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Originally Posted by Berkley
Looking at the illustration, it seems that wadding must have been used between the powder charge and the ball. Otherwise, the loose powder would have spread along the bottom of the rear chamber when the barrel was lowered to a horizontal position after loading. Such an arrangement would likely have produced less than optimal results.
This comports with the observation of the old charge removed from my torador by its previous owner: |
Berkley: Thanks for the Link to your Torador - that was still loaded !!!! Very nice gun, especially the western style trigger. Very unusual. I think these barrels were loaded with bare ball (no patch UNDER the ball). Then a tight wadding on TOP of the ball to keep it from rolling down the barrel while the gun was in transit. They seemed to believe that the loose powder would build up most of it's pressure in the chamber, then forced through the narrow section. Rather than building pressure while traveling down the barrel. It's certainly a curious theory for black powder ballistics.
Rick.