Shiloh Rifle Forums

A friend is looking for info on loading the Ballard 40-90 straight. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks Jim

Regular cases or Ballard everlasting? Grease groove or paper patch? Original Ballard chamber, barrel?

Now there's a source of recoil therapy for the ambitious.

Regular case, not everlasting, grease bullet and original 1881 #5 Pacific rifle.

At the moment, at this point in time, what powder does he have available is the big question.

He has a good supply of GOEX both 2&3 F and is looking at Swiss. If you want BP in Southeast Alaska you have to order it by the case.

Assuming it is a straight wall case (not bottleneck) and fireformed this is what I would do with 2F GOEX.
Any Large Rifle Primer, standard or mangle 'em.
Determine overall maximum loaded cartridge length with the bullet of choice, add 25-30 thousandths to that length for coal.
Trial and error figure out how much powder by weight it takes in the case to compress .150" Using at least .125" of under bullet wads. More wads OK.

Somewhere between .150" and .400" compression you should hit an accuracy sweet spot. To increase compression don't add wads just add powder and maintain coal.

Once you find that sweet spot? Accuracy wise it just might surprise you

Save the 3F for smaller capacity cases like 40-50 SBN or SS.

Thanks Pard, my hunting partner will really appreciate it. He has been hunting pretty much exclusively with a muzzle loader for years. Everything from Sitka blacktails to moose and muskox with his 54 Hawken.

The .40-85/90 Ballard cartridge is 2.94" long case, and in an original Pacific a fairly slow 1:20" twist rate. I find my Pacific in .40-85 Everlasting or using regular cases, likes bullets around 350-370 grs. best, but even the 415 gr. Lyman Snover shoots very well with this relatively slow twist rate out to 1000 yds.
.40-85 above a .45-70 cartridge: