revolver targets and ball retrieval

N

Newton24b

Moderator
im trying to figure out what a good target for a 1860 35 grains pyrodex p and a round ball is, when you actually want to get the bullet back for a little curio keepsake for yourself?

i know lots of people like phone books, but getting them is pretty hard for some reason once everyone starts using them for kindling.
 
5-liter wine boxes.
Drink wine.
sober up.
pull tap.
refill with tap water.
push tap back in.
stack deep & shoot.
 
at what ranges are we talking about for the cardboard box though? next time ill be able to get out and practice is going to be in december and well, the ground is going to be frozen for at least 36 inches deep.

i had thought of water jugs backed by a box of paper but im just absolutely not sureon dimensions of it.
 
Five 1 gallon plastic containers filled with water should be enough to stop it.
The ball probably won't make it through the fourth jug and will come to a rest inside of it.
 
Figure 15 yds for the distance & about 18" max depth of penetration into water.
When I tested the 125 Gr .357 @ 1350 FPS it penetrated 3 of the wine boxes & stopped after just breaking into the 4th one. A friend fired a jacketed .45 ACP & it penetrated 3~4 milk jugs at about 15 yds.
 
how much are you willing to spend on it? I believe that you could probably buy a 5 gallon bucket of drywall cement, cut a small hole through the lid, and fire your ball down into the bucket. It will almost certainly stop against the bottom of the bucket with next to no damage at all.
 
Ground is everywhere and free to use with no work other than following the hole to find it and digging it up.
 
I'd agree with all of the methods, but the soft ball is going to deform. Water and mud could stop it without damaging it as much.

a bucket of drywall mud can trap .22 lr rounds, I suspect that it will stop a low velocity round ball just as easily. I'd expect that shot into a mud stream bank or other gunky place it will go about 15" or so deep.
 
I'm not sure that you can reduce the load. Don't you have to have a cylinder full of powder with no air space?
Click to expand...
Uh, no, you don't.

It IS NECESSARY that there be no air space between the ball and the powder. But that can certainly be accomplished without a full chamber (not cylinder) of powder.
 
Most .44 pistols like a load of somewhere between 27~30 grains of B/P. To seat the ball you just use the rammer till you feel the ball bottom out on the charge. The chamber may not be full, but there is no air space to cause problems, the ball is just seated a hair deeper in the chamber.
 
I had been told way back when I was a kid that the powder chamber was slightly smaller than the throat of the cylinder, that the chamber had to be full, and that the ball could only be put in to a cylinder to a minimal depth.

Must be wrong.
 
A quick test of mine with a ball mic says it's pretty much identical all the way back.
You will run out of rammer though if you go too much on the light side. I once loaded a 15 Gr charge to check something & badly needed a felt wad to make up the distance with such a small charge in a .44 chamber.
 
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