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Old August 28, 2010, 11:35 PM   #1
Amin Parker
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Join Date: August 19, 2010
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Single shot

Hi all,

In South Africa you may not leave guns in a car, it either has to be on your person or in a safe. If you lose a gun and it was not where it was supposed to be, you will lose all your guns and be charged with negligence, a crime with a serious price.

That being said, black powder has been deregulated which allows one to have hideout guns at home or in my car. If it gets stolen i will not be charged and it will be nice to have something in the cubby.

I know nothing of black powder guns. I understand a bit of grease around the ball is there and if left in a car the heat will might melt it? How about a single shot short black powder shotgun?

A lupara will be perfect but i know even less about black powder shotguns. Are they nearly as powerful as a 12 gauge?

My main concern is obviously reliability of ignition because it will be used for self defence. If it worked a hundred years ago it can work now
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Old August 29, 2010, 12:17 AM   #2
arcticap
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Grease isn't necessary to use for loading a black powder revolver, especially one that is only going to be used for self defense. An over powder card or wad placed under the ball partly serves the same purpose to prevent chainfire among the adjacent chambers and also helps to seal the powder from moisture.

And a cylinder filled with 6 shots without grease won't stop a pistol from firing and cycling in a self defense situation.

The single and double barrel smoothbore pistols can be very powerful. The 20 ga. over/under Pedersoli Howdah pistol with 9 inch barrels is a testament to that. But there would be more blast and recoil from the additional amount of powder and lead, and they're heavy and are more difficult to wield.
There's also a smaller, short barrel .45 single shot Philadelphia Derringer that penetrated into the 4th gallon of water in a line up of plastic jugs, however the patched round ball didn't expand during the test.

Make sure to read through to page 5:

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu66.htm


So the choice is between portability, ease of handling, the number of shots & power. The revolvers are probably the best all around choice once it's realized that it's not necessary to load them using grease.

Last edited by arcticap; August 29, 2010 at 10:07 PM.
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Old August 29, 2010, 02:17 PM   #3
Slowhand
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BP Weapon for Self Defense

Good read and an interesting link. Thanks for posting it.
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