen again.  In fact some of the old guns included an extra hand with the gun. 

                                                                           Wayne.

[recurve shooter]

thanks yall!