.451 or .454?

[10acres]

My Uberti 1873 Cattleman BP likes the .454 balls. Leaves a nice shaved ring after loading them. I use an Uberti loading press to load my cylinder. Seeing how there is no ramrod on the gun a loading press is a necessity.

 

[rembrandt78737]

Funny, it varies by manufacturer and even production run/year, especially for Piettas. All my Pietta’s (both 1858’s and armies) prefer a .454. The .451 diameter ball won’t shave a ring at all. These were bought in the early 2000’s. My Uberti Walker takes .457. They all required some shade tree gunsmithing to get the actions smoothed out as well. It would really be nice if the manufacturing tolerances were better. But unless it’s a cartridge firearm, they don’t seem to care.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

For years I shot an older Navy Arms (Uberti?) 1858 NMA in competition with .457 round balls. From pure soft lead, it shaved a nice ring and was not too difficult to load with the rammer. Shot VERY tight groups.

ADK Bigfoot

 

[Eutycus]

What is that handle from? I need to make one for my 32 caliber

A come-A- long or however you spell it. Comaling? The cable /ratchet thing. I would think a handle off of something would work.

 

[Eutycus]

Oh, I forgot to mention. Mine is a ASM .44 Navy. The .451 does leave a tiny ring.

 

[nkbj]

Someone should make 1858's with 1851 loading rams.

 

[ord sgt]

I use .451 ball in my Pietta Colt revolver. I get a nice ring of lead while loading each chamber. I should collect all of the shavings and melt that lead for reuse. A friend swears by .454 in his Remington revolver. But he had work done on the cylinder, making all the chambers a uniform dimension. He used it in competition. shooting.

 

[Eutycus]

Ever do any "cyphering" to see how many rings to the ounce?

 

[nightwolf1974]

I use .451 in my short barreled Colt because the short ram makes .454 very difficult to ram but still cuts a small bit of ring.
My Rem 1858 it's the .454. shaves a good ring and provides better bearing surface in the riflings.
If my Rem 1858 cut a good ring with a .451 I would be checking the cylinder bore to barrel bore max.
44 cylinder bore should be .449 and that also depends on barrel max. I had a walker that the barrel measured .446. didn't shoot very good. Brought cylinder bore up to .451 and it shot very good.

I do the same with my "older" .44 cal. brass framed 1851. Pushing a .454 rb in puts more pressure on the gun while loading...so I use .451s in that one, and .454s in the newer revolvers.

 

[Snydly]

I have this one that I use for my Pietta Colt Paterson.
View attachment 60406

Why don’t you buy the loading ram?

 

[B P Arn]

Why don’t you buy the loading ram?

There is no provision on this model gun for a loading lever and ram.

The lack of a loading lever assembly is part of the appeal of this early model revolver, to me.

 

[William Lincoln]

Used an old drill press that I modified as a loading press. This business of ball size
comes up a lot. The reason people advise against the 451 is that under recoil they say
the ball comes loose or slides forward. Never happened to me. Also it is claimed that
a larger ring of lead will prevent chain fires. After shooting virtually thousands of
loads over many years I only have had three instances of chain fire. And two of those
were in the same gun. Since I began using softened beeswax on the cylinder chambers I
have not had a chain fire period. Just shoot what you can get .451/.453/.454 but use
wads or pack the cylinder mouths.

 

[Kansas Jake]

.451 seem to work fine in my Piettas. I have a beater Rogers and Spencer that needs a .454. A ,451 almost falls into the cylinder in it.

 

[user 33697]

this is the stand i bought but never had the chance to use yet. has the attachments for 44cal. and 36cal.

View attachment 60291

Hi bore butter,

I also purchased the same loading stand from powderinc.com that I use to load my Uberti 1858, Uberti 1860 and ROA. A little expensive, but is the best loader.

 

[bore_butter]

Hi bore butter,

I also purchased the same loading stand from powderinc.com that I use to load my Uberti 1858, Uberti 1860 and ROA. A little expensive, but is the best loader.

i'll find out how easily it works come warmer spring weather. i know for sure it will handle the .454 balls in my 1858 new army pietta better than the loading system on the revolver. in fact the cost of repairing the loading system kinda equals the cost of that loader.

 

[Eutycus]

I would think a ring is a ring. A small one from the 451 and a little larger from the 454 but they are the same size once they are rammed into the cylinder, right? And there really shouldn't be any sliding forward under recoil if any size ring is made. No matter how small.

 

[bore_butter]

i never ever had any movement of the ball in that .44 pietta with the .451 diajmeter ball, and i wish i had never bought the .454's. i had planned to melt the rest of them into maxi-balls but now i'll just press them into the cylinder with that bullet press and do some shooting if the weather gets warmer and the virus lets things open up a bit more.

 

[wb78963]

Most of my revolvers have had theat chamber mouth sharp edge broken very slightly
As a result the . 451" ball swages into the chamber with out the lead shavings. Purposefully dry balling the cylinder showed a nice wide sealing band .This was done in a .44 Pietta Army and a Pietta marshal..
Since these revolvers are used for fun no "Wart Hog" loads are used and the balls stay in position.
Works for me YMMV
hold center
Bunk

 

[user 33697]

I purchased Uberti 1858 and 1860 revolvers plus an extra cylinder for each a year ago from Dixie. All four cylinders were extremely hard pressing a .454 ball into the chambers or not at all with my cylinder loading stand. Uberti advertises that both the 1858 and 1860 will seat a .454 ball but appears not with my revolvers. Fortunately, I purchased a Lee .451 double cavity mold for these revolvers.

 

[Eutycus]

I suppose a person develops a feel for what for what is "normal" when loading be it a .451 or a .454.Can you tell if it's too easy? Does one go by the feel or the size of the shaved ring of lead?