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Rost Martin R1MF comes to Califnoria

black powder firearms training?

E

elm3c

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Not sure to which sub-forum this belongs, but does anyone know if there is any formal training on black powder firearms in the San Francisco Bay Area, preferably east bay? My son's good friend (18 years old) just purchased a black powder Pietta and asked me to take him shooting. After some basic research into black powder, I realize that I am not qualified to supervise and guide him in safely handling and shooting it. Thoughts? Thanks all!
 
Your best bet would be to find a local blackpowder shooting club and go to one of their meets.
Any range that runs matches will have a match schedule that you can pick through to find the blackpowder club and what weekend/day of the month their event is held.
Go to the next event with your son and his friend and you and your son can learn as well.
You will find several people qualified to teach the basics there as almost all clubs are wanting to get new people into their disciplines.
 
elm3c said:
Not sure to which sub-forum this belongs, but does anyone know if there is any formal training on black powder firearms in the San Francisco Bay Area, preferably east bay? My son's good friend (18 years old) just purchased a black powder Pietta and asked me to take him shooting. After some basic research into black powder, I realize that I am not qualified to supervise and guide him in safely handling and shooting it. Thoughts? Thanks all!
Click to expand...
Hi! I am not a formal instructor but I am a long time shooter located in the east bay with a lot of experience with cap and ball revolvers! Id be happy to help a new shooter. I shot virtually nothing but my cap and ball guns for years so long I gained a reputation at USI!
 
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Thanks, all - we found that Sac Valley and Manteca Sportsmen has matches regularly so those are definitely options to look into.

@Forkknifegamer67 - thanks! I’ll DM you. Didn’t realize that USI also allows black powder. That range would be closest to us so would be most convenient to meet up with you there.
 
joefrank64k said:
OP, some great answers here already.

BP is fun…be careful you don’t get drawn down the rabbit hole of BP, haha!!
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Happy to get my friend's son started on BP and shooting in general, but don't think it will be much of a rabbit hole for me, personally. Sounds a bit like the focus and detail needed for ammo reloading. I'd be afraid of losing attention and double charging, with some not so fun consequences. I'm happy to buy factory ammo and shoot modern firearms all day instead 😆
 
elm3c said:
Happy to get my friend's son started on BP and shooting in general, but don't think it will be much of a rabbit hole for me, personally. Sounds a bit like the focus and detail needed for ammo reloading. I'd be afraid of losing attention and double charging, with some not so fun consequences. I'm happy to buy factory ammo and shoot modern firearms all day instead 😆
Click to expand...
From my understanding, double charge is not as much of an issue with BP and it's substitutes as it is with smokeless powder. Actually in war, it happened often enough to be recorded in history. In their haste, they would forget if they loaded one or not and would jamb another load and ball on top of the first. It didn't do anything destructive. Just pushed out the second ball with a bunch of unburnt powder. Myth busters did an episode testing this and they got to the point of filling the rifle barrel all the way up to the end and it didn't do anything spectacular.

There is also a great YouTuber that goes by Everything black powder. He tests all sorts of concoctions and recipes. Shows how to make the real stuff not the substitute found in the stores and goes over a lot of history and different types of black powder firearms. Might be worth checking him out
 
Hamburger Monster said:
From my understanding, double charge is not as much of an issue
Click to expand...

You are correct. You just reach the point where you're blowing unburned powder out the barrel. Nevertheless, you want to teach the kid to be attentive to detail and to be disciplined. Black powder is serious stuff, and you don't want him blowing himself up.

Black powder is great for kids. It's slow, so they're not burning up a lot of ammo. Slow rate of fire and delayed ignition teaches the shooter proper aim, steadiness, and trigger control.
 
Richmond has a black powder event first Saturday of the month. I have never went, but the black powder shooters I have meet in the regular line have been friendly enough. I can the contact email if you want.

San Leandro also allows black powder. Most of the local ranges I have been to do as well.
 
elm3c said:
Happy to get my friend's son started on BP and shooting in general, but don't think it will be much of a rabbit hole for me, personally. Sounds a bit like the focus and detail needed for ammo reloading. I'd be afraid of losing attention and double charging, with some not so fun consequences. I'm happy to buy factory ammo and shoot modern firearms all day instead 😆
Click to expand...
Double charging is very difficult to miss if you are even half alert while loading.
You will learn how deep the ball gets pushed down over the powder when you tamp it.
If you put a mark or wrap a piece of tape around the ramrod at your standard load depth, a double charge will cause your ramrod to be an inch or more forward of where you expect it when you try to seat a ball over it.
At that point, you can decide to pull the ball and dump the charge instead of capping the firearm and firing it or if the load was mild to start with, you can just cap it and fire it and experience what a full power load is like.
 
Thanks everyone for the extra tips! Makes me feel a lot better that black powder will be relatively safe for a young shooter. Looking forward to learning more about it for myself, too.

Great to know that RRGC is another local range that allows BP. Had already heard about San Leandro.
 
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