Thread: 8x58R Black powder jacketted bullets ?

Just asking for a friend

Does anyone regularly shoot an 8x58R Rolling Block rifle with BP and jacketted bullets

Had a friend ask about a suitable rifle for a similar caliber.
Why reinvent the wheel when the 8mm RRB are around

I've shot BP cast lead in a rough one years ago when i knew fuck all about the dark art of BP cartridge rifles

Obviously it's doable look at the Lee Metford, is all the advice I can offer.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Obviously it's doable look at the Lee Metford, is all the advice I can offer.

Yeah when the subject came up I thought of the Lee Metford and immediately thought the 303 would be a little light on case capacity because you can't get the same amount of powder in as the original 303 BP loading.
They formed the cases around a pre pressed plug of BP which equaled around 70 grains.
BP powder capacity in an existing 303 case is around 55 grains

So I thought the 8x58R was a better candidate due to the larger case capacity.
Cases formed from 45-70 might come up a fraction short ( according to the internet, but what does it know ) but I often find my converted brass grown slightly in length anyway

And you could run a duplex load and get more shots in the field before BP fouling blows the group out
We're talking vintage BP hunting small bore here and I personally don't run BP in anything under 38 cal
But it might be time to give it a try

You can always try some denser bp to up the power while have less capacity. I'm yet to try the batch of bog roll stuff I made months ago lol

I have tried BP in the .303 - as you suspected, you cant get enough powder in to make it worth while. Sort of turns it into a .32-40. I mean, you could use it.

I have used jacketed bullets in the .44/40 with black powder successfully. I used to put a priming of fast smokeless in to help with fouling. It was very accurate - five shots around an inch at 100yds and then it would start fouling and you would wipe it out and shoot another group.

The smokeless was 6 grains of H4227 / AR2205 (and 32 grains of BP on top of that. No wad under the bullet or anything, no grease cookie or nothing. (Tried all those things.) Bullet was Hornady XTP.


It turned out the load above was very sensitive to how much smokeless priming was used. Any more than 6 grains and groups would go all over the place, looked like a dropped lasagna. Any less and it would foul too quickly I think, same result.

I would try the same with the 8mm (you have to start somewhere.) 6 grains of 2205, then enough BP to compress it. Advantage is you can compress and load the jacketed bullet itself instead of seperating compressing and bullet seating as you would with a soft lead bulllet.


Dammit I would be all over BP again with a flintlock or a rolling block if I could get some black powder down here. It is simply not possible to get it down south now.