pietta .36 Navy problem

[lenl349]

first time at the range was a disaster. it was thoroughly cleaned before taking it out.
I am using a .375 ball and 10 grains Pyrodex with #10 caps (the caps fired).
the couple of times the gun fired, the ball simply got stuck at the rear entrance to the barrel. Is this a matter of too small a charge?
Also, after firing (without sending a ball down range) hammer could not be cocked to move the cylinder to the next round.
Thoughts on fixing all this? thanks

 

[jdw276]

first time at the range was a disaster. it was thoroughly cleaned before taking it out.
I am using a .375 ball and 10 grains Pyrodex with #10 caps (the caps fired).
the couple of times the gun fired, the ball simply got stuck at the rear entrance to the barrel. Is this a matter of too small a charge?
Also, after firing (without sending a ball down range) hammer could not be cocked to move the cylinder to the next round.
Thoughts on fixing all this? thanks

Double the charge. If the ball shifts forward from recoil on the other chambers the pyro may not be igniting as well on thos cylinders as it would not be against the nipple. Make sure ball is fully seated on the powder as well.

 

[FishDFly]

Couple of thoughts:

Increase the charge to 20 grains and put 8 to 10 grains of Cream Of Wheat on top of the powder. The Cream Of Wheat will move the ball further out of the cylinder and get it closer to the forcing cone, reducing the jump into the forcing cone.

Sounds like the ball did not jump into the forcing cone far enough, thus the front of the cylinder was rubbing on the rear of the ball, thus it could not rotate.

There are 2 Pyrodex's, R (rifle) and P (pistol), which one were you using?

I would also consider replacing the Pyrodex with BP.

Should take care of your problem.

 

[bang]

18 min on powder.

 

[lenl349]

Couple of thoughts:

Increase the charge to 20 grains and put 8 to 10 grains of Cream Of Wheat on top of the powder. The Cream Of Wheat will move the ball further out of the cylinder and get it closer to the forcing cone, reducing the jump into the forcing cone.

Sounds like the ball did not jump into the forcing cone far enough, thus the front of the cylinder was rubbing on the rear of the ball, thus it could not rotate.

There are 2 Pyrodex's, R (rifle) and P (pistol), which one were you using?

I would also consider replacing the Pyrodex with BP.

Should take care of your problem.

 

[lenl349]

I'm using the Pyrodex P . Funny thing is the Pietta material I downloaded suggested 9-12 grains. I had a feeling it was too light.
Also, considering using wads between powder and ball. The lube I used today in the cylinder is really messy.
And I will switch to BP when I can get it.

 

[Justin.44]

Also, after firing (without sending a ball down range) hammer could not be cocked to move the cylinder to the next round.

Might have been a cap jam possibly, or maybe the balls that got stuck in barrel hadn't quite cleared the forcing cone. Also always make sure you grease the arbor well before shooting, that can help keep the cylinder turning as it should.

 

[mooman76]

10 gr while a little light still should have been enough to send that ball down range. Maybe a little oil contamination or something like that.

 

[bang]

With a .375 ball it should have cleared the barrel, IMO. However I won't shoot a .36 with less than 18 gns but then I use .380 in mine which have more bearing surface.

 

[B P Arn]

My recommendation is to use a minimum of 25 grains, and don't mess with a filler.

 

[SDSmlf]

first time at the range was a disaster. it was thoroughly cleaned before taking it out.
I am using a .375 ball and 10 grains Pyrodex with #10 caps (the caps fired).
the couple of times the gun fired, the ball simply got stuck at the rear entrance to the barrel. Is this a matter of too small a charge?
Also, after firing (without sending a ball down range) hammer could not be cocked to move the cylinder to the next round.
Thoughts on fixing all this? thanks

10 grains of fresh Pyrodex P should have sent the ball down range. Without actually witnessing what happened, based on your posts, sure sounds like fouled powder, be it from your messy lube or oil/ lube in the cylinder chambers. How old is your Pyrodex? How long was the gun loaded?

You could place the cylinder in a bowl or can with the chambers pointing up (nipples down) and pour some lacquer thinner or alcohol into each chamber, maybe swish around a bit, let the cylinder soak for a few minutes, then remove and let dry, preferably overnight before loading. Visually confirm the nipples are clear. A bright light can help. I would then load one cylinder with a powder charge of your choice, followed by a round ball and NO lube. Cap and fire. If the cap and charge go off and the ball does not go down range with authority, your powder is suspect in my opinion. If it goes down range with authority, suspect either you had lubricant in the chambers before you loaded, or your over ball lube is somehow fouling your powder charge. Just a process of elimination in my opinion.

 

[PastorB]

I have had that same problem in my Pietta with 15 grains of Pyrodex P. The ball simply didn't have sufficient power to go fully into the barrel, much less through it. Usually the ball was stuck half in the forcing cone, with the back half still in the cylinder. On occasion when it did make it down the barrel, velocity was between 200 to 325fps, chronographed. That is not a typo. Raising the charge a mere 3 grains to 18 gave a remarkable increase in velocity/power, somewhere around 800/fps, and 23 grains gives 1100fps. These are actual chronographed velocities, not guesses or some book data. On my 1851 Pietta there was no compression of the powder at 15 grains, the rammer simply didn't push the ball in far enough. Never have used filler, can't comment on how it will work.

 

[Treestalker]

The key words here are 'pyrodex' and 'how old?'; my brother who was very experienced with C&B revolvers once bought a pound of Pyrodex when he didn't have access to black. It worked just fine, and he put the stuff on a shelf in it's original container (kind of a pasteboard box) and didn't open it for about a year. One day he decided to shoot it up, and it was mostly one big lump; I quit using it then and have never looked back. Both my brother and I cleaned our revolvers the same day we shot them, religiously.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

The key words here are 'pyrodex' and 'how old?'

The other problem with "age" of any of the BP substitutes is clumping.

When I competed in CAS I tried both Pyrodex and 3Fg in my Pietta Navy revolvers. I used 18 grains of powder, and I would pour the charges into the cylinders and eyeball them, to be sure they were even. THEN add the round ball and to seat them. I was using a pistol flask, and the Pyrodex over a short period of time had started to clump, so wasn't always throwing an 18 grain charge when I used the flask and spout.

Perhaps you intended on 10 grains and had much less in that cylinder?

LD

 

[FishDFly]

Experience.

 

[Evelyn BH]

Not claiming to be an expert, but:
I have a Pietta .36 (Remington NMA) which I bought new. 10grains by volume of Triple 7 worked fine as a starting load. (Worked it up later with BP, but that's not the point).
However it was obvious just by measuring that without some inert filler the ball would not compress on to the powder. Mostly I use a felt wad and quite a lot of polenta.

 

[FishDFly]

Polenta, I had to go look the word up.

Now I have learned a new word and know what it means.

Thanks

 

[wb78963]

was the ball seated down on the power, or was there a space between the ball and powder?
I had the same problem using 10grains of APP because the ball was not seated on the powder By using filler it shot just fine, a little wimpy but it worked..

 

[lenl349]

The Pyrodex P (FFFG) was just purchased and it was sealed. Of course don't know how long it was on the shelf. will definitely increase the load after another good cleaning. thanks to all for the advice

 

[Zonie]

I agree with the others. 10 grains of powder is too small of a powder load.
As a side note, it is impossible to overcharge a cap & ball pistol. When enough room is left on top of the powder charge for the ball to fit completely into the chamber, the powder charge will be what the pistol was designed to use.

A lot of people have found that reducing the powder load a bit below this maximum charge gives the best accuracy. That's why you see some folks using smaller loads and adding corn meal or Cream of Wheat to bring the level up to the amount it would be if they used a full powder load.
These same people say the gun is more accurate if the ball or bullet is seated just enough to have it just below the face of the cylinder. That's why they use the filler.