Loading a cylinder off the gun

R

Rigmarol

New member
I shoot my Dragoons in CAS with a cartridge conversion from Kirst.
But when I'm shooting off the clock, I prefer cap and ball.

I like to take the cylinders out and load off the gun using a nice portable press. (not the one you see advertised on Cabellas - yuk!)

My question, for those of you who also like to load off the gun; what do you think about putting the caps on the nipples before putting the cylinder back on the gun?

Now before the safety monitors show up, I am aware this COULD be dangerous in more than one way, I'm just exploring the options.

I take full responsibility for my own actions and hold no man to blame for me killing myself in the most meaningless manner possible by being stoopid.

I'm talking the Dragoon and the Walker.

If I were to put caps on the nipples, it would be the same way I shoot all my CAS guns; with one empty chamber under the hammer.

So with 5 caps I would think being careful to keep the empty chamber aligned with the hammer, and carefully placing it on the arbor should be safe enough.

Then putting the barrel back on the frame would introduce the first "dangerous" situation; a hand in front of the loaded cylinder. This alone has kept me from actually doing more than "think" about doing it. But, if the gun is in proper working order, there "shouldn't" be any reason to expect an accidental detonation of a cap... "shouldn't" being the famous last words and all.

Then there is the inevitable "finageling" of the wedge, again with a hand in front of loaded the cylinder. It might be possible to accidentally rotate to a loaded chamber and drop the hammer while messing with the wedge...

With all that being known danger areas, what are your thoughts on pre capping the loaded cylinder before putting a cylinder loaded off the gun back on the gun?

Oh, why do I want to even think about doing this?

As I get older the caps seem to be getting smaller cuz I sure can't see them as well these days. A capper helps BIG TIME! and love Cash's snail capper but I'm always looking at other ways to make life easier.
 
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If they caught you capping a cylinder off the gun at Friendship they would
come down on you hard. It is not allowed there or on our local range or any
range that uses NMLRA rules. We shoot standing on concrete and if you
dropped that cylinder and the cap hit and the front of the cylinder was pointing at you or someone else , oh my! something bad could happen.
 
Yup, what he said.

The biggest danger to capping a loaded cylinder is not dropping a hammer on it it is accidentally dropping the cylinder on the ground.

If that thing hits cap-first it will likely go off. I'm not sure how much velocity you'll generate with no barrel but I suspect it would be enough to be lethal.

I think some revolvers (Remington?) have the nipples somewhat recessed in the cylinder so maybe they would not hit. But I'm pretty sure the nipples on Colts would be exposed. I'll have to look at my Remy when I get home.

Steve
 
Excellent point. I would never consider doing this at a match for certain. Just at the plinking range.

However, the possibility of dropping is a very good reason to continue loading after the gun is put back together. Having never dropped one (without caps) isn't a good reason to start in my opinion.

Thanks.
 
Have I done it before? Yes. ( with a 49 Wells Fargo repro). Am I going to do it again? No. After I did it, I got to thinking about what would have happened if it had fallen and hit a rock or something. Not a big likelihood, but anything I can do to lessen the chances of me shooting myself and dealing with my buddies hacking on me is worth a look!;)
 
At our BP range it is out of the question. All capping is to be done at the firing line only.
If I was out in the woods, yeah I'd probably do it.
 
If you have a full load of powder and a ball in the chambers (ball seated flush with the end of the chamber), cap them, and manage to drop the cylinder on a capped nipple, the ball with probably pop out without enough velocity/energy to leave a bruise. I sometimes carry two spare loaded and capped cylinders in a leather double cylinder holster on my belt (flap over cylinders).
 
If you have a full load of powder and a ball in the chambers (ball seated flush with the end of the chamber), cap them, and manage to drop the cylinder on a capped nipple, the ball with probably pop out without enough velocity/energy to leave a bruise. I sometimes carry two spare loaded and capped cylinders in a leather double cylinder holster on my belt (flap over cylinders).
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Noelf2, with respect, I find that hard to believe. I'm not calling you out on it just saying that I find it hard to believe you'd only get a bruise out of a fired cylinder without the barrel. Do you have any source material to help me better understand this?

Again, I'm not trying to be a smart-a, I'm being respectful in my doubt.

Thanks.
 
Yes. The powder needs space in a barrel to continue to burn and produce enough gas to propel a ball/bullet. The fact is that most of the burn in a dropped cylinder chamber would happen in open, non-confined space. You would get a lot of fire, bun not much power at all. Only the initial jump would push the ball out and you would then get lots of fire.Think about setting a ball on top of a pile of powder. If you light the powder, will the ball go anywhere? Nope. My proof is from my own experience. I had a brass snake eyes double barrel pistol, .36 caliber, when I was a teenager. One of those classic arms jobs. Once i put too much powder in one of the barrels. When I put the ball in and packed it down, the ball was just under flush with the end of the barrel (the barrels are not long). I capped it and, in a foolish youthful way, I bent my arm around a tree and pointed the gun at another tree about 10 feet away. I did this so I would only lose my hand if the gun exploded (like I said, I was foolish). The gun let off a hellish bang and the ball bounced off the tree. Hardly even dimpled the bark. Another example is from a chain fire event. Never happened to me, but from what I hear, the ball from the unintended chamber doesn't go very far, or cause much damage. The closer the ball is flush with the end of the chamber, the less power you will have (without a barrel that is).
 
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I had a cylinder go off from a chain fire. The ball was loaded only with 13 grs
powder and was flush with the end of the chamber with filler. The ball came
straight out of the chamber and went 25 yds thru the paper target I was shooting
at in a match. So I know from experience it will go at least 25 yds.
 
And mine might have gone another 15 yards if it didn't bounce off a tree first. Anybody have a Howell's / R&D conversion cylinder? How the heck can you load that thing into your gun without the worry of dropping it on one of the firing pins? :rolleyes:
 
With all that being known danger areas, what are your thoughts on pre capping the loaded cylinder before putting a cylinder loaded off the gun back on the gun?
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Hell no. If I had an inkling someone did this where I was shooting, one of us would never shoot there again.
 
Not trying to argumentative, just saying, I thought BP was explosive and did it's thing all at once whereas it is smokeless that "burns" as the bullet goes down the barrel.

Granted the barrel still would contain and direct the bullet with BP so maybe it doesn't matter as much as I thought it would.

Still, it's only about 6 feet from the ground to my nose and imagine a bullet from a dropped loaded cylinder would at least chip a tooth eh?

I think for me, personally, it's not a good idea to cap my cylinders before putting them back in the gun.
 
Hell no. If I had an inkling someone did this where I was shooting, one of us would never shoot there again.
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And that would probably be you. I'm not that scared of a capped cylinder.
 
I had a cylinder go off from a chain fire. The ball was loaded only with 13 grs powder and was flush with the end of the chamber with filler. The ball came straight out of the chamber and went 25 yds thru the paper target I was shooting at in a match. So I know from experience it will go at least 25 yds.
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Kwhi did you get any points for the flyer? :D;)
 
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