Short Barrelled Revolvers

[smoothshooter]

For those of you that have some of the shorter versions of the Colt Navy and Colt Army revolvers, and Remingtons, is it practical to use the rammer on the gun to seat the balls without using some kind of rigid tubing for a cheater bar?
I'm talking about guns with barrel lengths in the range of 4 or 5 inches long, not the really short snubbies.
Would like to have a gun with a mid-sized barrel length but don't know if a deep chamfering of the chamber mouths would make loading easy enough or not.
I do not want to have to take the cylinder out of the gun and use a loading press apparatus to load.

 

[ZUG]

I have a 5" "Sherif's model and I use a large wooden file handle bored out to go over the ram rod and use that to get a good grip on the gun's ram rod - works good for me.

 

[Sandan027]

My '51 in .44 was/is tough to load using the rammer. I cut a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe about a foot long. Slide it over the rammer and the increae in leverage makes seating balls really easy and the PVC doesn't scratch anything.

 

[frogwalking]

I just use the rod on my '58 Uberti Remington Army. I would be concerned about damage to revolver if I used a cheater, I am old and skinny, but with .454 balls, none I required.

 

[nkbj]

I use a short length of rubber hydraulic hose.
Just my take on things, with the shorty barrels you have less leverage on the lever so smooth the chamfer on the chambers a little to ease the way and don't use oversized balls. You really can put too much oomph on it and damage the wedge area because the steel is usually pretty low yield.

Hey, that reminds me. I should double check the cylinder on the shorty '51 and see if enlarging the chambers' diameter is feasible.

 

[rodwha]

I have a 5.5" Remington NMA and after several cylinders my palm gets a bit sore so I'll use a rag as padding. A cheater might be nice.

 

[Zonie]

If I had one of those short barreled pistols I wouldn't hesitate to use a short length of copper tubing that fits over the end of the loading lever to help ram the balls.

I would make a point of making sure the length of the "helper" wasn't any longer than the loading lever on a full barreled pistol though.

Those little screws the loading lever pivots on can only take so much of a load before they shear off so a longer "helper" could get me into trouble before I know it.

The idea of limiting the loading levers load also applies to the 1860, 1861 and 1862 Colts too.

The holes those toothed loading lever mates with on those pistols have been known to strip out if too much load is applied to them.
After all, they are machined in soft, low carbon steel.

 

[Mr. Troll]

On my 5" .36 Dart Navy, I find that my strength, though pretty limited is more than enough to seat the .375 ball without the use of any kind of extension. Even after an extended session I have no real problem.

 

[rodwha]

Great point Zonie. A 4.5" Uberti Colt Police is on my short list and a cheater was on my mind.

 

[Patocazador]

Be careful, as stated above, you can exceed the strength of the ramming lever and bend it.

I like the rubber hose tip by "Good Cheer" the best. That way you don't gouge your palm.

 

[SacramentoJohnson]

Hi,
Don't use anything extra to load a '51 Pietta made sheriff model. I do use .451 round ball and a fingerless glove on the hand which seats the bullet.

 

[smoothshooter]

I have to wonder if the loading process is harder on pistol frames than the shooting is.

 

[nkbj]

smoothshooter, I really think it might be.
With the chamber barely bigger than the bore diameter and the acceleration mostly happening in the chamber, well, an oversized ball probably does do more going in than coming out!
:2

 

[M. De Land]

No because loading is only mechanical pressure applied slowly where as shooting the projectile employs much more pressure in mili-seconds, resulting in much more stress to the revolver metal as well as the projectile.

 

[LEM]

Cannot tell, I preload at home with a press... just use the revolver's lever at range to reseat a ball when have moved (yes did happen approx 1% of the time, even with Hornady .454 on my 44 Rem...)

 

[smoothshooter]

No because loading is only mechanical pressure applied slowly where as shooting the projectile employs much more pressure in mili-seconds, resulting in much more stress to the revolver metal as well as the projectile.

Not sure I agree.
Sometime I will mount two barrels and loading levers to where I can use the lever and rammer from one gun to push the ball just past the forcing cone in the barrel of the other, and compare the difference in effort required in doing that vs. seating a ball in the chamber.

 

[rodwha]

Not sure I agree.
Sometime I will mount two barrels and loading levers to where I can use the lever and rammer from one gun to push the ball just past the forcing cone in the barrel of the other, and compare the difference in effort required in doing that vs. seating a ball in the chamber.

His response, as I took it, was answering this question:

“I have to wonder if the loading process is harder on pistol frames than the shooting is.”

Pushing a ball through the barrel wouldn’t by any means replicate the forces that firing it does, which is why I believe he talked about it happening In milliseconds. And I’d have to most certainly agree with his assessment.

 

[Rat]

No problem with my 6" barrel.

 

[sawyer04]

I have to wonder if the loading process is harder on pistol frames than the shooting is.

Especially brass framed revolvers. Tends to pull the cylinder axle loose. I have resolved to using a loading stand with the cylinder out of the pistol, however I carry extra cylinders loaded and uncapped. The range is set up with a shooting box and loader as standard equipment.

 

[Juice Jaws]

I have a colt 1849 pocket 4in. barrel and a 1862 police pocket in 5in. barrel and just use the loading level and have no problems with it.