Blackpowder Birthday

[berkmberk1]

I took Friday off for my birthday and went to the indoor range and shot
nothing but BP. I wanted to get a handle on BP reliability issues because I'm going to use two of the three pistols for CAS. My primary arm, so far, is my EAA Bounty Hunter 7.5 in .45 Colt. Backing it up are my Piettas, an 1851 Navy in the non-traditional .44 and an 1858 Remington in .44.

The powder used in all three was Shockey's Gold 3FG. The SAA use ~32 gr
behind a 250 gr LRNFP and ahead of a WW Large pistol primer. The Cap and Balls used ~30 gr ahead of a CCI #11 cap and behind the ubiquitous
Hornady ball.

Accuracy testing wasn't greatly precise or scientific. I shot groups two handed resting on the sill of firing partition. All three guns easily grouped smaller than my hand at 20-25 feet. The SAA shot about two inches high. The Navy about five inches high and just a tad right of center. The Remington shot about two or so inches low and to the left.

Reliability - all three guns started clean with base pins coated in olive oil, one time. My flask ran out of powder before the two C&Bs actually froze up, but the Navy was starting to stiffen up and the Remington the same, but just barely noticeably. Both of them fired four full cylinders, then the Navy jammed with scrap caps down in the hammer and the last of six caps, a whole one, jammed between the nipple and the recoil plate. The SAA put out 31 rounds before it was useless. It at first jammed for no apparent reason, fired five more shots and did this again and again until I quit trying. Also, the cylinder would at times not rotate and then it would freewheel. At first I thought it was fouled out, but when I partially disassembled it for cleaning, I
found the hand was not staying out where it should to engage the teeth
on the back of the cylinder. Either the spring is weak, broken, or I somehow reassemlbed it incorrectly the last time.

Observations - The SAA is a real CANNON! It Belows. The Navy gives out a Foomp and the Remington sounds off with a resounding POW! The Navy is easier for me to cap manually. I guess because of the good sized cutout
in the recoil plate. The Remington nipples and their cutouts are visually very small to me with my not so good eyes, so trying to manipulate a cap onto the nipple takes some time. I did use an inline capper for a few loads. A capper makes all the ifference......especially when you're paying for the range time!

This was the first time I fired any amount of BP at one time. Its gritty and sticks to everything. My SAA chamber mouths were COATED with fouling! The fronts of the cylinders on it and the Navy were building a good coat too. The Remington seems to hold its own as it doesn't seem to build up as much or as quickly.

I can see now how BP fouling buildup contributed to Custer's "Last Stand"! Shoot alot of BP, real fast, and not be able to do any maintenance, and you're bound to bind up and eventually jam. If you're also outnumbered "a whole lot to one" you're going to find yourself in very deep doo doo!

Also, if you're a Yank or Reb engaged in night combat, armed only with a C&B pistol, and its cold out and your eyesight sucks, you're in deep doo doo because capping will take forever!!

But, HEY!!! Its still fun!

[Hawg]

Sounds like you had a good time. Sounds like the hand spring is broken on the saa. If you got four full cylinders out of the Remmy without binding you're doing good. I heard somebody somewhere say they used wheel bearing grease on the cylinder pin and could shoot all day without binding but I have not tried it. Tilt the muzzle of the Colt up and slightly to the right when cocking and it will lessen cap jams.

Rebs and yanks didn't do a lot of night fighting. Cavalry are about the only ones that actually used pistols in combat and most(Confederate anyway) of them carried from 4-6 and discarded them when empty. Reloading on horseback wasn't really an option.

[Raider2000]

That's a pretty good report..

4 cylinder loads! I usually clean my cylinder pin, cylinder face & the breach of the barel area off of fouling after 2nd or 3rd loads if I'm just using 1 cylinder, that's pretty good but I would suggest that you at least do what I do to make your Remmy last because shooting it too much while bound up like that can wear it out pretty quick.

[berkmberk1]

I wanted to run a "torture" test....only I ran out of powder..... I wanted to experience substantial fouling so I know what the problem areas are. When I tore them all down, only the Navy showed any fouling of any sort on the cylinder pin and it has those nifty machined slots that actually seem to help. The Remington and SAA pins came out slick and shiny! Olive oil seems to work fine.

As for the SAA. I cleaned it out using soapy water, trying not to get much in the action itself. When I rinsed it under the tap I'm sure I got some in there. After I dried it in the oven and put a light coating of oil of olive on it, the hand seems to work just fine! The cylinder locks up tight at full cock and down, and the half cock works just as it should. When I put finger pressure directly on the hand, it moves back slightly under spring pressure. Before cleaning it would get pushed in and stay in...........Can it be that this piece is that sensitive to BP that only a few rounds will foul out the action enough to disable it? I'm still going to tear it down and check all the parts.

Talking of olive oil, I bought this neat little pump pressurized spray can for cooking. You fill it up about a third full (maybe half a cup) pump the cap about 10-12 times and it sprays. Its for spraying frying pans but its great for spraying components like cylinders, barrel assemblies and assembled guns! A few quick spritzes and wipe it down with a rag and voila'......

[Raider2000]

Yup I love Olive Oil for my C&B revolvers when I'm using em & up to a month of storing, if they are stored longer than that I'll use Bore Butter & just Balistol.

You may want to check the clearence of the hand to the frame being that it was that sticky because even my 2nd gen Colt 1873 has never had that type of problem with it's hand "& it doesn't know what smokeless loads are for almost 10 years" & none of my C&B revolvers have either & they would tend to be a little nastier in the soot department, it could also be a weak hand spring.
At full cock the hand should be all the way out of the frame slot right against the bottom of the slot & should take some pressure to push it in.

[berkmberk1]

I tore it all the way down tonite.......nothing wrong with it. The hand is ok as is its spring. It has plenty of tension. No grit in the action. Some little bit of "dirt" as you would expect in a pistol thats had a few dozen rounds through it.

I just can't understand the "jamming" and the failure of the hand to operate properly when there is nothing wrong????

Any ideas?