Rubber bullets?

S

Setzer77

Inactive
Midway (amongst others) sell packs of rubber bullets designed for primer use only and resusable for metallic cartridge shooting. I was wondering if anyone has ever used, or see no reason why they wouldn't be succsessful in a C&B revolver.

I was just thinking this would be an inexpensive and fun way to practice, shoot me down if it's a bad idea (for whatever reason).

They also make .44 and .45 bullets, but I recall a .44 C&B isn't quite at .43 like a metallic .44 is. Issues?
 
I think that it's going to require a little bit of powder in the chamber to obtain enough velocity to make the performance of Midway's hollow rubber bullet worthwhile. They don't list the bullet weight, but I'm trying to compare using them to reported parlor pistol performance with a musket cap.

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/parlor_pistol/parlor_pistol.html


It may work at such a low velocity level using the percussion cap as a propellant, that it would be disappointing. I doubt very much that the velocity would exceed 300 fps without also using some powder, even if it was only 5 grains. And then from there it would be unknown if the powder residue would significantly harm accuracy or not until it's actually tried.
An optimist would say that the concept would probably work out okay, and at the worst a little swabbing might be necessary between cylinders. :rolleyes:
 
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By looking at the ones that Midway sells the .45 caliber ones should work but loading them may prove dificult but I may be wrong.

arcticap may be right though that you may need something like 5gr. of powder to help launch the bullet but I would definitly try it with only the primer first to see how it shoots besides it's not intended to give the same recoil characteristics {sp} like a fully charged load.
 
I'm curious as to why there would be issues as opposed to a cartridge system. Are percussion caps weaker than primers? I'm also interested to know how there would be issues loading. I understand that the bullet can only go in one way unlike a ball, but I wouldn't think it would be that much trouble.
 
Setzer77 said:
I'm curious as to why there would be issues as opposed to a cartridge system. Are percussion caps weaker than primers? I'm also interested to know how there would be issues loading. I understand that the bullet can only go in one way unlike a ball, but I wouldn't think it would be that much trouble.
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A standard percussion cap may launch the rubber bullets but I'm not sure & you have to remember that centerfire primers are a bit hotter than percussion caps are as well.

As far as loading my thoughts stem from the fact that some percussion revolvers have chamber dimentions of .446 - .452 "depending on brand & tooling" so in the tighter chambers the skirt may pose a problem on loading & remember this is for a cartridge weapon where the loading press can expand the case enough to facilitate loading & then lightly crimp them.
 
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