You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Storing loaded cylinders?
- Thread starter JarYetz
- Start date
Suiftwater
Inactive
Hallo,
Only after fired burned black powder residues cause corrosion, you could left a properly loaded cylinder for years without any sign of corrosion.
The recomended method for this purpose and the storing precautions has been convenient explained in others posts.
Consider before the risk of have a loading and capped cylinder in house, it must be in a secure place where nobody can access and have an accident.
Only after fired burned black powder residues cause corrosion, you could left a properly loaded cylinder for years without any sign of corrosion.
The recomended method for this purpose and the storing precautions has been convenient explained in others posts.
Consider before the risk of have a loading and capped cylinder in house, it must be in a secure place where nobody can access and have an accident.
tiberius10721
Moderator
its a good question I asked the same question a while back so now i leave my cylinders loaded all the time after they have been cleaned real well.
Wild Bill Bucks
New member
As long as you don't use petroleum based products on your weapon, the black powder, won't corrode the metal.
If you use any oil where it can come in contact with black powder, the two together, will become corrosive. That is why most people use a vegetable based product such as Bore Butter, and the like, on their weapons.
Here in Oklahoma, the humidity makes it almost impossible to keep loaded cylinders stored for very long. You can keep moisture out by putting grease on the front of the cylinder, but it is difficult to keep moisture from getting through the primer hole.
This week we have gone from 80 degree weather, with 30 % humidity, to 55 degrees with rain every day for three days, then back to 80 degrees, with 80% humidity. This makes it very hard to keep loaded cylinders anywhere but in the tightest of places.
If you have a very good gun cabinet to keep them in, it probably would be OK, but if you are like I am, and don't have one, it is probably just as easy to load them as you use them.
If you use any oil where it can come in contact with black powder, the two together, will become corrosive. That is why most people use a vegetable based product such as Bore Butter, and the like, on their weapons.
Here in Oklahoma, the humidity makes it almost impossible to keep loaded cylinders stored for very long. You can keep moisture out by putting grease on the front of the cylinder, but it is difficult to keep moisture from getting through the primer hole.
This week we have gone from 80 degree weather, with 30 % humidity, to 55 degrees with rain every day for three days, then back to 80 degrees, with 80% humidity. This makes it very hard to keep loaded cylinders anywhere but in the tightest of places.
If you have a very good gun cabinet to keep them in, it probably would be OK, but if you are like I am, and don't have one, it is probably just as easy to load them as you use them.
simonkenton
New member
I have two loaded Colt Army .44s in my house right now.
The Pietta I kept in the drawer for two years, and it fired fine, all 5 cylinders.
Black powder and CCI caps.
The Uberti has now been loaded, and unfired, for 3 years. I will be firing it in a few weeks to see how it does.
This is in the humid NC mountains, and I don't use AC much. Right now it is raining and 65 degrees, I have 2 windows open.
I don't put grease on top of the ball, nor anything on the caps.
I don't see how moist air can get past the ball, or past the cap, as long as you don't dunk it in a bucket of water.
By the way, my brother recently came up here. He has a little tin of CCI caps that he bought in 1978!
We fired his pistol 24 times and never had a misfire.
The Pietta I kept in the drawer for two years, and it fired fine, all 5 cylinders.
Black powder and CCI caps.
The Uberti has now been loaded, and unfired, for 3 years. I will be firing it in a few weeks to see how it does.
This is in the humid NC mountains, and I don't use AC much. Right now it is raining and 65 degrees, I have 2 windows open.
I don't put grease on top of the ball, nor anything on the caps.
I don't see how moist air can get past the ball, or past the cap, as long as you don't dunk it in a bucket of water.
By the way, my brother recently came up here. He has a little tin of CCI caps that he bought in 1978!
We fired his pistol 24 times and never had a misfire.
WBB,
BS on you. Oil is Oil.ALL are hydrocarbons. Bull**** people all you want, and I don't see you trying to sell anything, like YOUR own super lube.
There is NO oil that will make your pistol stop shooting. Oil is oil is oil.
Forget about getting the BEST oil you can. There AIN'T no better than any you can get hold of, ala bacon fat, lamb fat, Crisco, Land'Olakes butter, spit, f'r chris' sake..
Anybody who tells you HIS lube is better than anything you have ever tried is trying to sell you something you would never buy without an advertising drive.
Grease is grease is grease. We are not concerned with such as Moly disulfide, so called super lubes. Them we don't need. All we need is to let a lead ball go down a tube with the least resistance and make that hole not too dirty.
We are WAY more critical of how to shoot BP than they were 100 years ago. The F**king thing went BOOM when you needed it to was GOOD. Today we bitch if one of a 100 doesn't fire.
Cheers,
George
BS on you. Oil is Oil.ALL are hydrocarbons. Bull**** people all you want, and I don't see you trying to sell anything, like YOUR own super lube.
There is NO oil that will make your pistol stop shooting. Oil is oil is oil.
Forget about getting the BEST oil you can. There AIN'T no better than any you can get hold of, ala bacon fat, lamb fat, Crisco, Land'Olakes butter, spit, f'r chris' sake..
Anybody who tells you HIS lube is better than anything you have ever tried is trying to sell you something you would never buy without an advertising drive.
Grease is grease is grease. We are not concerned with such as Moly disulfide, so called super lubes. Them we don't need. All we need is to let a lead ball go down a tube with the least resistance and make that hole not too dirty.
We are WAY more critical of how to shoot BP than they were 100 years ago. The F**king thing went BOOM when you needed it to was GOOD. Today we bitch if one of a 100 doesn't fire.
Cheers,
George
Raider2000
New member
Without getting anyone angry...
Yes you can store a properly loaded Cap & Ball revolver & any spare cylinders in a cool dry location "like in a gun safe or such" for years if you wished & if it was properly loaded & sealed will reliably fire each chamber just as reliably as any modern cartridge firearm & it will not be any more rusted or corroded than if you was to store the firearm in an unloaded clean & oiled state.
I'll have to look it up but I made a posting a while ago where I explained how to properly load & seal the chambers both at the projectile & capped sides for this purpose but the one thing I'll mention is that if you intend this to be your defence weapon, you should practice with it as often as you resonably can to stay proficient with your firearm for when & if the time arives where you did have to use it.
Lubes asside, the only lube that I use can be made at home using Crisco shortening & Bees Wax for bullet lube & for prolonged storage I use Ballistol but as long as the chambers & the bore is lubed with a natural grease/oil like Crisco or such you can lube the inner workings of your C&B revolver with any modern grease/oil that you use with your modern cartridge firearms.
To keep the projectile side free from moisture intrusion you can either put lube over the ball to cover & at the capped side just melt some beeswax or candlewax over the cap & cone to seal that end "keep the lit candle a little distance away from the primers please" & that will keep the cylinders as weather resistent as any modern cartridge.
Yes you can store a properly loaded Cap & Ball revolver & any spare cylinders in a cool dry location "like in a gun safe or such" for years if you wished & if it was properly loaded & sealed will reliably fire each chamber just as reliably as any modern cartridge firearm & it will not be any more rusted or corroded than if you was to store the firearm in an unloaded clean & oiled state.
I'll have to look it up but I made a posting a while ago where I explained how to properly load & seal the chambers both at the projectile & capped sides for this purpose but the one thing I'll mention is that if you intend this to be your defence weapon, you should practice with it as often as you resonably can to stay proficient with your firearm for when & if the time arives where you did have to use it.
Lubes asside, the only lube that I use can be made at home using Crisco shortening & Bees Wax for bullet lube & for prolonged storage I use Ballistol but as long as the chambers & the bore is lubed with a natural grease/oil like Crisco or such you can lube the inner workings of your C&B revolver with any modern grease/oil that you use with your modern cartridge firearms.
To keep the projectile side free from moisture intrusion you can either put lube over the ball to cover & at the capped side just melt some beeswax or candlewax over the cap & cone to seal that end "keep the lit candle a little distance away from the primers please" & that will keep the cylinders as weather resistent as any modern cartridge.
Last edited: