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OK here I go.Cap and ball pistols.UNDELETED


Pit Bull Tex

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Anyone else have any info they want to share?Still got room in my book.

Try to learn to make your smirk look like a grin when you look at non- BP shooters ;):D:P

 

CR

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The only smokeless shooter Rick looks at with a genuine smile is my little girl, Kaya. The rest of us he just tolerates!

Busted :excl::o

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PBT,

 

In my read about the finer points of C&B I came across something I had never heard here on the wire but it made sense to me at least.

Writer said that when you place a ball on top of the cylinder be sure the area where the sprue was is oriented to be in line with the chamber and not at right angles to it. this way when the ball was rammed home the little ring of lead shaved off the ball should be even all the way around.

Author stated that if the sprue area was in contact with the chamber walls there was a possibility the lead ring would not be even all the way around and there was the potential for a small gap between the ball and the chamber. The authors opinion was that this gap was one possible source of chain fires.

 

Me I don't know as I am newer to C&B that you are. Only one I ever fired was back when I was about 8 years old. About all I remember is that it was a 44 cal and it belched a lot of fire and smoke. Oh, had a lot of fun shooting it but never managed to hit that milk jug.

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PBT,

 

In my read about the finer points of C&B I came across something I had never heard here on the wire but it made sense to me at least.

Writer said that when you place a ball on top of the cylinder be sure the area where the sprue was is oriented to be in line with the chamber and not at right angles to it. this way when the ball was rammed home the little ring of lead shaved off the ball should be even all the way around.

Author stated that if the sprue area was in contact with the chamber walls there was a possibility the lead ring would not be even all the way around and there was the potential for a small gap between the ball and the chamber. The authors opinion was that this gap was one possible source of chain fires.

 

Me I don't know as I am newer to C&B that you are. Only one I ever fired was back when I was about 8 years old. About all I remember is that it was a 44 cal and it belched a lot of fire and smoke. Oh, had a lot of fun shooting it but never managed to hit that milk jug.

Good point. Don't know if it's true, but I heard the same thing many years ago and always load sprue up or down. Up is easier to confirm that it is not sideways. It made sense then, still does - true or not.

 

CR

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If you get feed up seeing this up front let me know.I get something new to me when I put it BTT.

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For major matches, 2 or more days, I load with Hornady swaged balls. Don't have to spot the sprue while loading and guaranteed no voids.

 

For all other matches, I use my cast Lee mold balls. They are cut on the tangent, which goes up.

 

Both are pure lead.

 

1860 and 1858 cylinders are .451" chambers which compresses the balls with mostly no shaved rings.

 

Welcome to the best of Holy Black!

 

AR

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Got One of my pistols today.Can't wait to get the other pistol and cylinders.Got them on a layaway plan.It sure feels good in my hand and with the hammer work done on it.I can't wait for the rest,but I have to.I have a list made out of what to do and not to do.What to load and what not to load.I stood in the road waiting for the pony express today.The 1858 fits my old holsters really good and comes out nice.

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Anyone else got the secret on shoot BP or sub?

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For the Purist, the ball must go with the sprue up or down. For CAS/SASS and the way we shoot, just get the ball in the chamber, compress and shoot. The pure lead will conform to the chamber.

I try for a top sprue if possible, if not, so be the installation of same.

 

Now if I shoot a ML Rifle, well now it is a different story, sprue up and centered.

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Got 750 .454 Balls ordered today.

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The sprue should always be oriented to the center of the US to pay homage to the lead mines in Missouri. Of course who knows where the lead comes from these days. Maybe it should be pointed to Indonesia or Mecca.

 

 

At 8-10 yards it does not much matter.

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I am a Clint Eastwood type and have enough cylinders for each revolver at each stage.I only cap them one stage at a time at the loading table. I use SPG lube for BPCP and BPCR.

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You can roll cast balls that have a slight sprue projection between two steel plates with an old piston

ring or someting similar to keep them contained between the plates...

 

Roll them with some pressure on the plates and soon they won't have any sprue projection

anymore. Then you can load them just like the swaged balls you buy that don't have a casting sprue

projection.

 

They need to be the right size

to swage into the chamber mouths tightly even if they don't "cut" a ring as you seat them.

 

Use a lube cookie or waxed wad under the ball on top of the powder and you don't have to mess with

smearing some kind of goop on top of them after they are loaded.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got 765 .454 round balls today.Thanks Slim.Slowly but surely.

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Got 765 .454 would balls today.Thanks Slim.Slowly but surely.

"...would..."? In that case, make sure they're loaded with the grain across the chamber... otherwise, there'll be splinters exiting the barrel... Weanny?!! :ph34r::lol::P

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I don't type well,and did not proof read.

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I don't type well,and did not proof read.

I suffer from the same... hence my many "edited" posts. I just had to rib ya a little! I'm looking forward to comin' down there and shootin' with ya... been sayin' that for a couple of years... and one of these days will actually make it! Hope you'll be shootin' Frontiersman when I do...

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I may never shoot Frontiersman but I will shoot the 1858s loaded with BP and cap and ball.I guess I will just shoot S-gunfighter.I just want to have fun and make some smoke.

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Got to have something to do.Got tallow and duro-felt and bees wax ordered.Going to make me some wads.Anyone else make them?

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J-Bar gave me some old hats to make wads out of. You have no idea how many 36 cal wads you can make from a hat. Purty big pile.

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I watched Mike makes some on a youtube and though it would give me something to do.

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For 8-9 cents a piece for so-so commercial wads I make my own. I get felt from Duro Felt Products in Little Rock AR. A big sheet makes 4-5000 wads. Lube them by melting lube in a shallow pan and let the wad soak up until saturated. I use a BP lube of 2-2-1 mutton tallow-parrafin-beeswax mixture.

 

Never had a pistol foul out.

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Thanks.Mike uses 2 tallow and 1 bees wax.Gives me something to do.I may try 2 tallow,2 paraffin and one bees wax also.

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I used the Pietta Rems as my first cap-n-ball guns and soon after invested in the spare cylinder deal. I think the cylinders were just over $30 each back then. This was well before Pietta changed the bolt/lock notches and those were some really tough actions and ugly exterior blue jobs, almost looked like pain when held next to Uberis but everyone I had worked and all of the cylinders interchanged and worked perfectly, as received. A local smith took care of the actions for me and by the time I sold out and moved to FC, I had four long barl '58s plus enough pre-load cylinders to shoot the big state level matches. OH, I had a third pair of these with the complete gated style Kirst Converters added and even had two pairs of Kirst cylinders, one pair in .45Colt and one was a pair of six shot 45ACP cylinders. The guns were almost flawless BUT alas, there was trouble brewing in paradise!

 

The grips on the Rems was the one thing that I could not get past, they were very uncomfortable to me and sometimes even left my birdie finger feeling bruised after a good match. I must admit that I did not like the grips on any of my RVs, or the ROMVs of the day, they were just overly beefy to suit me. I knew the answer was hidden inside the Colt Army/Nave revolvers but I just could not get them to run problem free stage, much less a match so as much as I loved the Pietta Navy grips I moved on pretty quickly. I purchased my first pair of SAA Ubertis, pre-owned and already had gunsmithing. I really fell hard for them and quickly moved to FC and shortly later sold the Rem guns to pay for the new upgraded ER revolvers.

 

In attempt to prolong an already long story, I did have a lot of fun but still missed Frontiersman. After a few years I actually quit shooting SASS but have on occasion slipped off to the woods for an occasional cap-n-ball fix. Well during this interim I stumbled on to the answer to my quest for the perfect smokers and it was thanks to Prarie Dawg. He offered up a pair of Uberti '60 Aveging Angels for sale over on the Classified and I gots them bad boys. Not only were these great shooters but they revealed all of the secrets necessary for a good pair of SASS cap and ball Colt style pistols. They already had Navy grips installed, the actions were extremely smooth, the wedges were well fitted and last but not least, they had the Manhattan conversions done. A year or so later I found another pair of Piettas that had been similarly worked over by the same smith and bought those, EXCELLENT. None of these have been match tested but this will happen soon, I hope.

 

PS: Right before I quit shooting I did buy another all new set of the short barl '58 Rems BUT that will be another story for another day!

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You can roll cast balls that have a slight sprue projection between two steel plates with an old piston

ring or someting similar to keep them contained between the plates...

 

Roll them with some pressure on the plates and soon they won't have any sprue projection

anymore. Then you can load them just like the swaged balls you buy that don't have a casting sprue

projection.

 

They need to be the right size

to swage into the chamber mouths tightly even if they don't "cut" a ring as you seat them.

 

Use a lube cookie or waxed wad under the ball on top of the powder and you don't have to mess with

smearing some kind of goop on top of them after they are loaded.

You can also put them in your rotary tumbler and the results are the same.

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