A hardy greeting to all. I am a very new to this forum but not all that new to BP shooting. My first BP that i picked up was on my way out of the Navy exchange some 20 years ago at the end of my enlistment. I though, "Gee a kit I can build my self, how hard can this be?"
It was a CVA rendition of the 1861 Navy Colt in .44 After a few dozen hours of filing sanding and polishing I had my very first BP revolver. Pretty little thing done all up in a brass frame. I was hooked. Next was the Remington 1858 Army this time in a steel frame. Both were fun, each had its advantages and disadvantages. I won't go into that here as its like say whats better, Chevy or Ford. To each their own. Life happened and those little "toys" of mine were gone. This brings me to the title of the post.
Today I was finally able to get to an outdoor range and test out the Traditions 1851 Navy .44 steel frame revolver. The revolver arrived a few weeks ago and since then I have been gather the required supplies. With gun, powder, measures and tools I head off to the range.
The gun its self arrived in a rather cheap cardboard box with a Styrofoam insert, wrapped up in plastic with the factory oil plainly visible through the plastic almost dripping wet. Well needless to say, it was going to need a very detailed cleaning. All the screws on this gun were WAY tight and took a bit of effort to break free. I'm convince that there is a huge guy named Bruno n the factory that just wrenched everything on as tight as he can get it. This was very true of the nipples on the cylinder. After breaking a nipple wrench trying to get them loose, I had to resort to an application of mild heat by placing the part in the oven and then working on it to get them broke free.
The last struggle was the wedge. Again I'm pretty sure that Bruno beat this into iron as well. To break this free I went from a soft pine dowel, bamboo dowel, soft plastic mallet, to a hard rubber mallet. With frustration mounting I gave the wedge a solid hit with the rubber mallet and finally it broke free.
The gun now all in parts got the well deserved cleaning and all the factory packing oils removed. After checking for misaligned parts and anything that rubbed the wrong way I have to say, I was impressed. All the parts fit very well together. There were no high spots on the cylinder lock, trigger spring or the trigger its self. The timing was dead on and everything looked great.
At the range it was a pretty straight forward affair. Its a steel frame but nonetheless no need to over do it. I used 22 grains Pyrodex P, covered by felt patch and a .451 ball. To be honest I was not expecting the .451 to be large enough to get that nice shaved ring of lead but it seems to have worked out well. Finding a .454 ball has been difficult locally. I'll probably have to resort to the internet to get them. Then I capped everything with Remington #10 caps. The moment arrived.
Trigger pull was lighter than I remembered but that's not a bad thing either. The hammer fell and I was basked in that old familiar blue white smoke. I Missed that. at the 3rd shot it got bound by the fired caps dropping between the cylinder and frame. This happened with the remaining caps as well. I blame this on the caps and not the gun. Never used Remington caps before and after reading about them, wont use them again either.
Loaded up again, shot another 6 rounds and it was a full complete win. This gun and I are going to be fast friends for a long time to come. I cant wait till i finish off the Traditions Kentucky long rifle build i have going. I'll be sure to share on how that project progresses.
It was a CVA rendition of the 1861 Navy Colt in .44 After a few dozen hours of filing sanding and polishing I had my very first BP revolver. Pretty little thing done all up in a brass frame. I was hooked. Next was the Remington 1858 Army this time in a steel frame. Both were fun, each had its advantages and disadvantages. I won't go into that here as its like say whats better, Chevy or Ford. To each their own. Life happened and those little "toys" of mine were gone. This brings me to the title of the post.
Today I was finally able to get to an outdoor range and test out the Traditions 1851 Navy .44 steel frame revolver. The revolver arrived a few weeks ago and since then I have been gather the required supplies. With gun, powder, measures and tools I head off to the range.
The gun its self arrived in a rather cheap cardboard box with a Styrofoam insert, wrapped up in plastic with the factory oil plainly visible through the plastic almost dripping wet. Well needless to say, it was going to need a very detailed cleaning. All the screws on this gun were WAY tight and took a bit of effort to break free. I'm convince that there is a huge guy named Bruno n the factory that just wrenched everything on as tight as he can get it. This was very true of the nipples on the cylinder. After breaking a nipple wrench trying to get them loose, I had to resort to an application of mild heat by placing the part in the oven and then working on it to get them broke free.
The last struggle was the wedge. Again I'm pretty sure that Bruno beat this into iron as well. To break this free I went from a soft pine dowel, bamboo dowel, soft plastic mallet, to a hard rubber mallet. With frustration mounting I gave the wedge a solid hit with the rubber mallet and finally it broke free.
The gun now all in parts got the well deserved cleaning and all the factory packing oils removed. After checking for misaligned parts and anything that rubbed the wrong way I have to say, I was impressed. All the parts fit very well together. There were no high spots on the cylinder lock, trigger spring or the trigger its self. The timing was dead on and everything looked great.
At the range it was a pretty straight forward affair. Its a steel frame but nonetheless no need to over do it. I used 22 grains Pyrodex P, covered by felt patch and a .451 ball. To be honest I was not expecting the .451 to be large enough to get that nice shaved ring of lead but it seems to have worked out well. Finding a .454 ball has been difficult locally. I'll probably have to resort to the internet to get them. Then I capped everything with Remington #10 caps. The moment arrived.
Trigger pull was lighter than I remembered but that's not a bad thing either. The hammer fell and I was basked in that old familiar blue white smoke. I Missed that. at the 3rd shot it got bound by the fired caps dropping between the cylinder and frame. This happened with the remaining caps as well. I blame this on the caps and not the gun. Never used Remington caps before and after reading about them, wont use them again either.
Loaded up again, shot another 6 rounds and it was a full complete win. This gun and I are going to be fast friends for a long time to come. I cant wait till i finish off the Traditions Kentucky long rifle build i have going. I'll be sure to share on how that project progresses.
