Finally shot my 1858 Remington for the first time yesterday.

H

hunter64

New member
After acquiring all the paraphernalia that one needs for a BP revolver I finally made it to the range yesterday to try it out for the first time. Loaded with 20 grn.'s to start, wonder wads then bullet, capped her up and let loose. Oh my goodness this was fun. I pulled the cylinder and to see how dirty the barrel was and it wasn't to bad, pulled a brush thru and a couple of patches and continued on. Loaded 25 and 30 grains and I could keep all the shots on the 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper. Tried to see how long I could go without it binding up and I got 3 cylinders full and then it quit. I made some paper cartridges of just measured amounts of powder and they worked great. Just dropped them in each cylinder and put a wad over top seated it down and then the ball and caps, really sped the reloading time up. Next time I would like to run it off some sandbags and get some accuracy work going. Cleaned it up at the range with some moosemilk and set it aside to play with other stuff. I cleaned it when I got home and since I hadn't taken it apart since I bought it used I totally stripped it down, nothing to it. The insides didn't have any black powder residue on them. Cleaned everything with hot water/soap and put it in the oven on a cookie sheet for 10 min at 150F. After I pulled them out and oiled everything with olive oil and put it in the safe. I just pulled it out and checked it and no rust and everything is good. It was alot of fun and very addictive.

Do you guys break it down totally every time or just every other time or what is normal for the innards to be cleaned? I was thinking of taking a big plastic jar/barrel of some kind filled with soapy water to the range and after I was done, take off the grips and put the whole revolver in the jar. Any thoughts?
 
Do you guys break it down totally every time or just every other time or what is normal for the innards to be cleaned? I was thinking of taking a big plastic jar/barrel of some kind filled with soapy water to the range and after I was done, take off the grips and put the whole revolver in the jar. Any thoughts?
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As a rule I do not fully disassemble the action for cleaning after every session.

On my Colts I remove the barrel assembly, the cylinder and then the nipples from the cylinder. All go into the hot soapy water.

On the Remington I remove the cylinder and then the nipples and immerse those, then use a cleaning jag and wet (with hot soapy water) patches to clean out the barrel. I should mention that the Colt barrels get the same swab down.

Then swab the cylinders out and clean the nipples with a pick and pipe cleaner. Rinse in very hot water and hand dry. I use dry towels and a hair dryer rather than the oven since the kitchen is often off limits - my wife and I do not cook at the same time.

After drying I use a thin film of Bore Butter on the inside of the barrel, cylinder chambers and the base pin, then wipe the exterior with a silicone cloth.

I do a complete action disassembly, cleaning and oiling at least every six months, or after every third or fourth trip to the range, depending on which guns get used when.

At the range, sometimes during the session, but always at the end, I swab the barrels and cylinder chambers with the current bp solvent of choice; currently that happens to be T/C's No. 13. I use the pre-soaked patches. If I'm done shooting I run a dry patch through after that.

A jar of soapy water would work, but it seems it would be a big hassle to prepare and carry one to immerse the entire gun. Your gun will not be damaged during the trip home from the range, so I think that's going overboard just a bit.
 
Remingtons are great arent they? My biggest praise for them is the front sight is high enough to hit poa rather than the Colts. No you dont have to dismantle them every outing in fact I dont take mine apart ever. One of the main reasons many of the originals rusted were because the primers used back in that day were highly corrosive whereas today they arent. I've left mine dirty for weeks and it still looks brand new. FYI mine hits dead on with 40gr FFF and would probably handle any handgun task I'd ever need. Have fun
 
It's not necessary to clean right after you shoot. I use Pyrodex which is the most corrosive and I sometimes go two or three days before cleaning with no ill effects. I do remove the grips and remove the cylinder on my Remingtons and immerse the whole thing in hot soapy water but I don't take the action apart. After it all comes out of the water I let the action drain while I take care of the cylinder, then spray it out with WD-40 to disperse water. After it dries I spray the action thoroughly with balistol and run a patch lubed with bore butter down the bore, coat the cylinder pin with it and reassemble. One thing you might want to do is periodically check your screws for tightness, even while you're shooting. Sometimes they work loose. If they do it often you can coat the threads with blue Loctite or clear fingernail polish. They'll stay tight but you can still easily get them out. Don't use red Loctite if you ever want to take it apart again.
 
I mistakenly used red loctite once years ago on some scope ring screws. lesson learned from that one, lol. I didn't try 40 grn's yet I only worked up to 30 grn. but next time I want to try and do some load development work and see what the Remington likes. I guess I will learn as I go along what works as far as cleaning goes, I have never heard of just spraying wd-40 in the action. You could do the ride home from the range in water trick just to help soften the black powder a bit. When you get home you could take off the trigger guard and re-wash everything in hot soapy water, blow out the innards with the air compressor (or stand it on end for a few minutes to let the water drain out) and pop the whole thing in the oven for 15 minutes at 150F and then try the wd-40, put back on the trigger guard and then take care of the cylinder and barrel and outside of frame as usual. Man I am hooked, funny thing is when I started shooting it at the range everyone wanted to give it a whirl. The paper cartridges worked great and as soon as I find the load that works I will just make a pile of them to help speed it up a bit at the range.
 
WD-40 is not a lube. It simply displaces water. If you dry it in the oven WD isn't necessary. Always use a vegetable based lube anywhere you'll get fouling buildup. Petroleum based lubes will make your cleaning chore a real chore. I have used Remoil in actions with no problems since you don't get much fouling there but balistol does a good job so why mess with a good thing.
 
I make paper cartridges out of tea bags. They're a little tougher than cigarette paper and the caps can still blow through them. You get four cartridges from one flo thru tea bag and people don't look at you funny like they do when you buy a dozen packs of rolling papers:D I have a wooden dowel a little smaller than the ball with one end cupped. Place the ball in the cup and roll a paper around it and glue it, then remove the rod and start another. When it dries just add powder and twist. I usually tie the twist with thread and add a drop of glue. When the glue dries cut off the excess paper. You can't use a wad this way tho so to keep fouling down you need to lube over the balls or at least every other one.
 
I live in Canada and I have been trying to find balistol for a while now, I am sure you can get it here somewhere. I used olive oil because it is vegetable based and my home made bore butter. I know what you mean by buying cigarette papers, the lady behind the counter gave me the dirtiest look.
 
That sounds like a lot of fun! I should be ordering mine next week. Think I’ll just go with the Cabela’s model, which I think is a Pietta. Which brand do you own, Hunter64?

Have to say I picked up a lot about cleaning from this thread. Thanks to all of you!:)
 
Nothing wrong with Pietta

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Mine is a Uberti clone that I bought off of a guy at a garage sale of all places. I was browsing the usual crap and in one corner was a bunch of reloading stuff. I didn't need anything that he was selling but I asked if that is all of the gun related stuff. He said that he had some stuff inside for sale if I wanted to see. I went down to his basement and he had the usual shotguns/rifles all of which I already had. In the corner was an apple box labeled Uberti on the outside and I asked what was inside? He said his son's blackpowder revolver and he opened the box. Well inside was a holster, 500 felt wads, 1000 caps and 5 boxes of hornady .44 cal RB's, a powder measure and 4 pounds of FFF goex and the revolver. He said he had it out to the range about 2 times and the dam thing broke and it has been sitting in the box for about 5 years. I looked at it and the spring for the pawl that rotates the cylinder had broken so to advance the cylinder you simply have to hold the muzzle towards the ground to let gravity move the pawl into the notch on the back of the cylinder and it works just fine. So I pulled the old "well I don't know if I can get parts for it routine" etc. and I walked out the door 125 bucks lighter in my wallet. There is hardly a scratch on this thing and I picked up another spring today for 7.50. I love it when a plan comes together. I had no idea I would have this much fine with a BP revolver.
 
I carry a small spray bottle full of W/W fluid along when shooting my '58 Pietta. when it starts to bind I spray it down good to clean it, pull it down, dry and regrease the pin, assemble and back to blasting.
 
For the '58 Remington base pin I found that the M1 (or M14) rifle grease that comes in the very small plastic containers with yellow lids works great. I think it's called Lubriplate 130. Grease that base pin up with that and it won't bind up for a long time. I tried all kinds of lubes before that and nothing else worked nearly as well.
 
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