I got out shooting today

[Doc Hoy]

It was fun.

[Doc Hoy]

It is the residue of bore lube, soot and gunpowder that gets all over the steering when of my truck.

[zullo74]

The "steering when" ?

[Doc Hoy]

Alternate spelling for "steering wheel" WHEN I have consumed two Genius Stouts.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Doc: Just what did you take along with you to shoot. If you don't mind sharing that information Sir?_

[Doc Hoy]

...A stainless ROA and a blued ROA, a Third Gen 1861 Navy and a Pietta 1860 Colt.

I have three Colt second and third gen pistols and I am disappointed in the performance of each. They are all very tight and after about two cylinders they get almost unmanagable. Hard to take apart for loading. Hard to put back together after loading. I am happy to have these pistols but I am about ready to turn them back into wall hangers.

The Pietta gave me a little trouble too. Three misfires in the first six shots. Successful discharge the second time around with no corrective action taken. Just recocked it and fired successfully. Number ten caps are a little tight but tens work on every other Pietta I own.

I am a better shot with the Blued ROA than the Stainless ROA. Better sight picture perhaps. The Stainless has a blued sight like the blued pistol but the bluing is begining to fade or wear onthe stainless. I did the magic marker trick today but did not shoot enough to know if it helped

[Beagle333]

Sounds like a fun day though! Any day shooting is a fun day. Even when I break parts, I still wouldn't wish that day hadn't happened, because somewhere in it, there was shooting.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Hey Doc Hoy. I don't want to take over your thread here or steal its thunder. But I have a question perhaps you can answer for me. I see you and many others here shoot those 1850-1860s weapons all the time. My Question: do you tune up the triggers on your pistols for an easier pull and let off? I've always wondered if these older styled pistols are capable of that type of work being done on them? Thank you Sir,_

[Doc Hoy]

...I was replacing a trigger in a Remington and decided to fiddle with the pull.

I bought myself a scale and messed with it. I can't remember specifically but I think I recall getting it down to about two pounds.

I decided that for my shooting it is not worth the effort.

This is another instance of the negative impacts of shooting alone (as I always do). If I shot with others who really know what they are doing I might be able to learn just how much trigger pull can effect the outcome.

I have handled pistols in which the owner worked on the trigger and I did not like them. I handled an 1860 Uberti in which the trigger pull was so light you almost didn't have to touch it. It was at a gun show and while looking at it the hammer fell becaused I just brushed the trigger as I was putting my finger in the trigger guard. It was very embarrassing.

On the other hand I still have an 1851 pattern Sheriff with a good trigger pull and when I was still shooting it the darned thing was a great shooter.

[straight-shooter]

Good to hear you got out to shoot the smoke wagons. My last time out was the first time in too long. When my TOP loading stand shows up i'll be going out again.

I too found the Pietta 1858 and the Uberti 1860 being hard to manage after a few cylinders so I spritzed them with some Windex/Ammonia and wiped and they were back in action. Kind of a pain but it works. Using the TOP loading stand, the cylinder is out of the gun anyhow so no big deal in the future.

Ah yes, the ol' dirty hands on the wheel and the smell of rotten eggs in the car on the way home. "Honey, can you wash my jacket" before i go back to work tomorrow.... Haha.

[capper]

Hey Straight-Shooter,where does one get a TOP loading stand? I need to get a stand.

[straight-shooter]

You can find the cylinder loader at www.biglube.com and in the menu on the left hand side look under "Bullet Extras".

[Ultravox]

Hey Doc, I like to toss some wet-wipes in my shooting bag.

Keeps the powder residue off my steering when.

[Beagle333]

I was testing the difference in my beeswax/olive oil vs. my beeswax/crisco lubes and also the difference in Pyrodex and 777 with each lube, and also tried turning the sprue different ways. 60 balls later I find out:

Results:

1.) Pistols still got dirty.
2.) Looks like the problem is me.

Easily summed up in one pic.

7yds, 1 hand

But I had a whale of a time!!

[Bill Akins]

Doc is a genius when it comes to working on BP revolvers and some of the stuff I've seen Doc do. So when Doc said...."Steering when" and "When I have consumed two Genius Stouts".

Well I'll drink to Doc's health and hoist my Guinness stout right along with him. Lol.

Steering? We don't need no stinking steering! We steer when we finish our genius stout!

Or if one's taste ran to very smart but corpulent ladies, it could be "When we finish with our stout genius".


Grin, just playing Doc.



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[Doc Hoy]

[Bill Akins]

Just gotta be careful Doc, when you've finished the last couple of your Guinness stouts and all you have left is Schlitz, and you yell up to the house for wifey to bring you one. "Bring you a what?" Lol.

But seriously, glad you got to get out and have fun shooting. I just finished installing a new case hardened hammer and stainless (like) cylinders on my 1860's and need to get time to get out and shoot too.

Give this a try just for giggles and grins Doc. Try spraying your arbor with teflon lube rather than using some wet kind of lube. The teflon sprays on with a wet carrier, but quickly dries to a dry teflon residue that won't attract spent BP residue like a wet lube will. See if that helps with your cylinders binding.

Also since I use cornmeal over the powder in my chambers as a fire break instead of using grease over the ball, I find that it not only keeps my gun completely grease free, but also doesn't attract spent BP residue that ordinarily will mix with grease to create a gummy mess that gums up the arbor and barrel to cylinder gap area. So try using cornmeal over the powder charge under the balls instead of grease over the balls and try using teflon spray on the arbor instead of grease too. See what happens and let me know how that works for you.



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[Doc Hoy]

...Except for getting my better half to bring the beer.

She and I have an greement. I don't ask her to bring me beer and she doesn't ask me to go to church.

[zullo74]

That's probably because she knows you can't drink beer in church!

[pgdion]

I got out shooting today

So you're saying it was a good day then!

[Doc Hoy]

is a good day when you can scare some frogs with an ROA.

[Lee McNelly]

2 beers

[Hardcase]

I missed out on the good weather last weekend while I was up in northern Idaho. Now it's raining again. You can call me a fair weather shooter (it's OK)...I just don't like to get rained on!

I am so itching to get out. The last time I went, I brought the wrong sized balls and had to shoot new-fangled guns.

Maybe this weekend...

[Hawg]

try using cornmeal over the powder charge under the balls instead of grease over the balls

If I use filler I don't have room for the ball.

[Bill Akins]

Hawg Haggen wrote:
"If I use filler I don't have room for the ball ."

Then you gotta reduce the powder charge a bit to make room Hawg.
But you know that. That's the only drawback of using filler over the powder vs grease over the ball....that you can't use maximum powder charges with filler. But since I always only shoot 22 to a rare max of 25 (at the very most) BP grains in my .44 brass frame, nickel plated 1860's, I always have plenty of room for filler. Nothing I ever shot ever complained that I wasn't using a heavy enough maximum powder charge Most of the time shooting paper, tin cans or pine cones anyway. Saves on my powder too.



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