My new cowboy action/BP acquisition

F

Forklift

Inactive
Charles Daly 1873 clone in 45LC & Uberti 3rd Gen Dragoon

Sorry, no other reason to post than i'm happy to show off gun pics.

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Thanks, I appreciate it. Been lurking for a month and read pretty much every back log/old post i could til my eyes bled about CAS & BP before i bought. I'm very happy and look forward to a range trip soon!
 
Nice sixguns, pard! I have a few Colt C&B revolver repros, but no Dragoon, a situation I hope to remedy in the near future!
 
Newbie question, but I have to ask...

As purely a demonstration load for ooh's and ahh's, would it have any negative impact on the Dragoon if I loaded the cylinder full with grain (no wad or ball) or pyrodex pellets and fire once? I would like to note here that I'm not dumb enough to load more than 1 chamber at a time for this.
 
I assume you meant powder and not grain...oats or wheat won't go off...

There is no issue as far as the gun is concerned. You'll need some sort of wad to close off the chamber and keep the powder in it. And that wad will become a projectile, so safety is paramount, of course.
 
What, a full cylinder of cream of wheat doesn't work? :eek:

lol No, I meant what I typed. I used the term grain to indicate x grains of powder in the cylinder, because the Dragoon is supposed to be used with anywhere between 30 to 50 grains of BP (as I'm sure you know). I don't follow jargon much... he was always a slippery devil! :D
 
I load C&Bs with blanks all the time for reenactments. 1860 Army, 30 gr fffg, 20 gr cream of wheat packed tight as a wad, cap, fire & repeat. You can safely load five chambers this way. Makes plenty of smoke and boom and the cream of wheat disintegrates when fired. You still don't want to point it at anyone though.
 
Thanks! One more question.. how long does 1lb of powder usually last if you're using 30 grains a shot? I'm looking for a rough round count because I have no idea how many 'grains' are in a pound. We talking 100 shots in a pound? More? Less?
 
Many thanks!!

Now I can do a little math to check out cost/value of shooting cap and ball. I’m going to break this order down in relation to 100 rounds (like 2 boxes of 9mm Federal Ammo at Walmart).

Prices based on estimated online values.

*edited for crappy math skills*
100 lead balls = $15
100 caps = $5.50 (you usually buy 1000 at a time for around $55, so .055 cents X 1000 = $55)
100 rounds of powder using 30 grains per shot = $8.58 (1lb of powder cost $20 and has 7000 grain, so using 30 grain load increments = 233.33 shots per lb. $20 / 233 shots = .085 cents per shot x 100 shots = $8.58)

Grand total for 100 rounds = $29.08

By my calculations, which have been known to be wrong, it’s almost exactly the same as cheap 9mm rounds. The cheapest in my area is a 50 count of Federal for about $11 per box. Not bad for anti-horse rounds! :D
 
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Forklift, I think you've got a math error on your powder calculation. What do you pay for the powder you shoot? At $16/pound, it ought to be $6.86/100 rounds.
 
Don't confuse the facts with my own bulletnomics! :p ok, editing the math...

Now that price is if you buy just the basics. If you were to cast your own bullets, price would go down considerably! If you use wads, then you could make those as well (but since it's not 100% required for function, I didn't add wads, filler and lube into the price).

Hope this gets people interested in BP... especially since casting your own lead is easy as pie.
 
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