Not counting the Ruger old army , what would be the best top strap revolver for range fun? Easiest to find components for, caliber wise? Also caps #10 or #11? I’m interested in a shorter barrel too! Powder is available and why not another passion!! Lol
Black Powder Loading: Simple?
Handloading by John Taffin
Serious shooters/handloaders know how much work it is, or at least it can be, to find a really good load. There are so many choices of powders and bullets that the search for the best load from one particular gun is endless. Shooting black powder sixguns is so much simpler. All one has to do is dump a little powder in the chamber, seat the ball, cap and shoot. So simple. Or is it?
Looking for the best load for percussion sixguns is not all that different from cartridge firing sixguns. There is an endless possibility of choices. Consider this. Getting ready to load .44 black powder sixguns I have a total of 10 choices when it comes to powder be it black or black powder substitute. There are four different size /brand caps in my shooting box so we already have 40 choices just with these two components. For bullets I have .451”, .454”, .457” round balls, and .456” conical. Now our choices are up to 4×40 or 160. What about lube? I can go without lube or use a wad or any one of four different homemade recipes I have. That gives me 10 possible lube choices which now factors us up to 1,600 possibilities. We haven’t even considered powder charges yet. With a .44 the normal range of selected charges are anywhere from 20 grains up to 40 grains. That would give us 21 more choices, however to keep it “simple” we could go with increments of five grains which gives us five choices per powder and we now have multiplied up to 8,000 choices BUT that is only with one .44 sixgun while I have 30 .44s at my disposal for testing. So now we are up to 240,000 possibilities. WHEW! Oops we forgot the number of shots needed. For each combination I would need to fire a minimum of six shots which brings us up to over 1.4 million rounds fired. I think I better go get started.
My first experience with black powder sixguns goes back to the early beginnings of my handgun shooting. In the late 1950s I had a replica .44 Remington, and two original percussion revolvers, a Colt 1860 Army .44 and a British Deane & Adams .44. In the beginning I knew absolutely nothing about black powder shooting, however I have been learning over the past 65 + years. And as Rush used to say the learning never stops. So, what do we need to get into successful black power shooting with percussion sixguns/cap-n-ball revolvers?
THE SIXGUNS: Currently, the main manufacturers of replica black powder sixguns are Pietta and Uberti found in Italy. They both offer black powder replicas on the Colt and Remington patterns. We not only have copies of the original 1836 Paterson, 1847 Walker, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Dragoons, 1851 Navy, 1860 Army, 1862 Police, as well as the 1848 Baby Dragoon, 1849 Wells Fargo, and 1849 Pocket Pistol when it comes to Colt copies; we also have the Dance Brothers, Leech & Rigdon, Griswold and Gunnison, as well as those which never existed such as .44 1851 Navy Models, brass-framed models, and short-barreled “Sheriff’s Models.”
With the Remington replicas we have what is usually referred to as the 1858 Model, however it is closer to an 1863 version, and is better described as the New Model Army. These are available in the standard 8” blued version in .44 as well as a slightly shorter-barreled .36. There are also shorter and longer barrels such as the 3” .44 Ace and the 12” Bison. In addition to blued there are also brass-framed and stainless steel options, and the Spiller & Burr is also built on the Remington pattern.
The main difference between the Remington and Colt pattern replicas is the former have a solid frame with a top-strap, while the Colts are of open-type construction. The barrel of the Remingtons are solidly attached to the frame, while those of the Colt are held in place with a wedge pin and are removable. The Remington sighting system consists of a typical hog wallow trough along the top of the frame as found on many Single Action Sixguns today matched up with a front sight mounted to the barrel in a dovetail. The Colt replicas normally have a brass front sight and the rear sight is a very small notch in the top of the hammer face which can only be seen when the hammer is cocked. The design of the Remington is stronger, however the Colt has a more natural feel with replicas just as with the originals.
POWDER: There are two types of propellant available, original black powder and black powder substitutes. Repeat after me and never forget: Do Not Use Smokeless Powder of Any Kind!! I was just talking to our range manager recently and he told me of a fellow who had been out to the range earlier in the week and had his new percussion black powder revolver. He was just starting to load it when my friend noticed something very important. He did not have black powder! He did not have a black powder substitute!! What he did have was smokeless powder which he called pistol powder. If my friend had not noticed what was about to happen, what was about to happen could have been serious. The gun would certainly have been destroyed and the shooter possibly seriously injured or worse. Yes I do know Ruger torture tested their Old Army revolver with smokeless powder. That was a test to see the strength of their sixgun. Neither they are I would ever advocate someone actually, as they say, trying this at home. As dangerous as this would be in a Ruger Old Army, the Italian replicas, be they on the Remington or Colt basic pattern, are nowhere near as strong as the Ruger.
I use four brands of black powder, Goex, Swiss, Wano, and Elephant Brand. Black powder comes in granulations, normally FFFFg, FFFg, FFg, Fg which are the finest to largest respectively. The best powder choice for .36 and .44 sixguns is what we call Triple-F, or FFFg. Replica powders include Pyrodex, Triple Seven, and R-S and these also come in the different granulations though not necessarily all of them. Black powder or a black powder substitute is always measured by volume not by weight. For example Pyrodex in the same amount as Goex will weigh lighter, however both are used with a volume measure. So if it 30.0 grains is the desired charge, no matter which type of powder is selected, a 30.0 volume measure is used. Triple Seven is hotter than Pyrodex and starting charges should be reduced about 20%.
PERCUSSION CAPS: These are listed by several manufacturers, however those I have been able to find relatively easy in the past few years have been from Remington and CCI. I have #10 of the former as well as #10 and #11 of the latter. The Remington #10s I bought this past month are advertised as being hotter than the recent Remington caps, and CCI has both Standard and Magnum caps available.
The nipples or cones as they are sometimes called found on replicas today are made to a price which often means one size that doesn’t fit all or anything. They will be found to be too tight for some and too lose for others. Both of these can cause ignition problems, or even the caps falling off when they are fired. I routinely equip all replica percussion sixguns with aftermarket nipples which are made to function properly rather than to be under a price point. As are SliX-Shots found at SliX-Springs. They are made to fit both Remington #10 and CCI #11 as perfectly as possible. They are also made of stainless steel and have a vent hole on the side to help prevent caps from fragmenting when they are fired. If this happens caps or portions thereof can fall into the action and lock up the revolver. This rarely happens with these custom nipples. If it does stronger mainspring will usually alleviate the problem.
ROUND BALLS: These are of pure lead and can be cast from several brands of molds or they can be purchased swaged from Hornady or Speer and diameters of .451”, .454”, .457”, and .375”. One of the keys to good performance with .44 cap and ball sixguns is a properly fitting ball. A tight fit not only aids accuracy it also prevents chain fires, which is more than one chamber igniting at a time. If the round ball is tight enough when it is seated all ring of lead will be swaged off and usually wrap itself around the loading rammer. Most of my Remington and Colt pattern replicas work best with 454” round balls while Ruger Old Army percussion sixguns require .457.”
All cap-n-ball sixguns whether they be replicas of original Remingtons or Colts operate the same way. The powder charge is placed in the cylinder chamber, a wad is placed over the powder if desired, and an over-sized round ball is seated using the built-in rammer under the sixgun barrel. That's the simple outline. Before any percussion pistol is loaded and especially after it has been stored in an oiled condition, the nipple holes must be inspected to make sure they are clear. I always run a nipple pick in each hole. If the sixgun has been stored with oil in the cylinder chambers, percussion caps should be placed on each nipple and fired to clear the charge holes. Again, this is before loading. If this is not done, there is a good chance that the loading will push oil into the nipple charge hole and the gun will not fire. To be sure it doesn’t cost much to do this operation twice; then it is pretty well certain the charge holes are cleared.
LUBE: The proper lubricant also helps to reduce the possibility of chain fires but the main use is to keep powder fouling soft and to a minimum. There are two schools of thought on the use of lube. One is the use of a felt wad in between the powder charge and the ball while the other is a relatively soft lube which is applied to the loaded ball filling out the chamber. I am an equal opportunity employer which means I use both. In the past I have used Crisco in each chamber, however now I make my own usually mixing equal amounts of beeswax and mutton tallow or beeswax and vegetable oil. The former is used mostly in warmer weather while the softer latter recipe is saved for cooler temperatures.
TOOLS: Just as with loading smokeless powders in modern revolvers, there are a number of tools available to help make our task easier. An adjustable powder measure definitely helps as well as a brass flask to hold the powder. There are a number of tools for holding caps including straight-line versions which holds about 20 caps and a “snail” model which has a capacity of about 100 percussion caps. If I don’t have to have more than enough to cap one cylinder at a time, I prefer the latest Polish/Swedish Capper which is a round plastic piece with six arms each holding one cap. These are extremely easy to load and then place the cap on the nipple.
A loading stand provides the third hand needed when loading the cylinder, however I prefer to remove the cylinder and use a separate reloader. All Remingtons are easy to remove the cylinder and some Colts also. Especially when fitting tight round balls, the added leverage is quite welcome to the hand. SliX-Springs also offers a SliX Hand which fits over the handle of the loading lever on revolvers and this also provides extra leverage and treats the hand gently. A quality nipple wrench which really fits the nipples is also required and again I look to SliX-Springs for their SliX Wrench.
MODIFICATIONS: We’ve already mentioned one very important modification, that is the addition of a quality stainless steel nipples. The face of the hammers should also be inspected and any sharp edges or burrs removed as these can grab fired caps and pull them off the nipple, dropping them into the action. Inspecting the Colt hammers is especially important as they have a notch in the bottom face which fits over a pin found between each chamber which accepts this to serve as a safety. These are often sharp and require smoothing with a stone and/or file. The Remington replicas have a mainspring strain screw as found on current Smith & Wesson double action revolvers. I have found it necessary in a few examples to place a shim between the end of the screw and the spring to get a stronger hammer fall. This was accomplished using flattened empty .22 Long Rifle cases. One example required one such shim, while another needed two of them. In both cases it was enough to prevent misfires and provide 100% reliability.
We haven’t talked about powder charges at all. That will come later. For now suffice it to say my measured powder chargers for the .44 sixguns normally range from 25 to 35 grains, while those used for the .36 are about 10 grains lighter, running from 15 to 25 grains. Experimenting will tell which loads with which powders are best. More at another time.
I've spent the last two summers basically with black powder both percussion revolvers and cartridge sixguns. This past week I stopped at Buckhorn and he had just bought a whole batch of guns. He> got about two dozen Webleys which has to be quite valuable; I have two of them and you just don't see him very often. He also came up with two black powder pistols and a challenge they were. One was the Ruger Old Army, blue, 7-1/2” inch with an XR grip frame from an original Blackhawk along with the checkered plastic/rubber grips with insignia. I really prefer to those older grip frames and this one feels very good in the hand. However, MAJOR problem.
Whoever had it didn't know much about cleaning it. I looked down the barrel and you could see nothing but black. Matt at Buckhorn ran a patch down it and it came back dark brown and I said let me take it home and I'll see if I can clean it up some. After patches and bronze brushes I got it cleaned up fairly well, there was still some rust on the lands I doubt if I will ever get that totally removed. I soaked the cylinder in Kroil see if I could get the nipples loose. I woke up in the middle night last Friday about 3 o'clock I went in and checked it and was able to pull two of them so it was more soaking.
Early Sunday morning I went out to the shed and clamped the cylinder in a padded vise. Tapping down with a soft face mallet on the Slicks Springs high quality steel nipple wrench I was able to tap them free in get all of them out. I finished cleaning the cylinder, greasing the nipples and putting it all back together. Tuesday morning I shot it for the first time since the work and my first load was 36.5 grains of Pyrodex with a .457" round ball and wad.
The picture of that first target is attached. Five shots in one hole at 20 yards and one shot just slightly above it. Currently Old Armies are selling from anywhere $850-$1000; this one cost me $400. I took it back to Buckhorn to have the gunsmith cut it back to a Perfect Packin' Percussion Pistol length of 5-1/2" barrel to match my Stainless Steel Version which Tyler Gun Works did for me last month.
The second percussion pistol is an 1851 Navy .36 with a 5-1/2" barrel. Same song second verse though much lighter. Barrel cleaned up pretty good, and tried to remove the nipples. I got two out and then soaked it in Kroil
What is most > interesting about this sixgun is whoever had it knew something about how to make a percussion revolver more reliable and yet did not clean it correctly. By reliability I mean it has a very stiff main spring which helps prevent cap jams as the hammer is not blown backwards at all when the gun is fired and what is even more interesting he did the ultimate thing to a Colt replica for reliability, that is he filled in the notch on the bottom of the hammer face > which serves as a safety when placed on the pin between cylinders. It works as a safety but it also tends to grab fired caps and pull them off enough to drop them down in the action. So the hammer face is now solid on this Replica and I soon found there were no problems with cap jams with this gun.
I found something very interesting about this gun when I had trouble with the cylinder rotating in something hanging up. With a little
investigation I found out this is a Uberti percussion pistol with a Pietta cylinder. Or so I thought. With a little more investigation I discovered I had a Pietta frame and cylinder with a Uberrti barrel. They two versions of the 1851 Navy from these two manufacturers are not quite the same and the threads on the nipples are also different. I dropped it off back at Buckhorn and their gunsmith took of whatever the rubbing/hang up was in short order. For $200 I will take a chance on this one.
As I mentioned These Days an Old Army will run close to $1000. However Buckhorn offered me both of these for a total of $600. My plan was If the Old Army shot well I would have Buckhorn's gunsmith cut it back to 5-1/2". As mentioned above it did and I will. I had Milt Morrison do two custom Old Armies, one stainless cup one blue, fitting them with 12" barrels. They shoot great. And when Bobby Tyler was here early last month he took only stainless Old Army and I had him cut it back to 5-1/2" and he also fitted it with Moose antler grips which are really beautiful. It alsoshoots very well.
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