Whitney Kennedy finally loaded with BP
 

After cleaning up an old family heirloom, we put together some smokeless loads that it seems to like a lot. The gun has been in the family since new. It's all original and unrefurbished.

The .38-40 rifle does very well with aboat 5.2 gr of TrailBoss and 175 gr. (Lyman) RNFP bullets. BHN is about 11. Now, my brother convinced me to load some with BP. Loading FFG to case top, and compressing to recommended COAL gives about 35 grains (volumetric). The "boom" is much bigger. The smoke, much more entertaining. The mess is considerable -- but manageable.

After using BP, I want to thoroughly clean the old girl -- not just the barrel. I was very worried about digging into the gun until "Coldrou" gave me some information on how to do it. It was a big help. Since then I've done a couple of pretty extensive disassemblies. I'll post details on the Technical Info Forum, if anyone's interested.

Re: Whitney Kennedy finally loaded with BP
 

You can't overload it with Trailboss.
I use a slightly compressed load for the .32/40, and for a subsonic load in my Mosins.