Any time that you use black powder, safety is of the utmost importance. Black powder is an explosive. Out in the air it has a very fast burn rate. No smoking! And you will always want to keep it in a small dispenser just in case there is an accident.
Now it will be assumed that you are fumigate with your revolver as far as how to work the loading lever, where to place the hammer in half cock to freely rotate the cylinder and know what all the parts are on it are called. You should have the right sized balls and FFF black Powder or the right Pyrodex propellant for your gun. Pyrodex is a black powder substitute.
First thing is to make sure your barrel is clear. Then you will want to check to see if you have any oil build up in the cylinders and in the nipples. If you need to you can set a cap on each of you six nipples and fire them in a save direction. This will clear any oil in the nipples and cylinder.
Next you will load powder in 5 cylinders if you are going to carry the pistol, or load all six if you are going to shoot it right after loading. The empty cylinder is the one you would put your hammer on when carrying the gun in a holster. If you put the hammer on a loaded cylinder with a cap on it it could go off if the hammer is hit by accident.
Make sure to use the amount of black powder that is recommended by the gun manufacturer. If you put too much in the cylinder you will not be able to push the ball down far enough to clear the barrel when the cylinder is rotating while be cocked. This will lock up your gun and you will not be able to rotate the cylinder.
Back in the early days you would seat the balls right on the powder. Today you can buy wads that go between the powder and ball. They prevent cross firing of the cylinders when firing your gun. If you load the with out using wads you will have to put grease on top of each ball to seal the powder from the fire when firing your gun. If you do not do this you can blow your gun up right in your hand due to more than one cylinder going off at one time.
When seating your balls on the powder make sure they go all the way down to the powder and pack it. You do not want any loose loads with black powder. Do this on all remaining cylinders that have powder in them. If you have not used wads you will have to grease up each ball making sure you get grease around all of the ball. For the grease I have used Crisco cooking grease but you can get mutton tallow for this. It is stiffer and will not melt like Crisco does. Any good gun shop dealing in black powder guns will have it or a good substitute.
Last thing to do now is to put on the caps on the nipples. Once this is done you are ready to fire your revolver.
If you would like to learn more about black powder guns you can go to www.blackpowdergun.foryoutoday.com
