Finally took the new 1858 for a test spin this past Saturday. I shot 30 rounds. I was fairly pleased with this firearm. It was a "blast" to shoot. Lots o-fun-n-smoke!
The first 24 rounds I used 25 grains of 777 whereas the last 6 rounds it was 30 grains. I always use a lubricated Wonder Wad between the charge and the ball. As expected, this firearm fired about 6" too low due to the tall front site that Uberti ships with. It is made to file down and its clear I'll need to do that. This firearm shot about 4" to the left of center. I noticed that the front sight is actually about 1/32" off center to the right. Because Uberti dove tails the front sight it is easily corrected with a drift. Hopefully, making the front sight dead on center will make it POA with regard to windage.
I used Hornady .454 round swagged lead balls. I was surprised to see that a lead ring typically did NOT shave off when loading the ball. Maybe I need to think about using .457 balls instead. I have an ample supply of them that I use for my ROAs.
For caps I tried several. The Winchester Magnum #11 caps (aka CCI #11) fell right off the nipples. The Remington #11 caps seemed to work okay but not perfect. It is #11 caps that are recommended by Uberti. The Remington #10 caps worked the best and most reliably although I did experience a few non-fires on first impact. All in all I did not have a clean run with any of the three caps styles. Guess it might be time to look into those Tresco nipples that everyone talks about.
Once I figured out where to aim this Remmie it was very easy to get consistent hits. All-in-all I was very please with my first outing.
The first 24 rounds I used 25 grains of 777 whereas the last 6 rounds it was 30 grains. I always use a lubricated Wonder Wad between the charge and the ball. As expected, this firearm fired about 6" too low due to the tall front site that Uberti ships with. It is made to file down and its clear I'll need to do that. This firearm shot about 4" to the left of center. I noticed that the front sight is actually about 1/32" off center to the right. Because Uberti dove tails the front sight it is easily corrected with a drift. Hopefully, making the front sight dead on center will make it POA with regard to windage.
I used Hornady .454 round swagged lead balls. I was surprised to see that a lead ring typically did NOT shave off when loading the ball. Maybe I need to think about using .457 balls instead. I have an ample supply of them that I use for my ROAs.
For caps I tried several. The Winchester Magnum #11 caps (aka CCI #11) fell right off the nipples. The Remington #11 caps seemed to work okay but not perfect. It is #11 caps that are recommended by Uberti. The Remington #10 caps worked the best and most reliably although I did experience a few non-fires on first impact. All in all I did not have a clean run with any of the three caps styles. Guess it might be time to look into those Tresco nipples that everyone talks about.
Once I figured out where to aim this Remmie it was very easy to get consistent hits. All-in-all I was very please with my first outing.