Remington Spanish Oviedo 1884 Rolling Block Rifle

[ldpfeifer]

New to the sight. I recently purchased this rifle. I found Buffalo Arms and have 20 Reformado cases and 50 .439 385 grain lead bullets. Now its time to reload. I did a chamber cast to confirm the R on the barrel and it is the straight taper case and the bore is the .439 as I slugged that. I have read where it could be a crap shoot as to .439 to .454. The only data I can find in my books is for black powder. I know absolutely nothing about black powder and looked through my Layman book only to find out there is about as much black powder as there is smokeless powder and even some stuff in between. I read where some are using 4195? and 3031. I have both of those powders as I am set up to reload about 2 dozen rifles and pistols calibers. Any help would be appreciated in this venture as I sort of like my fingers, hands and eyes! I am looking for some direction as I see some use BP with wads, grease, and such. I see some use smokeless with either cream of wheat or corn meal. I see some use just smokeless. If its safe to use a reduced load of smokeless, I would prefer that as I am set up for that combination and comfortable with it. If you could point me to a book that either spells this out or a local group that may be of help, I am all eyes and ears here. I don't own a gun I can't shoot and this one I hope is no different. Well I do have a model 19 Marlin shotgun that was my grandfathers that has had the bolt blown out of it due to using non-black powder shells......its a wall hanger because it was his and dangerous. Washington state for a group. Thanks in advance for any and all help,
Lyle

[jon_norstog]

Use black powder, the real stuff, not Pyrodex or whatever. Stuff the case full, tamp it down with a felt wad and use a bullet that is 1:16 or better, 1:20 tin:lead.

You can use smokeless too if your bullet fills the bore. 15g of Unique is pretty good in the .43.


Good luck!

jn

[jon_norstog]

That's 15 grains, not grams! Hope that helps and all that

[stanforth]

That's 15 grains, not grams! Hope that helps and all that

I think that he would trouble getting 15 grams in the case