How many shots before your revolver is gummed up?

D

drdirk

New member
Went to shoot my 1860 yesterday. Overall worked great and I used Swiss 3F power with round ball. Wanted to see how many shots I can get without cleaning. Got through 4 cylinder and the action was so gummed up that it would not even turn. Made me wonder how many rounds you guys get without
cleaning? Seems like my Remington and my Ruger don't get dirty quite as quickly. It was a hot and humid day so that must have contributed to the gumming up of the action.
 
Fouling

I just returned from shooting my 1858 Remy using Graf & Sons fffg black powder. I fired 100 rounds and cleaned it 3 times to clear off the fouling on the cylinder arbor. I read about a lube the 19th century British Army used when I was researching on how to make my own wads. I reduced the ratios by half, since I don't need a gallon of the stuff. I use 100 grams mutton tallow (from Dixie Gun Works, 100 grams of kitchen paraffin wax (Gulf Wax), and 50 grams of bees wax and makes about 3 pints. I use a course 1/8 in. thick felt and punch out the wads, then soak this in the melted lube as needed. The stuff won't melt in the Texas heat and soak my powder charge. The Colt replicas go even longer. I have shot 30 to 40 rounds using this lube before I felt the need to clean. It really keeps the fouling from accumulating in the barrel. If you Google lubed wads, you can probably come up with the site.
 
I have shot a pair of 2nd Gen 1851 Navies 75 rounds over 3 days with the only maintenance being wiping the pistol down at the end of the day. Weather conditions were cool with a couple of showers (Late Sept).

I shot a pair of 2nd Gen 1861 Navies last weekend for 10 stages (50 rounds each) over 2 days with no maintenance other than wiping them off at the end of the day. One of the pistols was starting to get hard to cock & probably wouldn't have gone many more rounds without getting unshootable. The second one was still as free spinning after 50 rounds as it was after 5. Probably didnt get enought bore butter on the arbor of the one. Weather last weekend was hot & muggy in KCK.

All of my other Colt style C&Bs will run pretty much the same as the 2nd Gens.

My Navy load is 20 gr fffg (in this case Goex), lubed wad and .380 roundball. Arbors are lubed with bore butter.

When I owned a pair of Pietta Remmingtons, it only took one or two cylinders for them to get tough to cock. When I used them, I took the cylinder out after each stages & wiped the base pin and cylinder off with a Balistol soaked rag so they'd run smoothly.
 
Barrel gap and load well have an effect on the amount of crude that builds up. A good wipe down on my open tops every four or five cylinders fired keeps them turning smooth. I seem to have to clean the center pin on the Remingtons and the Spiller and Burr more often that that.
 
My 1860 clone and my ROA both are shot all day - but I load a lead round ball in both, with each chamber mouth filled to the top with Crisco cooking lard.

They're both MESSY :barf: at the end of day - but easily cleaned.

.
 
Thanks, so my 4 cylinders are in the ball park. At the end the revolver was almost impossible to cock and the hammer would fall very slowly, not enough to ignite a primer. So the limiting thing was the action, not the barrel on mine. The barrel probably could have done a few more cylinders. The problem with all this lube and wads is that it only helps the barrel, not the action which is the limiting factor for me. Any way to protect / lube the action so that it can shoot longer?

When I got home I cleaned it in hot water and it runs like new again.
 
Dunno why your hammer falls slow unless you're getting a lot of powder residue around it. The hardness to turn comes from powder residue building up on the cylinder face and cylinder pin. One with a large cylinder gap will run longer than one with a tight gap but that pin is going to lock you down sooner or later. Colt's with the large grooved arbor run longer than Remington and other closed top designs with the small diameter pin because the grooves on that big arbor hold lube better. Once a hammer starts getting stiff it's time to do some cleanup. Forcing it is just going to damage the hand and possibly the cylinder ratchet.
 
Fouling in the action? I would again look at the nipples. The factory nipples have a flash hole that is much larger than the TRESOs. The small flash hole helps prevent blowback into the action of the revolver whether it be Remington or Colt.

My Pietta 1860s will run a 6 stage match easily. Wipe the cylinder face and arbor, do it again.
 
When I use lube pills I can shoot all day with my Rems or Colts. Fouling stays soft revolvers keep turnin'...100 + rounds and easily cleaned. Shooting with out lube pills or lube just black powder and round balls...about 4 cylinders with a lubed cylinder pin on a Rems, Spiller&Burr, Rogers&Spencer, ROA or a lubed arbor of the Colts will shoot about the same 4 cylinders afore bindin' up..
 
My Pitta 1851 can go through 50 an could still go for more... with my R&D cylinder:D:p
As far as C&B goes... I don't know, as I have never used that cylinder:eek:
 
How many shots before your revolver is gummed up?
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depends on the design- my Remingtons shoot longer without fouling than my open top Colts. My cartridge conversions with black powder loaded ammo shoot longer than cap/ball. The gas ring on the front of the Colt open top helps a lot, keeps fouling off the arbor pin. The Remington arbor pin is not exposed in front so it tends to shoot longer.
 
In my Colt Dragoon using 40 grains of FFF real BP, a 200 grain Lee REAL, a lubed overpowder wad, and arbor lubed with vegetable shortening it goes a whole 5 stage CAS match without binding up, that's 25 rounds. I'm sure it would do more. My .44 1851 clones do the same with the same load and treatment, but with 30 grains of powder instead. My Remingtons go 5 to ten shots and seize up when using the same load as the 1851 clones, but may go as many as 15 shots when using Big Lubes.
 
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