New BP Revolver

Most of these gentlemen here have been shooting BP longer than I and are older than I am.

That being said, I love shooting my pair of Pietta 1860 Colts. I use .454 diameter ball, wonder wads under the ball over 30gr of FFFg powder, and #10 Remington caps.

I put a dab of TC Bore Butter on the Arbors of each revolver.

I started shooting a Pietta NMA 1858 before buying the 1860's with ball over Pyrodex Pellets (no lube at all). It worked fine but quickly gummed up.

Not too long ago I bought 1k wads and 1k 454 ball from DD4lifeusmc, overseas work keeps getting in the way of shooting.

What am I getting at - you should be fine to shoot ball over powder this time but to keep barrel fouling down - try some wads next time or down the line.
 
Though it's been some time I had been reading a thread in a traditional forum stating that wads are a 21st century accessory, and that there is no documentation in military usage of such.
Click to expand...

I overlooked this statement before. Of course there isn't any documentation of military usage because the military didn't use them. The military loads were all paper cartridges with conical bullets. Methinks you have your centuries mixed up.
 
Hmmm... I certainly don't know. But those on the traditional site seem quite certain wads weren't used until the mid 1900's. I've not cared enough to research it though but have just read what others who seem to have had said.
 
The first 6 shots out of my '58 NMA has a lubed wad between the powder and ball and lube over the ball. My lube is 1:8 tallow and beezwax. After that it's just the wad only. The lube over tha ball for the first six helps lube the cylinder pin, even though it has lube on it to start with. I have tried shoot the NMA with no lube or wad and well, the cylinder doesn't want to rotate very well after 6 shots. Now the Open tops are a different story. And seem to be more forgiving on the lack of lube, with just some on the Arbor. Especially my Goonerized one. The barrel to cylinder gap is so small you can fire it a very long time woth just lubed wads.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
I started shooting cap and ball revolvers in the late 1960s and no one at that time, that I was aware of, used any kind of wads. I first used them when Wonder Wads were introduced in the late '70s as I recall.

I'm wondering if Colt's instructions not to use wads were aimed at folks that had never used a revolver before and were used to stuffing a wad (patch) down a single shot pistol or rifle barrel.
 
In Elmer Kieth's book Sixguns he talks about using a 51 navy when he was 14. He learned to load it from CW veterns. In his book he doesn't list load weights but said he filled the chamber leaving enough room for a greased felt wad and a ball and that he made wads from an old hat.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top