Original Home-Cast Conicals

[Smokey Plainsman]

There seems to be a prevailing myth among traditional black powder percussion revolver shooters that it was one of two way: One is the old timers used either round balls they cast at home (or on the trail) or the other was they used pre-made combustible paper cartridges made with conical bullets. Some seem to think the conicals weren’t in use other than in paper cartridges.

NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!!!

Below are actual examples of museum-grade cased Colt percussion revolvers complete with original accessories:

Notice anything?

These cased sets were all furnished with a small mold, each with one cavity for casting a round ball, and the other for a CONICAL. This included the Pocket, Navy, and Army sized pistols. These Colt’s Patent molds were widely popular and could be obtained even without buying a cased set. Here is a closeup of a .44 caliber Colt’s Patent bullet mold furnished with an 1860 Army:

So now you know, gang! If you are a modern shooter who wants to cast some conicals for target work, hunting, or personal protection, just know you are NOT incorrect from a historical perspective! No paper cartridge needed. I imagine round balls were popular for target work and practice as they used less lead and the conicals were the standard for carry during the period.

I hope you all enjoyed this post. I recently bought some .44 caliber Johnston & Dow conicals cast by someone with an Era’s Gone bullet mold and these bullets are a very close match in shape and weight to the Colt’s Patent bullet. I look forward to testing some at the range soon.

Take care gang!

-Smokey

 

[wb78963]

Long ago my first percussion gun was a cased set 1851 Navy original Colt. It had the gun, mold a bos of Ely Bros. caps and a package of cartridges but no flask. It had about 75% original finish.
It was shot from time to time as I had picked up a real "beater" at a gun show on the cheap. No finish but pretty good inside. this was when gun shows were guns not painted rocks and ugly black things.
I did cast a few picket balls with the iron mold after a friend loaned me a set of clamp on wood handles . I shot them and there was no difference from straight ball loads.
I would suspect that for social distancing they would be an excellent choice.
For what it is worth

 

[nkbj]

If you review old mold maker catalogs from the early 1900's you'll see that the shooting of round ball for practice and light loads carried over into the new brass cartridge case arms. That's the way they did things. Where more lead wasn't of use they didn't use it up. Where more powder wasn't needed they didn't use it up. With percussion revolvers if you wanted penetration you hit the object of your affection with more lead, hence the military favoring elongated bullets.