Torador Matchlock - Finished

[kahnjar1]

Originally Posted by archer

Great project loving the whole thing. Richard is right as well, we need to try getting a safe competition started for comparison. Elgood mentions Akbar proofing his Toradors by filing the barrels to the top and that half full barrels had a tendency to burst.It must have a reference to chamber not the barrel? I have always read that with black powder you must have a bullet seated directly on top of it to avoid air space and excessive pressures. We need to see if by their mastery of blacksmithing these bottle necked chambers made them the magnum of their day. So can we use less modern black powder and a filler like cornmeal, grits, cream of wheat? It will be awhile but i'd love to do some testing. Steve

Hi Steve,
You are correct regarding the need to have the ball sitting tight on top of the powder charge as any gap is likely to create a "piston" effect, thereby creating excess pressure build up. This of course should also be followed with any muzzle loader charge, not just barrels with tapered chambers.
I guess a suitable wadding between the powder charge and the ball would solve any gap problem, and YES, it is also very likely that modern black powder could well be far more powerful than that from years gone by, so testing with a light load is probably a good idea! We used 4F from memory when we shot old muzzle loaders in years gone by. I say "from memory" as it's probably 30+ years since I shot any black powder gun. Coarser powder the better as it burns a bit slower than the fine stuff.
A safe way to test is to lash the gun to an old tire and retire a safe distance with a string attached to the trigger. That way you will only destroy the gun if something goes wrong, and not yourself!
Safe shooting.
Stu