No more felt wads in my '58 remi

noelf2 · October 5, 2008, 09:45 PM

I usually shoot my pietta remi with a cartridge converter, but I decided to put the old C&B back in it and see what the best load is for it. After a lot of shooting with wads, no wads, crisco lube over the ball, no lube, wad under ball and crisco over the ball, anywhere from 25 to 35 grains fffg, .451 and .457 ball, on and on (I did a heck of a lot of shooting) I finally figured out what my remi likes the best.

35 gr fffg, .457 soft lead round ball (I always used .451 before), no lubed wad at all (ball right over the powder), and some crisco over the ball. Got tight groups at 20 yards (about 3") and just about 2 inches below point of aim.

I found an easy way to apply the crisco as well. I got a large syringe, one of those inkjet refill kind (no needle though), pulled out the plunger part, filled the main part with crisco (sort of like putting grease in a grease gun), and put the plunger part back in. I could just squeeze some crisco in a circular motion and get it around the edge of the seated ball. Kept the grease off my hands.

Raider2000 · October 5, 2008, 09:50 PM

Now that is a neat idea with the grease, Kinda wish Ida thought that

That's not bad shooting though & you'rs seem to be like mine in that they both like a heavy load & don't care much about the wads.

Keep on shootin my friend, one day we need to get together for a shootin party.

noelf2 · October 6, 2008, 08:36 AM

Raider - Yes we do! If your IWL chapter will allow guests, we could make some smoke clouds out there. I'd invite you up to mine but they stopped allowing guests last year (insurance issues I think).

I had a blast (no pun intended) shooting the remi on Saturday. Here's some more detail:

1. Adding felt wads under the ball caused it to shoot low and left with any fffg load. Happened with both .451 and .457 round ball but .451 was worse. Adding grease over the ball as well didn't help it. The problems with the felt wad really surprised me.

2. 25 and 30 grain fffg didn't make a great pattern. About 6" at 20 yards with .457 round ball. Was a bit worse with .451 round ball, and there were a few flyers that could have been my fault. Even though the c&b cylinder just shaves off more lead from a .457 ball, it must give it that little more area to grip the rifling and improve accuracy. Moving up to 35 grains tightened the group considerably. I thought about going up 1 more gr of fffg at a time to see if I could peak it more, but that 3" group sold me for now.

3. I loaded the cylinder each time, out of the gun, with a loading press. I wiped down the cylinder after each 6 shots, including the cylinder pin hole using a small brush. I also ran a nylon bore brush (that I use for my bp rifles) down the bore after each 6. I carefully sprayed a dab of rem oil on the cylinder pin to loosen it up after each 6 shots. Doing this, I think I could have fired it all day without binding.

October 5, 2008, 09:45 PM	#1
noelf2 Senior Member Join Date: April 14, 2008 Location: Stuart, VA Posts: 2,473	No more felt wads in my '58 remi I usually shoot my pietta remi with a cartridge converter, but I decided to put the old C&B back in it and see what the best load is for it. After a lot of shooting with wads, no wads, crisco lube over the ball, no lube, wad under ball and crisco over the ball, anywhere from 25 to 35 grains fffg, .451 and .457 ball, on and on (I did a heck of a lot of shooting) I finally figured out what my remi likes the best. 35 gr fffg, .457 soft lead round ball (I always used .451 before), no lubed wad at all (ball right over the powder), and some crisco over the ball. Got tight groups at 20 yards (about 3") and just about 2 inches below point of aim. I found an easy way to apply the crisco as well. I got a large syringe, one of those inkjet refill kind (no needle though), pulled out the plunger part, filled the main part with crisco (sort of like putting grease in a grease gun), and put the plunger part back in. I could just squeeze some crisco in a circular motion and get it around the edge of the seated ball. Kept the grease off my hands.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

October 5, 2008, 09:50 PM	#2
Raider2000 Senior Member Join Date: July 23, 2007 Location: Virginia Posts: 719	Now that is a neat idea with the grease, Kinda wish Ida thought that That's not bad shooting though & you'rs seem to be like mine in that they both like a heavy load & don't care much about the wads. Keep on shootin my friend, one day we need to get together for a shootin party.

October 6, 2008, 08:36 AM	#3
noelf2 Senior Member Join Date: April 14, 2008 Location: Stuart, VA Posts: 2,473	Raider - Yes we do! If your IWL chapter will allow guests, we could make some smoke clouds out there. I'd invite you up to mine but they stopped allowing guests last year (insurance issues I think). I had a blast (no pun intended) shooting the remi on Saturday. Here's some more detail: 1. Adding felt wads under the ball caused it to shoot low and left with any fffg load. Happened with both .451 and .457 round ball but .451 was worse. Adding grease over the ball as well didn't help it. The problems with the felt wad really surprised me. 2. 25 and 30 grain fffg didn't make a great pattern. About 6" at 20 yards with .457 round ball. Was a bit worse with .451 round ball, and there were a few flyers that could have been my fault. Even though the c&b cylinder just shaves off more lead from a .457 ball, it must give it that little more area to grip the rifling and improve accuracy. Moving up to 35 grains tightened the group considerably. I thought about going up 1 more gr of fffg at a time to see if I could peak it more, but that 3" group sold me for now. 3. I loaded the cylinder each time, out of the gun, with a loading press. I wiped down the cylinder after each 6 shots, including the cylinder pin hole using a small brush. I also ran a nylon bore brush (that I use for my bp rifles) down the bore after each 6. I carefully sprayed a dab of rem oil on the cylinder pin to loosen it up after each 6 shots. Doing this, I think I could have fired it all day without binding.