Just back from shooting

Chris_B · August 5, 2007, 05:05 PM

Just got back from shooting. My Dad and I went to the 25 yd range with our pistols, his is a Ruger Old Army .44 repro (1858?), mine is a Colt 1862 repro, .36 NYM Police

He played a little with load size, went from 20gr to 30gr. I think he shot better with 30gr. It's my understanding that 20gr is pretty light for the .44 ROA. I'm using 20gr. We both use wads on top of the powder

We were shooting 25 yards on 1 foot diameter splatter targets. dad was hitting his 5 out of 6, I hadn't shot 25 yards with this pistol before, all mine were off to the right. By aiming 8" to the left and quite low I was getting a fair group 5 of 6, maybe an 8" group if I'm generous with my recollection. We were both shooting standing up, two hands. Seems fairly good for round ball at 25 yards

We also shot his '42 M-1 Garand a while, and that thing is so honest it's just a question of how patient you are before you squeeze the trigger, it's such a nice rifle to shoot

Anyway, two questions on the BP shoot we did

1) On the ROA .44, 2 caps, on two different rounds of shooting, got wedged between cylinder and frame. I suggested rotating the pistol right after firing to drop off old caps. the place the caps were wedged though, was 12 o'clock high between frame and cylinder, looking at the back of the cylinder- in other words, basically in the angle formed by the top strap of the pistol and the frame. So the cap traveled quite some distance- it had to have been the first shot. But it got jammed the same way- twice. Any ideas on how to combat this?

2) I actually had a wad get wedged between the cylinder and the forcing cone on my .36. of course, this jammed the action. Easy fix- I placed a small dowel of wood across the front of the cylinder, and jacked the ramming lever, after I'd freed the wedge. This pushed the barrel off, and I pulled the cylinder and corrected the jam. I noticed later that one of the wads I was about to use was cut on an angle, so the top and bottom were parallel, but not centered on each other. Could this have been the cause of my earlier jam? My Dad was using the same brand of wad (Buffalo Arms), and had a small chunk of wad come out of the pistol as he removed his barrel, after firing his six. My gut tells me this was from poor die cutting- the wadding felt must have had some wrinkles

marcseatac · August 6, 2007, 12:28 AM

On the .36 I would try some different wads. Cabelas sells some good ones. They are firm and fit nicely. First I ever heard of a wad jam. Cap jams more common, they seem to come and go at will. I don't know how it happens but when I first started shooting cap and ball they were more of a problem and clearing them. Now, I hardly every get one. Go figure?

August 5, 2007, 05:05 PM	#1
Chris_B Senior Member Join Date: February 9, 2007 Posts: 3,101	Just back from shooting Just got back from shooting. My Dad and I went to the 25 yd range with our pistols, his is a Ruger Old Army .44 repro (1858?), mine is a Colt 1862 repro, .36 NYM Police He played a little with load size, went from 20gr to 30gr. I think he shot better with 30gr. It's my understanding that 20gr is pretty light for the .44 ROA. I'm using 20gr. We both use wads on top of the powder We were shooting 25 yards on 1 foot diameter splatter targets. dad was hitting his 5 out of 6, I hadn't shot 25 yards with this pistol before, all mine were off to the right. By aiming 8" to the left and quite low I was getting a fair group 5 of 6, maybe an 8" group if I'm generous with my recollection. We were both shooting standing up, two hands. Seems fairly good for round ball at 25 yards We also shot his '42 M-1 Garand a while, and that thing is so honest it's just a question of how patient you are before you squeeze the trigger, it's such a nice rifle to shoot Anyway, two questions on the BP shoot we did 1) On the ROA .44, 2 caps, on two different rounds of shooting, got wedged between cylinder and frame. I suggested rotating the pistol right after firing to drop off old caps. the place the caps were wedged though, was 12 o'clock high between frame and cylinder, looking at the back of the cylinder- in other words, basically in the angle formed by the top strap of the pistol and the frame. So the cap traveled quite some distance- it had to have been the first shot. But it got jammed the same way- twice. Any ideas on how to combat this? 2) I actually had a wad get wedged between the cylinder and the forcing cone on my .36. of course, this jammed the action. Easy fix- I placed a small dowel of wood across the front of the cylinder, and jacked the ramming lever, after I'd freed the wedge. This pushed the barrel off, and I pulled the cylinder and corrected the jam. I noticed later that one of the wads I was about to use was cut on an angle, so the top and bottom were parallel, but not centered on each other. Could this have been the cause of my earlier jam? My Dad was using the same brand of wad (Buffalo Arms), and had a small chunk of wad come out of the pistol as he removed his barrel, after firing his six. My gut tells me this was from poor die cutting- the wadding felt must have had some wrinkles

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August 6, 2007, 12:28 AM	#2
marcseatac Senior Member Join Date: October 7, 2006 Posts: 225	On the .36 I would try some different wads. Cabelas sells some good ones. They are firm and fit nicely. First I ever heard of a wad jam. Cap jams more common, they seem to come and go at will. I don't know how it happens but when I first started shooting cap and ball they were more of a problem and clearing them. Now, I hardly every get one. Go figure?