How to work a 1851 Navy .44

I agree with others - if you really put 25 grains of Pyrdoex 3F into the chamber and it went off that ball would have gone somewhere.

Even when you get a chainfire and the chambers to the left and right of the barrel go off those bullets hit the frame and keep on trucking.

I agree with the poster who said check for a barrel obstruction. This is easy to do with your gun - knock out the wedge and use the loading lever to push the barrel assembly off the frame and then look down the barrel.

Also agree with others that when loading you should always shave a small ring of lead off the ball on the mouth of the chamber - this is how you know you have a nice gas-tight seal and won't get chain fires into adjacent cylinders. But even an under-sized ball should have fired, I would think.

My .44 caliber Piettas like .454 round balls.

When you fired the revolver, how far out of the chamber did the ball move? Any at all? Did it move into the barrel? Did it then lock up the action being half-in and half-out of the chamber? Where is the ball now?

Steve
 
For the rifle, if you are certain that it is just rust and pitting, then sure, you can fire it. A gunsmith with a borescope can tell you this. Or, if the breech can be removed, it can be even more thoroughly inspected.

But if there is a blown skirt or other debris caught in the breech, you're going to need to do some work before it can be fired.

Steve
 
If I'm if I'm reading the limited info from the OP correctly he has a timing issue that is serious enough that the ball is striking the forcing cone far enough off center that the pressure escapes while jamming the ball into the breech end of the barrel.

That's a dangerous condition & you should have a qualified gunsmith verify the mechanical condition is good enough to fire it safely!
 
I put a .451 lead ball and rammed it down hard.
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Was the ball a good tight fit going into the chamber?

the bullet sat half in half out of the barrel.
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Does that mean that the ball went half way through the barrel and stuck in the middle somewhere? or it only went half way into the mouth of the barrel (the forcing cone)? Did the cylinder get locked up after you fired it?
 
So, although new, your powder may be bad or your powder measure isn't right. If the round balls are fitting in the cylinder chambers nice and tight, they will certainly be expelled from the barrel with 25 grains of good pyro in a serviceable gun. Who did you let fix the timing issue, and would that be a person who could tell if you have a .36 barrel with a .44 cylinder?
 
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Let me try this again.
SOMETHING IS HORRIBLY WRONG!
Seek help, seek professional help!

Not trying to be nasty but something is happening that is dangerous & in all honesty there is a limited amount we can do by mail. Its not easy to describe things with out knowing the terminology either but we'd hate to se you damage the gun, or worse injure yourself because of a lack of communications.

The ball should enter the bore, move along it & exit with minimal powder. It may not go far or fast but 10~15 Gr will propel a ball through the guts & out the muzzle.

25 Gr & it can't get pushed in is very bad news.
 
One thing I wonder about, he said the powder went off but not the cap? Never heard of that happening before. Anyway was this his very first shot, or a second or third? If second or third, the problem could be caused, as another poster noted, by using too small of a round ball and the other rounds crept forward in the cylinder during the first shot resulting in the second or third ball lodging in the forcing cone due to lack of pressure. I don't really know, just guessing.
 
and I did get a cloud of smoke not just the cap popping.
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Apart from this I see no reference to the cap not firing.
Could you have misunderstood this to mean the powder fired but not the cap?
What I hear is that BOTH the cap & powder fired, not just the cap.
 
Yes, that's where I got it. I don't know, it is a bit confusing. Wish the OP would give us more info. Still sounds like ball creep in the cylinder to me.
 
Colt Navy

The cap fired, igniting the powder, which pushed the ball out of the cylinder, lodging the ball halfway in the cylinder end of the barrel (half of the ball was sticking out of the barrel) and there was a cloud of smoke.
I only fired the gun once, because I had the jamming.
The barrel is definitely a .44, as stamped on the barrel
I used 25 grains of powder because its the .44 cal model, and that is the amount.
Also, if I got a .44 cal bullet screw, is it easy to remove a ball from the cylinder if it jams?
 
[qoute]Something is stuck in there, maybe part of a plastic sabot or something. [qoute/]
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OR he had a crud ring built up from shoot powder like T7.. that would explain the feeling of the getting tight then loose.
normally what i have found is that is a bore rusts up do to a stuck jag or round being left in it , the area of the jag will pit . thus you feel a lose spot not a tight spot

As to the 1851 . Ill leave that to the others here who know more on that subject then I .
But it sure would seem to me that regardless of the size of the ball that was started with ,, if over sized when it was seated to the chamber in the cylinder , it would have been the correct size .If under size , 25 grains of pyro should have still sent the ball down range with enough pressure that I cant see the ball getting lodged in the forcing cone .
If the timing was that far off , wouldn’t the ball have basically splattered .
Im thinking bad powder OR that chamber did not get loaded as was thought
 
One last comment: If the cylinder is too far out of line the hammer will hit the cylinder beside the nipple recess and not fire the cap, not unlike the firing pin missing the primer with a cartage gun.
 
I think you didn't have enough powder if it was not goex. If the timing is out -cock gun and see if loading lever falls smoothly at six oclock--the chamber under the firing one. Like a clock -you fire at 12 and the loading lever should slide in at 6 Am I right?
 
Are you sure the RB was seated against the powder ? When you slowly lower the hammer from full cock to contact with the nipple does the bolt stay in the notch on the cylinder ?
IDAHO GAITERS
 
Also, if I got a .44 cal bullet screw, is it easy to remove a ball from the cylinder if it jams?
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Well, if the ball is stuck part in the cylinder and part in the barrel, then what you can do is this:

1) First, make sure all cylinders are uncapped.
2) Remove the barrel wedge and then remove the barrel using the loading lever top push the barrel off. If the loading lever is dropping into an unloaded chamber and won't push the barrel off get a piece of sheet metal and lay it on top of the cylinder face so that the loading leaver can push on the sheet metal and so push the barrel assembly off the frame.
3) Remove the cylinder from the frame.
4) Remove the nipple from the chamber with the ball sticking out of it.
5) Flood the chamber with water.
6) Drill a .5" hole in a block of wood.
7) Set your cylinder face-down on the block of wood with the bullet over the hole in the wood.
8) Use a long nail or brass rod to carefully hammer the ball out of the cylinder. It should fall into the hole in the block of wood.

Step 5 (flooding the chamber with water) is optional if you are certain that there is no powder remaining in the chamber. But if you want to be safe, flood it. Just make sure not to get water into the other chambers if they are still loaded.



How many chambers did you load up when you shot this thing?

Is it possible you accidentally poured the powder into one chamber and put the ball into a different one? It's easy to accidentally turn the cylinder while loading...
 
Try again with black powder, pyrodex doesn't ignite as well. Also this will eliminate your pyrodex as a source of the problem. kiss method,
 
I've used Pyrodex for many years and it ignites just fine with standard caps. I even mostly use RS. The only thing I ever had a problem with was my Sharp's and it still fires but with two 90 degree turns in the firing channel it is a bit slower than with real black.
 
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