Hello All, my father in law gave me an old double barrel black powder pistol and I would like to get it working. What I'm looking for is a place to find out how much powder can be safely loaded. I'm not looking to load the MAX or hot, I just want to be able to fire the pistol with my father in law(kind of a bonding thing). I don't care about being able to hit anything, mostly just have the gun go bang without having any harm come to anyone. The pistol is a cap and ball with three inch hex barrels. I was able to fit .44 cal bullets down the barrels, but .45 bullets were to large to fit in the barrels. So I assume it's a .44 cal firearm. The barrels are smooth inside with what looks like rifling just at the very end. I've read that this rifling at the end was used with a special wrench to remove the barrels. From what I've been able to find, this gun may be from the late 1890s to early 1900s. I've also not been able to find any proof marks on it. Thanks for any help!

20 to 30 grains of FFF.

Might be a good idea to get it checked out first to be sure it's safe at all.

Cpt. Redleg

Take the nipples off, clean 'em up with a wire brush, look through to make sure the flash channel is clear, if not shove a stiff wire in there to clear any obstructions

As said above; load some FFF, a patched ball, and PARTY ON, DUDES!

ETA: a "45" caliber round ball is .440.  The patch takes up the rest.  So try a .440 ball without a patch first and see if it falls in, then, if so, patch it and have fun.

THANK YOU all very much!