Reloading for accuracy in these old rifles is not difficult, but it is meticulous. For most matches you must use black powder or Pyrodex. Pyrodex works good in muzzle loaders, but very few people use it in cartridges. When I went to my first Nationals in 1995, I wasn’t the only one using Pyrodex. Today I’d say only one out of a hundred shoots the stuff. My Pyrodex loads did shoot accurately on paper, but on the first day of the Nationals I started getting such erratic behavior that one shot would hit a silhouette, the next would hit the dirt 10 feet in front. I never did figure out what was wrong (probably not even compression), because I bought a can of Goex "cartridge" and pulled every bullet and reloaded that evening for the next day’s match! My scores went way up.

You will need a good bullet mold that casts bullets with sharp bases and that weigh close to the same each time. Bullets can be bought ready to load, but are expensive. Developing a load that works in your rifle involves varying one component at a time, shooting the load, then seeing if it has improved accuracy. Things to try:

• Powder amounts
• Powder compression
• Powder type
• Lube type
• Bullet type
• Bulley alloy
• Bullet wad
• Primer type

Much has been written about reloading for BPCRs. You should purchase one of these references if you are just starting out. This page may be expanded in the future.