So, I bought an 1863 Remington pocket revolver last weekend. "Another hole in your head" was what my boss said when I showed it to him. But I wanted one. I have no idea why though.
That said, I shot it this morning and have a couple of things I need to do to make it more than a single shot. First, the .310 round ball available at the local Sportsman's/Cabellas is too small to either cut a ring or even hold the ball remotely tight. I've read that people use .315-.319 round ball.
1. What are your recommendations for diameter of ball?
I can't find my calipers to measure but will as soon as I locate them.
Number 10 caps won't fit and #11's are difficult to push on all the way. As it is now, in order to ignite the cap it takes 2 hammer strikes. One to seat the cap and then one to ignite it. Using an empty chamber I can successfully push them on with enough force so they will ignite mostly reliably. But I'm concerned about pushing that hard on a cap on a loaded cylinder. It just seems like a bad idea. Maybe I'm being overly conservative but I don't want an accident. In reality to put them on hard enough for reliable ignition it takes a tool of some sort. I've read on the internet that some will reduce the diameter of the nipples by sanding so the caps fit better.
2. Is that a realistic thing to do?
The gun seems to either never been fired or fired once and cleaned really well. It is reasonably accurate. Shoots high like everybody reports, but even with balls of varying degrees of tightness held a decent group at 7 yards.
That said, I shot it this morning and have a couple of things I need to do to make it more than a single shot. First, the .310 round ball available at the local Sportsman's/Cabellas is too small to either cut a ring or even hold the ball remotely tight. I've read that people use .315-.319 round ball.
1. What are your recommendations for diameter of ball?
I can't find my calipers to measure but will as soon as I locate them.
Number 10 caps won't fit and #11's are difficult to push on all the way. As it is now, in order to ignite the cap it takes 2 hammer strikes. One to seat the cap and then one to ignite it. Using an empty chamber I can successfully push them on with enough force so they will ignite mostly reliably. But I'm concerned about pushing that hard on a cap on a loaded cylinder. It just seems like a bad idea. Maybe I'm being overly conservative but I don't want an accident. In reality to put them on hard enough for reliable ignition it takes a tool of some sort. I've read on the internet that some will reduce the diameter of the nipples by sanding so the caps fit better.
2. Is that a realistic thing to do?
The gun seems to either never been fired or fired once and cleaned really well. It is reasonably accurate. Shoots high like everybody reports, but even with balls of varying degrees of tightness held a decent group at 7 yards.