1860 Army Helped Me Earn NRA Expert Qualification

[Dave Rosenthal]

Used my son's Christmas present today (the charcoal-blue, fluted-cylinder Uberti Colt 1860 Army) to earn my NRA Expert! We need to shoot a B-19 target 13 times at 25 yards, strong-hand only, with the best 10 counting for score. That netted me an 80x100. Then we moved back to 50 yards with the B-6 NRA 50 yard slow-fire pistol target. Same as before 13 shots fired, best 10 for score, strong-hand only. Shot an 82x100-1X, and therefore an aggregate of 162x200-1X! Only needed a score of 150x200 to finish my third leg of the Expert rank. The range still had almost a foot of snow on it, so everything was made a little harder to accomplish, but we got through it. That little '60 Army is a real tack-driver with my load of 27 grains of 3Fg Goex, a pre-lubed wonder-wad, and a .454 Hornady ball. Several of us at the league are using the same model revolver to make Expert. These revolvers are becoming really popular here, and now I know why!

What an experience! Only thing missing was my son was away at college, but since I used his revolver, a part of him was there to help me. :thumbsup:

Wish that some of you guys could have been with me today to see it happen (and shoot the course of fire as well :wink: ) and I recommend this type of match for any club or person interested in becoming a better pistol shot.

For the next level, the rank of Distinguished Expert, I need to shoot a score of at least 165x200 on FIVE separate matches! Looks like I'm on my way, but I still have some work to do to make it happen!

Dave

 

[redwing]

That is just great Dave. :grin: How high does the 1860 hit at 25 and 50 Yards? Have you filed the hammer notch? :hmm:

 

[Rebel]

Congratulations Dave. And people say the Remingtons are the only accurate BP revolvers. Way to go with the '60 Army. :thumbsup:

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

That is just great Dave. :grin: How high does the 1860 hit at 25 and 50 Yards? Have you filed the hammer notch? :hmm:

Thanks for the kudos!

The revolver is great left-to-right; as far as aiming points: at 25 yards I was aiming about 3" or so underneath the black bull, which translates to the edge of the 5-ring almost touching the 4-ring. At 50 yards I was aiming at the bottom of the paper target.

Shot placement is greatly affected by how tight of a grip you maintain on the revolver. I found a repeatable happy medium where I was able to control the "flip" some, but still not "fight it". My point of aim will probably change if I were to use both hands, since I would therefore be limiting some of the recoil. Since I experimented today with how tight I held the gun, I expected the shots to spread a little. This is the first time that I've ever shot this exact gun, although I shot a friend's 1860 Army a couple of months ago to great effect!

This revolver is out-of-the-box! Since it doesn't belong to me, and my son shot so well with it, I really don't want to touch it as far as the hammer filing goes.

Shooting my Walker with 52 grains, as well as the 3rd Model Dragoon with 40 grains, I've gotten used to aiming through the small notch in the hammer, so I've never really wanted to mess with the hammers on the guns. I'm not Mr. Mechanical, and I don't want to screw-around with how straight they all shoot now :haha: .

Maybe I'm just lucky, but every Uberti Colt I pick-up seems to shoot great left-to-right, so my only adjustment is how far to shoot under what I want to hit, even for a novelty shoot. And to be honest with you, I actually enjoy overcoming the obstacle of the sights because it makes me slow-down and think a little and I tend to enjoy black powder more this way. I have managed to overcome the sight issue, and I'm more concerned on doing everything the same grip/loading/trigger control wise.

Have you filed any of your sights, and if so, how does the revolver shoot for you? I'm not saying I'd never consider it, but maybe it would be nice to try somebody else's first. That's how I got hooked on this great hobby of ours in the first place

Dave

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Thanks Buddy! :thumbsup:

 

[mykeal]

Well done. More of us need to be trying to do this (notice I did NOT say '...be doing...' - don't want to put too much pressure on myself).

I'm going to work on that this spring.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Thanks for the kind words!

If you're serious about starting at your club, give me a PT or an email so I can fill you in on the target requirement change that I helped put in place with the NRA for the 50 yard leg of the match. Seems that there was a mis-print in the NRA's Qualification Booklet & Requirements for Muzzle Loading Pistol portion. I brought it to their attention and they made the change right away!

Thanks again and get out and make some smoke when you can!

Dave

 

[fredrader]

Congrats Dave :hatsoff:

 

[redwing]

Yes I filed the sights on a Uberti Walker. Big mistake the gun was shooting 4" high at 25 Yds. The Walker is now dead on elevation wise at 25 yds. The bad news it is shooting 3" to the right I can't get it back to zero windage. :redface:

 

[bkovire]

go for you :thumbsup: :hatsoff: :thumbsup: :hatsoff: way to go!

 

[fitter]

I made a higher front sight for my 1860 Uberti, to shoot at POA. No windage issues that way. Shoots great.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Yes I filed the sights on a Uberti Walker. Big mistake the gun was shooting 4" high at 25 Yds. The Walker is now dead on elevation wise at 25 yds. The bad news it is shooting 3" to the right I can't get it back to zero windage. :redface:

That's why I'm scared to touch my sights! Our Old Bridge Club has Novelty Shoots about 2-3 times a year. At 25 yards, if I concentrate, and I'm not tired of holding up my Walker, I can hit a lid off of a can of percussion caps that's been glued to a cardboard target backer. I just think about where 6.5 inches falls under what I want to hit. If I do my job, the cap lid is perforated! It's a case of aim small, miss small I think? Mind you, it may take me a couple of tries to do it, but I've never needed a full cylinder's worth of attempts

Mrs. (the Boss) just rang the dinner bell...chat soon!

Dave

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Thanks :thumbsup:

I just got done having dinner. Prior to that I poured my charges for the 1860 Army's next adventure. 27 grains of 3Fg did the job, so why fix something that ain't broke! Got 30 pre-loaded tubes in a cigar box, all ready to go!

How's your "revolverin" coming along?

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Do you have any pictures? And what did you use for a sight? Did you bugger-up the gun to do it? Like I said before, I'm not Mr. Mechanical to be sure! :haha:

 

[bkovire]

still missing getting close, now that i got 3f, i can put up those darn pellets, i will start with 20gr and work my way up. see if that dose the trick.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Let us know how you make-out :thumbsup:

 

[bkovire]

will do, can't wait till the next shoot, might go out in the west desert.

 

[fitter]

I made the sight from 1/8" sheet brass and soldered it with low temp silver solder. Didn't hurt the gun at all. Don't have any pics right now. Looks the same as your gun, but higher.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

I'd like to try someone's gun before I do mine, if I do mine, just to make sure that I'm going to like it!

Sort of like picking up a shotgun and checking for fit.

Dave

 

[2Barrel]

Great job Dave. Hope you can teach me some of your tricks :thumbsup: