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So you want a cap and ball revolver?

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So you want a cap and ball revolver?
Here are some points to realize and ponder.

SIGHTS --- If you want one because of its historical context, then you'll get a revolver with crude sights (unless you buy one of the Remingtons with adjustable sights, which is historically incorrect). But don't despair, even with the rudimentary sights a cap and ball revolver can do some fine shooting.

CALIBER --- I have both .36 and .44 caliber revolvers and suggest that, for the beginner, he buy a .44-caliber. Hornady and Speer sell balls of .451 .454 and .457 inch, and they are readily available.
However, the two manufacturers only make a .375 inch ball for the .36 caliber. I prefer a .380-inch ball for better sealing in the chamber and improved accuracy. If you want .380 inch balls, you’ll have to cast them yourself or special-order them from a black powder supplier.
If you buy a .44, you won’t have the problem of special-ordering balls or making your own. However, if tomorrow Hornady or Speer introduce a .380 inch ball, then I’d recommend the .36-caliber because it uses less powder yet is plenty accurate and powerful for targets, tin cans and small game such as rabbits and grouse.

BUY A STEEL FRAME --- Brass frames may look pretty (I think they look gaudy and childish, personally) but they don't hold up as well as the steel frames. Also, I've seen few brass-framed revolvers that were truly well-made. Most are clunkers. Yes, there are clunker steel-framed guns out there but not nearly as many as brass-framed ones. Spend the extra few bucks and get a steel-framed gun.

PURPOSE --- Plan to use it for hunting? Frankly, most cap and ball revolvers are not suitable for hunting anything larger than coyotes.
The Ruger Old Army has taken deer, when a conical bullet is used, but you have to get awfully close.
The Walker and Dragoon revolvers have the power but lack the necessary accurate sights. A notch in the nose and a brass bead for a front sight are non-adjustable and not conducive to the fine accuracy required for hunting.
I don't recommend any cap and ball revolver for hunting anything larger than a coyote, and even then only at close range.
For target work, it used to be said that the .44 was king. But the .36 caliber can hold its own with the .44 caliber out to 50 yards. The trouble is, to my knowledge no one has ever made a .36 cap and ball revolver with modern, adjustable sights. I wish they would, I'd stand in line to buy one. The best that can be done is to buy a Remington .36 and add adjustable sights.
Or, if you'd rather not go through all that trouble, buy a Remington .44 with adjustable sights for use on the range, or buy the world's most modern cap and ball revolver, the Ruger Old Army .44-caliber with adjustable sights.

HOW ACCURATE? --- Just how accurate is a properly loaded cap and ball revolver? They’ll amaze you. At 25 yards, from a benchrest, it’s not uncommon for a fixed-sight revolver to put six lead balls into half a playing card. Some will do better. My Uberti-made Remington 1858 will often put six balls into a 1-1/2 inch or 2-inch circle from a benchrest. Most cap and ball revolvers will shoot tighter than a modern semi-auto pistol, and run alongside a target-grade .38 Special out to 25 yards.

EASE OF MAINTENANCE --- A stainless steel revolver is best for easy maintenance. The Remington has fewer parts than the Colt, but not quite as easily reassembled in my experience. You have to grasp the mainspring with pliers to wrestle it in. No big deal, just a minor aggravation. The Colt disassembles more easily than the Remington design but has more parts to lose or misplace.

CLEANING --- Cap and ball revolvers require cleaning far more quickly than a smokeless powder revolver. Black powder and Pyrodex are corrosive, as may be other approved propellants. In any case, all of the approved propellants create far more fouling than smokeless powder and will gum the action much sooner.
In a damp climate like New Orleans or Seattle, you may find rust on it the day after firing, because of the salts or perchlorates in the propellant.
Much of the time, you can get by with just cleaning the cylinder inside and out (remove the nipples and clean them as well), cleaning the bore and wiping fouling off from the frame, hammer and loading lever.
However, eventually you’ll need to clean the guts of that revolver as fouling builds. To do this, you’ll need to completely disassemble the revolver down to its last screw and tiny part, clean each part thoroughly, oil or grease as required and reassemble.
Many smokeless powder shooters have ruined their cap and ball revolvers by neglecting to clean them, or clean them thoroughly. If you’re lazy or procrastinate when it comes to cleaning smokeless powder guns, then a cap and ball revolver is not for you.
Owning a cap and ball revolver requires a little extra care --- almost immediately --- but with the proper cleaning equipment and knowledge it’s not an onerous task. Most of the time, a cap and ball revolver can be quick-cleaned in 20 or 30 minutes, or detail-cleaned in an hour or 90 minutes.
Some shooters just can’t handle this. If you’re one of them, cap and ball revolvers are not for you.

LUBRICANT --- Avoid petroleum-based lubricants such as chassis grease, WD-40, motor oil, STP, etc. Petroleum products tend to create a hard, tarry fouling that clogs the rifling and moving parts. Instead, use natural greases and oils such as lard, tallow, vegetable oil (olive, safflower, peanut, canola, etc.), Crisco, etc.
My preference is a mixture of mutton tallow (sold by Dixie Gun Works), beeswax and canning paraffin. Sharp-eyed readers will recognize that canning paraffin IS a petroleum product. It is, but it apparently lacks the offending ingredient of other petroleum products. See LOADING PROCEDURE below.

EASE OF LOADING --- In my experience, the Colt is more forgiving during the loading procedure. If you can't quite get a ball down past the mouth of the chamber, because of an accidental overcharge, you can remove the ball by firing the Colt without its barrel assembly.
Remove the barrel assembly by tapping the wedge from right to left all the way.
B. Place caps on all loaded chambers to prevent flashover and deftly rotate the cylinder by hand and cock the hammer to bring the offending cylinder under the cocked hammer.
Obviously, you must be very careful when doing this. Keep your hand and fingers away from the front of the cylinder.
C. Fire the ball out of the cylinder to clear the chamber.
I've done this a number of times.
If you can't seat the ball in a Remington, you have to remove the cylinder, remove the nipple, then use a toothpick or brass pick (never a spark-producing metal) to pick out some of the powder. With some of the powder out, replace the nipple, return the cylinder into the frame, reseat the ball deeper and recap it.
The Remington has more clearance between the frame and cylinder than the earlier Colts, so you can more easily load conical bullets. The Colt 1860 .44 and 1861 .36 have even more room for conicals.

LOADING PROCEDURE --- The procedure is identical for all makes of cap and ball revolvers.
A. Snap two caps on each nipple, before loading, to blow all dust, oil or crud from the chambers.
B. Use black powder if you can get it. My experiences have shown it beats Pyrodex for accuracy.
C. Use a well-greased wad between the ball and powder, and seat it firmly on the powder before seating the ball. The rammer should come to its full stop, or nearly so, when seating the wad.
I lubricate my felt wads with a mix of 1 part canning paraffin, 1 part mutton tallow and 1 part beeswax.
With a kitchen scale measure 200/200/100 grams of the ingredients and melt them in a quart Mason jar, placed in 3 or 4 inches of boiling water. Mix the ingredients well with a clean stick or disposable chopstick and allow cooling at room temperature.
Now, get a clean tuna can. Add two or three Tablespoons of hardened lubricant to it, heat it at a low temperature, and when the lubricant is melted add 100 wads. Stir the wads with the chopstick to ensure they all soak up the lubricant. Allow to cool at room temperature and snap a plastic pet food cover over the can.
The paraffin is crucial to this recipe. It significantly stiffens the wads, helping them to scrape out the fouling.
D. Use a well-oversized ball. For the .36 this means .380-inch, for the .44 it means .454 or .457 inch balls. Forget what the manuals recommend (.375 and .451 inch) and use the larger balls, they're more accurate. Why? When you ram the balls into the chamber, the larger ones create a wider bearing surface for the rifling to grip. This aids accuracy.
E. Seat the ball firmly on the seated wad. There must be NO air space between the powder, wad or ball.
F. Use a lead ball. In my experience, conical bullets are not nearly as accurate as a lead ball. Plus, they are often more expensive unless you cast your own from scrap lead.
G. Use proper-fitting caps. Some nipples require No. 10 caps, others require No. 11 caps. Initially, buy both to determine which fits all the way down on your nipples. Before seating, pinch the cap into an oval shape so it clings to the nipple better. That unusable tin of caps may be used before loading, to clear the nipples by firing a cap on each nipple (see A above).

STRENGTH --- This is largely a moot point when you're talking about the use of black powder and Pyrodex.
However, Hodgon 777 generates higher pressures than black powder when measured volume-to-volume against black powder. For this reason, if you use Hodgdon 777, reduce the load recommended for black powder by 15 percent.
If you plan to use nothing but 777 powder, then the Remington would be better. It is definitely stronger than the Colt. But as I've said, if you’re using black powder or Pyrodex, then the matter of strength is moot. Incidentally, Hodgdon does NOT recommend 777 in any brass-framed revolver. It’s stout stuff!

QUIRKS --- There are certain peculiarities of the Colt and Remington.
The Colt has a large cylinder pin, with circular grooves in it, to collect fouling and hold grease. The Remington has a small diameter cylinder pin without grooves. Generally, the Colt fires more shots than the Remington before the cylinder begins to drag from fouling built up on the pin.
The Remington is much easier to sight on a target. Its square groove in the top of the frame, and square front sight, line up well.
Both of my Remingtons came with unusually tall front sights, which had to be filed down a lick at a time at the range until the sights hit to point of aim.
The Colt employs a wedge to keep the barrel assembly attached to the frame. This must hold them together tightly. If the wedge is not tight in the frame, accuracy suffers.
The Remington is a solid-frame and no such adjustment is required.
In time, particularly with heavy loads, the Colt's wedge will be battered narrower and no longer hold the barrel assembly as tightly as it once did. A new wedge is required, or you can put the wedge on an anvil and carefully widen it again by a few taps with a heavy hammer. A lot of checking is required with this method. Don't overdo it.
The Remington is pretty much trouble-free but it doesn’t balance or point as well as the Colt.

BALANCE & POINTABILITY --- The Colt revolvers win hands down. Even today, the Colt 1851 or 1861 Navies are considered the best-balanced revolvers ever produced. You can easily develop a point-shooting instinct with them that is amazing. The Remington feels massive in the hands and doesn't point nearly as well.

ACCURACY --- For a long time, the Remington was credited with being far more accurate than the Colt. In more recent years, shooters have begun to understand that the wedge in the Colt must be in tight for it to be accurate. A well-made Colt pattern can be just as accurate as the Remington. I shoot both and have proven this to myself many times.

SAFETY FIRST! --- Wear hearing protection and impact resistant glasses whenever shooting. While shooting, keep all black powder and caps behind you, away from the sparks your revolver produces.
Do NOT let someone stand beside you when firing. Gases, lead shavings, hot lubricant and other debris are ejected to the side when firing.
Also, I cannot stress enough that these revolvers are not toys. They were used with deadly effect for about 45 years (1836 to the early 1880s) and are still deadly.
The late gun writer Elmer Keith, who was taught how to use cap and ball sixguns by Civil War veterans, wrote, “For its size and weight, nothing is so deadly as a pure lead ball driven at 1,000 feet per second.”
The ghosts of millions would sigh and agree.
Give a cap and ball sixgun the same respect you would any modern firearm. They are not playthings.

CARRY A GRAIN OF SALT --- Some of what is related at the range, and on the internet, is exaggeration, fabrication, unsubstantiated or downright dangerous. Some of the things I've listed here are opinion. Others may disagree with me, and they’re entitled, but I base the above on my own experience.
Sooner or later, some jackleg will tell you, "Ya know, if ya put a pinch of smokeless powder in the chamber first, it'll shoot cleaner." Beware of this person; he's a moron. Cap and ball revolvers are NOT designed for smokeless powder. Period.

SUMMARY --- what you buy largely boils down to personal preference. I like the Remington for its ease of target shooting, and the Colt for its handling qualities. I shoot both.
If you really get bitten by the bug, as I have, you’ll end up owning more than one.

Shooting a cap and ball revolver is work, but it’s fun to see how the old timers fared with these pistols. Keep the components in a fishing tackle box and buy a box larger than you think you’ll need, because sure enough you’ll buy more accessories.
Store the powder and caps in a cool, dry place such as a spare room, but not near each other. Avoid storage areas with high humidity or heat fluctuations (garage, shed, vehicle, etc.). If you have children or childish adults in the house, keep the powder and caps locked in separate containers.

Enjoy your cap and ball revolver. It’s taken me 35 years to learn what I’ve related to you. I wish I’d had a primer like this when I started back in 1970.
My thanks goes out to you and others for posts like this that have enabled newbies like myself to get into the world of black powder, make confident decisions and do the necessary gunsmithing and tuning to make BP shooting so enjoyable. Those years of shared experience are much appreciated.
 
So you want a cap and ball revolver?
Here are some points to realize and ponder.

SIGHTS --- If you want one because of its historical context, then you'll get a revolver with crude sights (unless you buy one of the Remingtons with adjustable sights, which is historically incorrect). But don't despair, even with the rudimentary sights a cap and ball revolver can do some fine shooting.

CALIBER --- I have both .36 and .44 caliber revolvers and suggest that, for the beginner, he buy a .44-caliber. Hornady and Speer sell balls of .451 .454 and .457 inch, and they are readily available.
However, the two manufacturers only make a .375 inch ball for the .36 caliber. I prefer a .380-inch ball for better sealing in the chamber and improved accuracy. If you want .380 inch balls, you’ll have to cast them yourself or special-order them from a black powder supplier.
If you buy a .44, you won’t have the problem of special-ordering balls or making your own. However, if tomorrow Hornady or Speer introduce a .380 inch ball, then I’d recommend the .36-caliber because it uses less powder yet is plenty accurate and powerful for targets, tin cans and small game such as rabbits and grouse.

BUY A STEEL FRAME --- Brass frames may look pretty (I think they look gaudy and childish, personally) but they don't hold up as well as the steel frames. Also, I've seen few brass-framed revolvers that were truly well-made. Most are clunkers. Yes, there are clunker steel-framed guns out there but not nearly as many as brass-framed ones. Spend the extra few bucks and get a steel-framed gun.

PURPOSE --- Plan to use it for hunting? Frankly, most cap and ball revolvers are not suitable for hunting anything larger than coyotes.
The Ruger Old Army has taken deer, when a conical bullet is used, but you have to get awfully close.
The Walker and Dragoon revolvers have the power but lack the necessary accurate sights. A notch in the nose and a brass bead for a front sight are non-adjustable and not conducive to the fine accuracy required for hunting.
I don't recommend any cap and ball revolver for hunting anything larger than a coyote, and even then only at close range.
For target work, it used to be said that the .44 was king. But the .36 caliber can hold its own with the .44 caliber out to 50 yards. The trouble is, to my knowledge no one has ever made a .36 cap and ball revolver with modern, adjustable sights. I wish they would, I'd stand in line to buy one. The best that can be done is to buy a Remington .36 and add adjustable sights.
Or, if you'd rather not go through all that trouble, buy a Remington .44 with adjustable sights for use on the range, or buy the world's most modern cap and ball revolver, the Ruger Old Army .44-caliber with adjustable sights.

HOW ACCURATE? --- Just how accurate is a properly loaded cap and ball revolver? They’ll amaze you. At 25 yards, from a benchrest, it’s not uncommon for a fixed-sight revolver to put six lead balls into half a playing card. Some will do better. My Uberti-made Remington 1858 will often put six balls into a 1-1/2 inch or 2-inch circle from a benchrest. Most cap and ball revolvers will shoot tighter than a modern semi-auto pistol, and run alongside a target-grade .38 Special out to 25 yards.

EASE OF MAINTENANCE --- A stainless steel revolver is best for easy maintenance. The Remington has fewer parts than the Colt, but not quite as easily reassembled in my experience. You have to grasp the mainspring with pliers to wrestle it in. No big deal, just a minor aggravation. The Colt disassembles more easily than the Remington design but has more parts to lose or misplace.

CLEANING --- Cap and ball revolvers require cleaning far more quickly than a smokeless powder revolver. Black powder and Pyrodex are corrosive, as may be other approved propellants. In any case, all of the approved propellants create far more fouling than smokeless powder and will gum the action much sooner.
In a damp climate like New Orleans or Seattle, you may find rust on it the day after firing, because of the salts or perchlorates in the propellant.
Much of the time, you can get by with just cleaning the cylinder inside and out (remove the nipples and clean them as well), cleaning the bore and wiping fouling off from the frame, hammer and loading lever.
However, eventually you’ll need to clean the guts of that revolver as fouling builds. To do this, you’ll need to completely disassemble the revolver down to its last screw and tiny part, clean each part thoroughly, oil or grease as required and reassemble.
Many smokeless powder shooters have ruined their cap and ball revolvers by neglecting to clean them, or clean them thoroughly. If you’re lazy or procrastinate when it comes to cleaning smokeless powder guns, then a cap and ball revolver is not for you.
Owning a cap and ball revolver requires a little extra care --- almost immediately --- but with the proper cleaning equipment and knowledge it’s not an onerous task. Most of the time, a cap and ball revolver can be quick-cleaned in 20 or 30 minutes, or detail-cleaned in an hour or 90 minutes.
Some shooters just can’t handle this. If you’re one of them, cap and ball revolvers are not for you.

LUBRICANT --- Avoid petroleum-based lubricants such as chassis grease, WD-40, motor oil, STP, etc. Petroleum products tend to create a hard, tarry fouling that clogs the rifling and moving parts. Instead, use natural greases and oils such as lard, tallow, vegetable oil (olive, safflower, peanut, canola, etc.), Crisco, etc.
My preference is a mixture of mutton tallow (sold by Dixie Gun Works), beeswax and canning paraffin. Sharp-eyed readers will recognize that canning paraffin IS a petroleum product. It is, but it apparently lacks the offending ingredient of other petroleum products. See LOADING PROCEDURE below.

EASE OF LOADING --- In my experience, the Colt is more forgiving during the loading procedure. If you can't quite get a ball down past the mouth of the chamber, because of an accidental overcharge, you can remove the ball by firing the Colt without its barrel assembly.
Remove the barrel assembly by tapping the wedge from right to left all the way.
B. Place caps on all loaded chambers to prevent flashover and deftly rotate the cylinder by hand and cock the hammer to bring the offending cylinder under the cocked hammer.
Obviously, you must be very careful when doing this. Keep your hand and fingers away from the front of the cylinder.
C. Fire the ball out of the cylinder to clear the chamber.
I've done this a number of times.
If you can't seat the ball in a Remington, you have to remove the cylinder, remove the nipple, then use a toothpick or brass pick (never a spark-producing metal) to pick out some of the powder. With some of the powder out, replace the nipple, return the cylinder into the frame, reseat the ball deeper and recap it.
The Remington has more clearance between the frame and cylinder than the earlier Colts, so you can more easily load conical bullets. The Colt 1860 .44 and 1861 .36 have even more room for conicals.

LOADING PROCEDURE --- The procedure is identical for all makes of cap and ball revolvers.
A. Snap two caps on each nipple, before loading, to blow all dust, oil or crud from the chambers.
B. Use black powder if you can get it. My experiences have shown it beats Pyrodex for accuracy.
C. Use a well-greased wad between the ball and powder, and seat it firmly on the powder before seating the ball. The rammer should come to its full stop, or nearly so, when seating the wad.
I lubricate my felt wads with a mix of 1 part canning paraffin, 1 part mutton tallow and 1 part beeswax.
With a kitchen scale measure 200/200/100 grams of the ingredients and melt them in a quart Mason jar, placed in 3 or 4 inches of boiling water. Mix the ingredients well with a clean stick or disposable chopstick and allow cooling at room temperature.
Now, get a clean tuna can. Add two or three Tablespoons of hardened lubricant to it, heat it at a low temperature, and when the lubricant is melted add 100 wads. Stir the wads with the chopstick to ensure they all soak up the lubricant. Allow to cool at room temperature and snap a plastic pet food cover over the can.
The paraffin is crucial to this recipe. It significantly stiffens the wads, helping them to scrape out the fouling.
D. Use a well-oversized ball. For the .36 this means .380-inch, for the .44 it means .454 or .457 inch balls. Forget what the manuals recommend (.375 and .451 inch) and use the larger balls, they're more accurate. Why? When you ram the balls into the chamber, the larger ones create a wider bearing surface for the rifling to grip. This aids accuracy.
E. Seat the ball firmly on the seated wad. There must be NO air space between the powder, wad or ball.
F. Use a lead ball. In my experience, conical bullets are not nearly as accurate as a lead ball. Plus, they are often more expensive unless you cast your own from scrap lead.
G. Use proper-fitting caps. Some nipples require No. 10 caps, others require No. 11 caps. Initially, buy both to determine which fits all the way down on your nipples. Before seating, pinch the cap into an oval shape so it clings to the nipple better. That unusable tin of caps may be used before loading, to clear the nipples by firing a cap on each nipple (see A above).

STRENGTH --- This is largely a moot point when you're talking about the use of black powder and Pyrodex.
However, Hodgon 777 generates higher pressures than black powder when measured volume-to-volume against black powder. For this reason, if you use Hodgdon 777, reduce the load recommended for black powder by 15 percent.
If you plan to use nothing but 777 powder, then the Remington would be better. It is definitely stronger than the Colt. But as I've said, if you’re using black powder or Pyrodex, then the matter of strength is moot. Incidentally, Hodgdon does NOT recommend 777 in any brass-framed revolver. It’s stout stuff!

QUIRKS --- There are certain peculiarities of the Colt and Remington.
The Colt has a large cylinder pin, with circular grooves in it, to collect fouling and hold grease. The Remington has a small diameter cylinder pin without grooves. Generally, the Colt fires more shots than the Remington before the cylinder begins to drag from fouling built up on the pin.
The Remington is much easier to sight on a target. Its square groove in the top of the frame, and square front sight, line up well.
Both of my Remingtons came with unusually tall front sights, which had to be filed down a lick at a time at the range until the sights hit to point of aim.
The Colt employs a wedge to keep the barrel assembly attached to the frame. This must hold them together tightly. If the wedge is not tight in the frame, accuracy suffers.
The Remington is a solid-frame and no such adjustment is required.
In time, particularly with heavy loads, the Colt's wedge will be battered narrower and no longer hold the barrel assembly as tightly as it once did. A new wedge is required, or you can put the wedge on an anvil and carefully widen it again by a few taps with a heavy hammer. A lot of checking is required with this method. Don't overdo it.
The Remington is pretty much trouble-free but it doesn’t balance or point as well as the Colt.

BALANCE & POINTABILITY --- The Colt revolvers win hands down. Even today, the Colt 1851 or 1861 Navies are considered the best-balanced revolvers ever produced. You can easily develop a point-shooting instinct with them that is amazing. The Remington feels massive in the hands and doesn't point nearly as well.

ACCURACY --- For a long time, the Remington was credited with being far more accurate than the Colt. In more recent years, shooters have begun to understand that the wedge in the Colt must be in tight for it to be accurate. A well-made Colt pattern can be just as accurate as the Remington. I shoot both and have proven this to myself many times.

SAFETY FIRST! --- Wear hearing protection and impact resistant glasses whenever shooting. While shooting, keep all black powder and caps behind you, away from the sparks your revolver produces.
Do NOT let someone stand beside you when firing. Gases, lead shavings, hot lubricant and other debris are ejected to the side when firing.
Also, I cannot stress enough that these revolvers are not toys. They were used with deadly effect for about 45 years (1836 to the early 1880s) and are still deadly.
The late gun writer Elmer Keith, who was taught how to use cap and ball sixguns by Civil War veterans, wrote, “For its size and weight, nothing is so deadly as a pure lead ball driven at 1,000 feet per second.”
The ghosts of millions would sigh and agree.
Give a cap and ball sixgun the same respect you would any modern firearm. They are not playthings.

CARRY A GRAIN OF SALT --- Some of what is related at the range, and on the internet, is exaggeration, fabrication, unsubstantiated or downright dangerous. Some of the things I've listed here are opinion. Others may disagree with me, and they’re entitled, but I base the above on my own experience.
Sooner or later, some jackleg will tell you, "Ya know, if ya put a pinch of smokeless powder in the chamber first, it'll shoot cleaner." Beware of this person; he's a moron. Cap and ball revolvers are NOT designed for smokeless powder. Period.

SUMMARY --- what you buy largely boils down to personal preference. I like the Remington for its ease of target shooting, and the Colt for its handling qualities. I shoot both.
If you really get bitten by the bug, as I have, you’ll end up owning more than one.

Shooting a cap and ball revolver is work, but it’s fun to see how the old timers fared with these pistols. Keep the components in a fishing tackle box and buy a box larger than you think you’ll need, because sure enough you’ll buy more accessories.
Store the powder and caps in a cool, dry place such as a spare room, but not near each other. Avoid storage areas with high humidity or heat fluctuations (garage, shed, vehicle, etc.). If you have children or childish adults in the house, keep the powder and caps locked in separate containers.

Enjoy your cap and ball revolver. It’s taken me 35 years to learn what I’ve related to you. I wish I’d had a primer like this when I started back in 1970.
very well done sir very well. I am a Gunpowder shooter from the old school (Du Pont) and you are right on the mark. Thanks
Bunk
 
I am new to the Black Powder revolvers but have done extensive research and been shooting guns since I was a young lad, probably started in first grade roughly.

Solid advice on the post and well written. I am going with the Chamber being sealed by the right sized bullets and generally using wads with the loose powder. We can only get the substitutes and I am good with that.

I am going about cleaning very different than most people. With my rifle target shooting I found an article on the best cleaners for Carbon and Copper. In my case I don't see copper and use the Carbon Killer 2000 (I refer to it as CK2K). Its by far the best Carbon removal I have ever seen and its very light odor (to my wifes delight and I don't have to go outside to do it, bad enough in the Summer but horrid in the winter).

I have a low cost Lyman boroscope and it proved solid clean for rifles and same with the BP pistols.

I don't know it would work on black powder but it cleans up the 777 nicely. I drizzle some on a nylon brush and then run wet patches through (barrel and chambers) until it comes clean. It cleans off the other parts nicely (I take an eye drop bottle with me and clean the needed parts at the range as they do start to get cranky ops wise after 12 shots. So far all mine are NMA take offs.
 
Again the mythical chain fire from uncapped nipples or loose fitting caps ... Also the suggestion to buy mythical #10 caps....
 
I have four, at present, cap-n-ball revolvers, all .44 caliber. My first one, that I bought new in 1973 is a brass framed 1860 Colt replica. Next I bought lightly used, two Remingtons. One has fixed sights, and one adjustable sights. The fourth is a phantom, never actually produced, 1851 Navy in .44 caliber, laser engraved. I hope to grow my collection to include some .31 and .36 caliber revolvers, especially some Confederate guns. A Lemat (replica) is also on my bucket list. I would prefer steel or iron frame guns but I realize that some of the guns I want will probably only be available in brass. Heck, I like 'em all and will buy any that are a good deal.
 
one reason I prefer my cab and ball pistols is the stability of the powder
I load my revolvers up right and tight and I know for a fact the pistol will perform as I expect it to every time. Even if I shoot it 5 or 10 years later.
Old modern ammo .... not so much. Just yesterday I loaded up a .22 with some older shells the first two were rather anemic for what I expected and the third round squibbed. That was fun....not. Ended my shooting session with that pistol for the day and left me having to drive it out the barrel with some elbow grease.
Never had that happen with black powder.
 
Again the mythical chain fire from uncapped nipples or loose fitting caps ... Also the suggestion to buy mythical #10 caps....

I bought a tin of Remington Caps to try out the ASP NMA, they were 11s, all they had. Hmmm, had read about pinching caps so yea, something better than nothing. They fit perfectly snug. ??????? So far in a limited buy, I have seen no Number 10s though U Tube guys talk about them all the time.

Flip is on the Pietta NMA, they just fall off and I am not sure an 8 would stay on those.

Irnic while I was moving stuff around on the bench, in a recess under it (odd setup with flip covers at the base) my brain says, that looks like a Percussion Cap tin? I know my Remington's are i nthe gun box. I picked it up and wallah, they were old CCI caps (11 of course)_. My wife had given them to me and I have no idea when they fell under there but they fit fine, clearly came with her gun and they all fired fine.
 
yes, I have not seen #10s in ages... just have to be satisfyed with pinching #11s if you can find those.
 
I got a couple of spare cylinders and the Slixshot cones for the NMA. Even pinched the 11s were moving around. Staying with the cones on the ASP NMA, those work fine. Interesting they got the cones right but the Bolt was not (my wife does not remember but I am thinking the Pin on the hammer was an issue and the filing on the prongs of the bolt was an attempt to correct that by someone she knew).



What impressed me about the ASP was how slick the action is, very S&W like. Not Colt Python but nice.

This was my take on adjusting the sights on the Pietta NMA Target, it seemed like a different way to go and it works though I can't shoot it till next Wds when the range opens again.
 

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Definitely how "misinformation" gets perpetuated though . . .
Declarative statements with no explanation of just how the Remington platform is superior in strength to the open-top . . . comparing "correct builds" of course.
I know Gatofeo posted this a long time ago in different forums but again, this is how "myths" get perpetuated.

Mike
 
Mike:

I would say that is a tough one as it makes sense in more modern, lighter (?) and using what looks like a method or making more rigid.

Until I started reading your details and thinking differently at to what the Arbor actually is in the Colt design, I felt the same way.

You opened up my eyes on that, maybe better (or worse) got me to thinking!

This is conjecture on my part, mixed with some opinion, but what moved into SA was not much better than Rem or Colt BP, it was still slow reloads. If you needed more rounds carrying

Break top and swing out cylinders were the ones that benefited from the top strap design.

Flip of course is the illogical of the M1 "ping" and German attacks. Really? In all that noise and separated by how many yards?

Or Sher-mans brewing up, which they did, all tanks brewed up due to how they stowed main gun ammo. Its not the gasoline that lights off, its the ammo (Russians are still finding that out)
 
I've never snapped a cap or two before loading any of my revolvers and never had a misfire on the first shots. Never done it on any of my guns frankly. Too much waste and it's not necessary if you don't over oil it. I oil them without the nipples in them then run a patch through to soak up the excess. I never oil the nipples and almost never use anti sieze. I clean then every time I shoot them with the nipples removed so I never saw the point, unless perhaps your going to leave it setting for years in which case I wouldn't "over" tighten them....just finger tight.
 
Again the mythical chain fire from uncapped nipples or loose fitting caps ... Also the suggestion to buy mythical #10 caps....
Just because it doesn't happen routinely does not mean it never happens. I'm convinced it can happen from either end under certain circumstances after watching the fire and sparks emitted from both ends in slow mo video and I've never had a chain fire in over 50 years of usage.
 
Mike:

I would say that is a tough one as it makes sense in more modern, lighter (?) and using what looks like a method or making more rigid.

Smokerr, the "top strap" design is cheaper to produce and allows for a small base-pin (compared to the open-top's arbor). That let's a smaller dia cylinder carry a larger payload so, cheaper + efficient size = "modern design". That doesn't necessarily translate to "strength". The "arbor" (top strap of the open-top design) has more material and is part of a design that gives you a much more compact support structure ( that is what ='s strength) mixed with design features that handles forces "efficiently" gives you a revolver platform that is extremely robust.
The only way to make top-strap frames stronger is material used and/or bigger top strap (width and thickness = bulk) . Rugers, Freedom Arms, BFR's all have top straps that are considerably "bigger" than Colt SAA's, Remingtons and the like.
My own tests with the '60 Army "belt pistols" (convenient size) has been a very telling experience. It has had a steady diet of ammo that many top-strap revolvers can't handle. That happens because of design and a "close tolerance" build. The minus side is its a 5 shooter instead of 6 !!
So, that's how all that pans out, not a myth!!

Mike
 
Just because it doesn't happen routinely does not mean it never happens. I'm convinced it can happen from either end under certain circumstances after watching the fire and sparks emitted from both ends in slow mo video and I've never had a chain fire in over 50 years of usage.
Never say never…
 
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