Caliber of choice?

Z

ZVP

New member
I went through a period where I refused to shoot anything but .44.s then, I bought a little Piettia Police (in .36 caliber). Wow, it sure changed my mind! Groups were tight and with a .22 gr load, was miserly with powder consumption.
Now I cannot find dedication to any one caliber and realise that my shunning the .36 in the first place was due to shooting a poor revolver and selecting the wrong caps. The misfires I experienced were mainly due to my own novice condition and since, I have learned a lot about making a revolver work.
I have been shooting both .36 and .44 side by side and have gotten similar good groups and with the "right" caps, no misfires. Today it'd be more of a concern of whiat size the overall gun is (for carrying purposes) than the caliber. If I was going into a dangerous back country enviornment I would likely choose the more powerfull .44, but for just a "partner" to carry in the field, either woild probablly do for snake protection.
I can see why the gunfighters of old were so adamint about their choice of caliber because of facing another shooting man but even so Wild Bill chose the .36. I guess it's accuracy, handling and penetration were his reasons. The lighter Navy model is quick to get into action andwhen fully loaded packs enough velocity to produce good power.
In comparison to todays cartrige ammo, BP guns are relativelly weak on paper but in the real world I think they always did much better than paper computations would lead you to believe!
Too bad there isn't a good interview with Wild Bill where we could learn his way of thinking in choosing the Navy Model. I for one would love to know his reasoning! Maybe it was his experience in the War?
Todays shooter has the chance of shooting what's probablly a better quality gun than shooters of old did and today the choice is more of one in owning and shooting a particular model than caliber choice. We don't have many High Noon shootouts!
Heck, I can't choose a caliber, so I own both a .36 and a .44. I am still wanting a .31 to try and compare tothe .36. I'd like to know the preformance of the little .31 to see if it was the gun or the caliber that made them so popular?
ZVP
 
Small, underpowered calibers were no more effective years ago than they are now. Conservation of powder and lead were big considerations for a long time. Plus, there was no access to the quality medical care we have today. Wounds from small caliber weapons often meant a slow, lingering and painful death. I'm sure there was great fear of dying slowly and in great pain. We have different conditions and attitudes today. No comparison.
BTW, how many days did it take Lincoln to die? And, he was shot in the head.
 
Heck, I can't choose a caliber, so I own both a .36 and a .44. I am still wanting a .31 to try and compare tothe .36. I'd like to know the preformance of the little .31 to see if it was the gun or the caliber that made them so popular?
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I prefer the .44 but own both. I think the .31 was popular as a hideout gun. Performance sucks.
 
Rifleman1776 wrote:

BTW, how many days did it take Lincoln to die? And, he was shot in the head.
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About 9 HOURS.
Lincoln was shot at 10:15 PM and died at 7:22 AM the following morning, April 15, 1865. He was 56 years old.
 
"Z"

I am with you on the lack of a clear preference for .44 or .36.

By far, most of my revolvers are .44. And I guess shooting the larger caliber is a more emotionally charged experience.

I do like the economy of the .36 and I imagine (just my imagination) that the .36 is more user friendly.
 
For the fun of it

Yea as "shooters" we can appreciateall the calibers and not really have to depend on any specific one to protect ourselves.
When my powder supply runs low I appreciate the .36 the most, cause you get a good BOOM from 22 gr! LOL!
For "real" I depend on a .357 Mag or .38 Special. For fun I shoot Black Powder and have a LOT of fun with it!
ZVP
 
"Z"

You mentioned protection as you are out and about. I had a friend in PA and he used a .357 with a mix of two rounds of bird shot followed by four business rounds. This was western PA where the copperheads are somewhat large, with a nasty disposition. He saw timber rattlers occassionally too. He was the type of guy who would move away if he had an escape route rather than kill a snake.

I might also say that he used the same mix for home defense. Kept it by his bed. He was never called upon to use it but I question the use of birdshot for HD PD.

I know nothing about these things, but it just seems as though either a shotgun or a slug would be desirable over birdshot from revolver if someone breaks in.

This is taking this thread in a slightly different direction. But just some thoughts.
 
Greetings
A well placed caliber.36 ball is going to do the recipient in just fine. Bill Hickok seemed uncocerned about using .36 Navy´s for many years. Of course he seemed to be an exceptional shot willing to pop a cap without hessitation if needed.
Mike in Peru
 
robhof

I have one of the Colt style 31's and my wife likes shooting it more than her 22 auto. For plinking they are great and inexpensive and the 31 can take rabbit and squirrel size game; I have both in the freezer with .31 holes in them.:)
 
I love my .44s, they are so much fun to shoot but the most fun of all is my dragoon. only problem i have is my 1860 loves to dump the caps in to the guts and chew it up. I want to get a navy .36 for my next pistol for targeting and maybe a .22 for my cw reenacting if I get called a cheat at a hand of cards. Out in east Texas for protection I carried a springfield .45. The problems that we had were coyotes wildcats and wild boars. For home protection at home I use 12 ga bird shot.
 
.44 because my Ruger Old Armies take .457 and I've got several Walker Dragoons (thanks to you guys). I don't have anything in .36.

I do have a .50 caliber Lyman Great Plains pistol.
 
I don't disparage the .36....but I prefer the .44 for several reasons.....

1. With all my BP revolvers shooting .44, I only have to have one caliber set of ball or conical bullet molds and or only have to buy one caliber of balls or conicals.

2. I don't have to worry about mixing up .36's with .44's in my bullet pouch since I only have one bullet caliber to carry. Sure it is easy to ascertain a .36 from a .44 visually, but I don't have to dig for them if they are all in the same pouch,....or I don't have to carry two separate pouches. I personally like the uniformity of only having one caliber of projectile for all my BP revolvers.

3. There is nothing a .36 can do that a .44 can't do just as well with more knockdown power to boot.

4. The rebated cylinder (on Colt clones) of the .44 is only very slightly larger than the .36, and the frame is about the same size so the .44 is only marginally larger than the .36 for most revolvers. However, this is not true and differs on some drastically smaller .36's though that have a rebated cylinder and a VERY small frame that cannot be had that small in a .44. But for many BP revolver models there just isn't that much difference in the overall size of the revolver between a .36 and a .44.

5. Since I usually load 22 grains to a max of 25 grains in MOST of my Colt clone BP .44's, with the very occasional 30 grains in my 58 Remy, I use about the same amount of BP as if I was loading a .36....or just very marginally a teeny bit more in some instances. So shooting the .44 doesn't use enough BP over shooting a .36 to even be remarkable to me powder quantity wise.

To sum it up, it's about the uniformity of all my BP revolvers all shooting the same projectile for me.


.
 
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only problem i have is my 1860 loves to dump the caps in to the guts and chew it up.
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Get in the habit of raising the muzzle and tilting it a little to the right and most of your cap jams will disappear.
 
pvtlong said:
only problem i have is my 1860 loves to dump the caps in to the guts and chew it up.
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Fill the notch in the hammer with JB weld, install Treso nipples and use #10 Remingtons & you won't have that problem any more. I shot 14 cylinders full out of 2 1861 Navies over 3 days at a match last weekend and had one cap fall off & try to jam things up. It wasn't successful. The only maintenance I did on them was to add a little more Bore Butter to the arbor after each day's shooting (it was hot and dry) and wipe down the outside of the pistol & cylinder with a rag before I put them back in the gun rug.
 
Anyone that raises the pistol and rolls it to the right is a plinker or target shooter.
That practice will bring you solidly into last place at a CAS match.
Do what Fingers says and end the problem
 
I gave up on CAS. I just play around now. I like to load all six so I use the pins. Or did when I still had a Colt.
 
NOZ,
You say that as if a plinker/target shooter is a sub-species of CAS shooters. I think you have that back-asswards! I don't know what world YOU live in, but, there are MANY more plinkers/target shooters than CAS shooters in THIS world. :mad:
 
Anyone that raises the pistol and rolls it to the right is a plinker or target shooter.
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Not quite sure what the purpose of that sentence is. Yes, I am. Did you intend by that to disparage me?

That practice will bring you solidly into last place at a CAS match.
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Perhaps it needs to be said, and if not I apologize, but the world of black powder shooting doesn't begin and end with CAS.
 
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