1851 Navy, new guy

O

Overbowed

Inactive
Recently bought myself a birthday/fathers day present from Cabelas. A 1851 Navy 36 cal. I've been reading all I can find on BP revolvers and today I pulled the barrel, cylinder, and nipples and washed them in HOT soapy(Dawn) water. I used pipe cleaners and patches to clean everything then dried it all and applied some virgin olive oil plus anti-seize on the nipple threads. Put some #10 CCI caps on and fired them. 3 popped the first time but I had to shoot the other 3 a second time. They fit perfect for what it's worth. That's as far as I have got in this new hobby.

I have other pistols, a rifle, and shotguns but this looks like a fun new addition to the arsenal. Bought some Pyrodex P too since they did not have BP in stock. If I really like it I'm already thinking about a 1860 and molding my own balls but one step at a time...
 
OB'ed

If you live near a Harbor Freight, they have a bag of nylon brushes that work well for cleaning. They are cheap and are of good enough quality to last relatively long for cleaning. The bag contains around six or eight brushes of different sizes and some are just right for bore, chambers, arbor hole and nipple holes.

They sell them online too but the shipping takes the price up.
 
I do not live all that close but thanks for the heads up. Once in a while I am in a part of town where one is close though.
Any suggestions are more than welcome.
My biggest concern after all my reading was "gun oil". The fellow at the store admittedly did not know much about black powder and what gun oil to use. Better than just saying something just to make a sale. I appreciate that.
thanks again.
 
You use regular gun oil. You will learn very quickly that black powder is very messy, but very fun. It will take you couple cylinders to get the loading process down and once you do, it will be like clock work.

The main thing is cleaning. Like I said, its messy. Luckily its pretty easy to clean up, just use soap and water. Make sure you get it all off, I just use paper towels and Q-tips. Once I get it all the nasty black powder residue off, just clean it like a regular gun and make sure its dry before you put it back together.

It will only take a drop or two of oil for the whole gun, it doesn't take much.
 
Only thing I can add to all the above is to use anti-seize on the nipples. The stuff for car and truck engines bolts will work just fine.
 
Radom has a good point

I like taking the nipples out everytime I clean the revolver. I oil them before reassembly and I don't make them very tight.

I own 33 revolvers and I can get the nipples out of every last one of them without having to resort to profanity.

I don't use antiseize but I think that for some, it is a good idea.
 
You can use regular gun oil in the action but not the bore and chambers unless you clean it out before you shoot it.
 
Get a few wood toothpicks. They are perfect "handles" for cleaning/lubing drying nipples, just shove 'em in the hole.:cool:
 
Also, the wooden sticks used to skewer meat on the grill are great for cleaning out the nipple threads in the cylinder, and also the crud out of the stop notches.
 
Get introduced to Ballistol.

Best lube product for all black powder guns.

Use Bore Butter on the arbor.


I wash my guns with water, pull a bore snake through the barrels, run a shotgun mop into the chambers, spray with moose milk(my preference is 7 parts water to 1 part Ballistol), blow dry with an air compressor and put them away for the next shoot. If I were going to not shoot within a couple or three weeks I would dose them down with Remoil for storage knowing I would have to clean them before I fired them again.
I keep antiseize on the nipple threads and I do not clean them after every shoot.[/I]
 
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