Brass frame vs steel

Do my 30 2nd Gen Colts count as an addiction
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You need a few new additions, I'm about to catch up with you;)
(well, if you count my 3rd gens)
Found a 1860 Cavalry set local, going to look at it this weekend. Actually I have found three Cavalry sets within 50 miles. One is reasonable, the other two the owners think they have gold, 2.5 and 3k.:eek:
 
You need a few new additions, I'm about to catch up with you
(well, if you count my 3rd gens)
Found a 1860 Cavalry set local, going to look at it this weekend. Actually I have found three Cavalry sets within 50 miles. One is reasonable, the other two the owners think they have gold, 2.5 and 3k
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Finding ones that I don't already have is getting harder (and more expensive :eek:). Prices for Heritage Walkers & Garibaldi's are hovering around BB levels - which I refuse to pay. The other limited edition and cased sets don't show up too often; and when they do, they're priced at gold plated levels.

For some reason, the Cav sets have been comming out of the woodwork lately. I think there are 4 on GB and GA right now. Of course, none are listed at less than $1200.
 
Delmar,

You are new here, so to save yourself a lot of questions and us a lot of contentiousness that occurs here from time to time ( :rolleyes: ) try the search function and read through prior threads on this.

You will find that about every question that could be asked has already been answered (over and over and over and over and over... :eek: )

( Can't we just all get along? Oh, hell no!!!!!!! :D )

The Doc is out now. :cool:
 
Yup!

When I was involved in BP shooting in my early Navy days, (Mid 70s) I was stationed in Guam and the only source for black powder items was mail order. Shotgun News was a reliable and well priced source. I bought one of these long barrel Colts in the otherwise 1851 pattern. I think it was EMF. They called it an 1851 Colt Ballister.

It generally took two months for an order to arrive. When I got mine the barrel was actually bent. I mean bent. I laid the barrel on my workbench and the middle of the barrel was about a sixteenth inch off the bench. I straightened the barral with a wooden jig to the point where the bend was completely undetectable.

It also had a handgrip finished in the most awful shade of blond wood that I simply had to make a new grip. I probably should have sent this pistol back, but looking at another four months and even then possibly not being any happier with the replacement I figured I did not have much to lose.

The pistol shot okay for the little bit I used it. I did not shoot a lot in those days because powder was so hard to get.
 
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I really like the $200 price tag, but again it's on a brass frame. What's up with that. I highly doubt that Wyatt Earp had his custom designed 12" colt built on a brass frame.
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Brass frame revolver keep the price down. Many are used by reenacters who do not fire live ammo and don't have any concerns about the frame. There are historically correct brass frame c&b revolvers, Spiller&Burr, Griswold&Gunnison, Schnieder&Glassick. These are guns of the Confederacy, materials just were not available in the South and they worked with what they had.

I would like to see a steel frame for these long barreled versions so you can load them up and benefit from the longer barrel. I would like to try a 30gr load in my 58 Remington Buffalo, but the brass frame would not like it.
 
The pistol shot okay for the little bit I used it. I did not shoot a lot in those days because powder was so hard to get.
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I have played, just a bit, with making my own powder out of stump remover and sugar. I've had some fun loading it in my .50 cal inline. It costs me about $5/lb to make it and it seems to have about 1/2 the energy of BP. It might work out pretty well for one of those brass frame pistols, if you load it to the brim and shove the ball in. It certainly doesn't have the power to tear up the frame.
 
highly doubt that Wyatt Earp had his custom designed 12" colt built on a brass frame.
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Wyatt Earp didn't have a custom 12 inch Colt built. Legend has it Ned Buntline had some built and gave him one. He's also supposed to have given one to Bill Tilghman, Bat Masterson, Neal Brown and Charlie Bassett but none exist now and Colt records don't back it up.
 
The cylinder of the Colt design can batter the backplate causing it to loosen up over time. One fix is to insert a steel ring or washer into the backplate to absorb the battering.
And the arbor which holds the cylinder is also more prone to loosening up where it attaches to the brass frame.
The cylinder pin holes are a weakness of the brass frame Remingtons. These can wear and become oval rather than round which loosens up the cylinder. The fix is to insert steel bushings in the frame to hold the cylinder pin and to keep it aligned.

These problems may or may not happen but they have been known to with some guns.
 
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To Delmar

The problem I had with acquiring powder was thirty years ago and it was in Guam. Now I just go to the shows or I pinch my nose and go to Bass Pro Shop.

I make my own wads, lube, and bullets. The last thing I need is a recipe for powder. :D
 
The last thing I need is a recipe for powder.
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KN03, Sulphur and willow charcoal, y'all already know the amounts. Mix it wet in a ball mill and run it through a screen to granulate it. If ya blow yourself up or burn your house down don't say you weren't warned.:D
 
Wyatt Earp didn't have a custom 12 inch Colt built. Legend has it Ned Buntline had some built and gave him one.
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Here is what the Dixie Gun Works site says...
Wyatt Earp actually had a 12"Colt SAA .45 revolver especially designed for him and a few other select lawmen by Ned Buntline....so we decided that the black powder shooters should have a specially designed revolver also.
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It sounded to me like he commissioned the work, but I don't necessarily believe everything I read. In fact as I re read it, it doesn't claim the pistol they are selling is a replica of his pistol at all. The SAA is a cartridge gun.
 
If ya blow yourself up or burn your house down don't say you weren't warned.
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The KNO3 and sugar is less volatile than black powder and doesn't smell as bad because there is no sulfur. I just run it through a coffee grinder.
 
It sounded to me like he commissioned the work, but I don't necessarily believe everything I read. In fact as I re read it, it doesn't claim the pistol they are selling is a replica of his pistol at all. The SAA is a cartridge gun.
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The supposed guns Buntline had built in 1878 were SAA's. Ned Buntline was a fiction writer and he was a notorious fabricator and Wyatt's rep in that department wasn't much better
 
IMHO a 25-30 gr load in a brass frame well eventually hammer the recoil shield. That's a normal load for steel frames. Keep your load in the area of 20 grs for a .44 or 16 grs for a .36 and you should not have a problem with excessive wear with a brass frame.
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Would shooting heavier conicals add to the pounding of the frame as well?
 
Would shooting heavier conicals add to the pounding of the frame as well?
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Yes, the heavier conical well have more recoil force for the same powder charge. I would avoid conicals in a brass frame, or at least reduce the powder charge even future. Measure the cylinder end play or barrel gap. If it starts to increase that's a sign of the frame stretching and/or recoil shield peening.
 
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