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CVA 1851 Colt Navy

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Possum

32 Cal
Joined
May 23, 2022
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Location
West Central Florida
Newbie here for a revolver question. Was gifted a CVA 1851 Colt Navy revolver in .36 caliber and would appreciate any insight on the whys, and how to prevent chain fires.
 
chain fires primarily come from a loose cap fit

Get the right percussion cap for the revolver and it should end the problem

<above is assuming you have a good ball fit that is shaving a tiny ring off the bullet, you got a good bullet seat and it won't chain fire from the front>
Thank you,
 
You might want to buy some after market nipples and get caps to match them. The cap fit is important. The other idea is to use wads. These are manufactured and lubed. You can also make your own. I've done both but making your own doesn't save that much money so now I just buy wads. So you put in the powder charge, say 18-20 grains fffg and then a lubed wad and then the ball. No need to use Crisco or something else over the ball. There cannot be any air space between powder and ball so exert enough pressure (within reason) on the loading lever until you hear a slight crunch of the ball over the powder, or simply snug if you use a wad. The closer the ball is to the front end of the chamber, the more accurate the load is- generally speaking. Very often a larger powder charge is more accurate, that is, some folks use only 10 grains and put cream of wheat or some filler on top to take up space but in my experience a larger charge 18 gr plus- is more accurate.
A lot of chain fires start on the first load of the day. We talked about this a few years ago. If the nipples are oiled after cleaning, the caps might slide off from recoil. At the start of a shooting session, fire a cap on each nipple to burn up any oil and then load.
 
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