first time firing a rebuilt gun now where to shoot it???

[prostock56]

Well with being off recuperating from hernia surgery I finally had time to get out the old 1858 Remington black powder revolver Angela and I had been working on restoring to firing condition.
For those of you who didn’t know Angie she had an old old replica Remington she used in civil war enactments years ago it was holstered for probably 10 years with out being properly cleaned and stored after it was last shot. It had become rusted in places and all gummed up we discovered several chambers were even still loaded. It became a project we could work on together Angela had some PTSD issues at times and the gun was a good way to help her relax at times and occupy her mind on something beside flashbacks and helped a lot of nights that otherwise she would have probably used less healthy alternatives to cope with the stress my thought was lol you can’t be impaired when working on a gun so it made a very good project in many ways besides just fixing an old gun.
It took quite a bit of work and some cleaning supplies to disassemble it I’m a pretty good auto tech but never had anything like a cap and ball revolver apart Angie knew quite a bit about it and we found instructions on the web and went from there it took a good 6 months of cleaning oiling and some refitting of parts to get the pistol to where it seemed reliable with good cylinder timing, good hard cylinder lock up and hammer, trigger feel so we thought it would be safe to fire. Darn I'm almost a gunsmith
We finished final reassembly a little after Thanksgiving and started saving up for firing supplies good thing Ang remembered most of it becuase damn you need a lot of stuff to shoot one of these old cap and ball guns. Powder, percussion caps, lead balls, powder measure flask, several different lubricants one for internal parts one for the bore some for over the chambers to prevent chain fires and fouling these things ain’t your modern smokeless powder wipe em off and your done like I'm used to lmao and cleaning after shooting is a bit of a bitch. Took till a week or so after when we had the money we went to Cabella’s and bought the supplies took a night to read about loads and how many grains for power or accuracy decided on 40 grains seems if you load them right they are as accurate as any modern firearm and yep just as deadly as thousands of boot hill cowboys and civil war soldiers found out. We carefully loaded each chamber with 40 grains of fffg powder a lead ball and bore butter over every ball I only loaded 5 so the hammer could rest on an empty lol these old things don’t have a safety I didn't know about the notch between the nippes but heck I think an empty under the hammer is best anyway Now it was loaded and ready to go just had to find a place to shoot indoor ranges here don’t let you shoot black powder so the search began to find a place. Lucky for us a dear old friend of mine Kendra had moved to just outside Oregon WI. And we could shoot there. Plans were made to take some time around Christmas to drive up and if all went well shoot a few times to see how it worked and get a good feel for it.
Plans don’t always go the way you hope it never got to be all the holiday and future plans crashed and burned when Angela passed away with out warning just before Christmas. The gun got put away wiped down and oiled I have thought about it a few times and still wanted to one day get out and see how we did fixing it.
Well lol back to that first sentence I have had some time off healing up and as long as I did I drove out to Oregon to hang and party a bit in Madtown and finally got the gun out. It sat loaded from just after Thanksgiving with no apparent ill effect I pulled back the hammer and boom boom boom all five fired perfectly no jams no misfires no nothing just a real nice loud boom belching fire and smoke lol I can see at least one reason indoor ranges don’t let you shoot black powder I lmao it's way better than the movies the way this thing roars and a foot of flame and a huge blast of white smoke kicks pretty hard to with a 40 grain load I was under the impression the old B/P guns were a bit softer on the recoil but this damn thing is more like the 44 it is bucks your arm up pretty good on each shot. I carefully reloaded and we put a 8in paper plate out about 25 yards most of these old guns they tell me were sighted to be POA at about 75 yards yep 75 yards lol for a pistol that seemed like a long range to me everything I read says should be a bit 4-6in low at 25 so I adjusted my aim for that and popped of six rounds just to get a feel for sight picture and where the rounds were going. Reloaded again and really tried to see what it could do. What a wonderful old gun it put six ball through the plate and I’m sure with some practice 2-2 and a half in groups will be no problem shoots like a dream not one missfire in 17 shots remarkable accuracy and penetration as good as any modern 44 cal I have shot. I was going to dig a ball out of the tree but it was in so deep I would have needed a drill lol that said it’s not a speed loader that’s for sure and YEP the clean up is a lot more than a modern gun but still fun thorough cleaning of everything besides grips with hot soapy water and then re-oiling everything. What a blast I wish Angie could have been here to see how it turned out. That wasn’t what the project was about to begin with but I know she would have been thrilled to see the end result. What a fantastic day and a great way to remember a wonderful person in my life finally seeing the finish of a project started so long ago as therapy that turned into wonderful “together” time on many many nights. Yes I cried a lil while cleaning up and remembering the nights we spent working on it but there good memories to have. Now the real problem finding a place to shoot in the Milwaukee WI area that doesn’t require a $300.00 membership for an outdoor range to shoot black powder. Does anyone have any thouhts on a range in the Milw WI area and anything else I should have or be thinking about to shoot this gun Angela is the one who knew about it and she is gone so I'm going on what I have read and think I'm going to keep shooting as it's a ton of fun

[44 Dave]

Glad I don't live in Milwaukee Co.! I live north of Minocqua, and there are 3 free out door ranges with in 20 miles of me, donation box at 2 of them.
This is not counting the pistol range on the resort where I work and an old gravel pit down my road where some of the neighbors go to shoot.
Have you asked at a local gun shop?

[Doc Hoy]

But I am curious...

56 what?

[Roshi]

great first post. I'm sure Angie was watching over you.