maillemaker
New member
Today I took my Uberti Walker to the range, and I worked up loads of 35, 40, 45, 50, and 60 grains 3F Shuetzen, using a .457 ball cast from a Lee mold. Sprues were oriented sprue-forward. The filler was Cream of Wheat. When filler was used, enough was put over the powder so that when the ball was firmly seated it was just flush with the cylinder face.
Before starting, I had seated a ball on an empty chamber and then removed the nipple and poured powder in from the nipple opening to determine the minimum uncompressed load that the revolver loading ram can reach with a ball. In the case of this particular Uberti Walker, that was 32.9 grains of 3F Shuetzen. Thus I started with 35 grains as the starting load.
Shots were made from 25 yards off of a bench rest. Because seating the bullets with no filler vs. with filler results in, obviously, different bullet seating depths, I did not use lube. If I had used lube, the deeper-seated bullets would have ended up with more lube over them than the shallow-set bullets. To eliminate this variable, I used no lube. This is the first time I had ever shot a BP revolver with no lube.
The difference with no lube is instantly apparent after the first 6 shots. The barrel was fouled with hard deposits that brushing and wiping with Ballistol alone would not remove. Instead I poured water down the barrel and scrubbed that with a bristle brush and then wiped with a patch. That removed the fouling.
The best group was achieved with the load I had already discovered for this revolver and currently use in competition - 45 grains 3F Shuetzen with filler.
However, surprisingly, 35 grains with filler also did very well.
45 grains without filler had some bullets make a good group, but one bullet missed the target entirely.
I had a few targets with a "missing" bullet, either it went through an existing hole or missed the target entirely. As I was cleaning up I discovered a hole in the bucket I use to hold my "bullet catcher" bucket so I know at least one of them went about a foot low, but I don't know from which target it came from.
Here are the images of the targets:
http://imgur.com/a/1U6jH
So, from this very limited experiment, I believe that there may be merit to using filler such that the ball is seated near the face of the cylinder, and thus near the barrel opening.
I'm also very much a fan of over-the-ball lube as the effect on keeping the fouling soft is obvious and large.
Steve
Before starting, I had seated a ball on an empty chamber and then removed the nipple and poured powder in from the nipple opening to determine the minimum uncompressed load that the revolver loading ram can reach with a ball. In the case of this particular Uberti Walker, that was 32.9 grains of 3F Shuetzen. Thus I started with 35 grains as the starting load.
Shots were made from 25 yards off of a bench rest. Because seating the bullets with no filler vs. with filler results in, obviously, different bullet seating depths, I did not use lube. If I had used lube, the deeper-seated bullets would have ended up with more lube over them than the shallow-set bullets. To eliminate this variable, I used no lube. This is the first time I had ever shot a BP revolver with no lube.
The difference with no lube is instantly apparent after the first 6 shots. The barrel was fouled with hard deposits that brushing and wiping with Ballistol alone would not remove. Instead I poured water down the barrel and scrubbed that with a bristle brush and then wiped with a patch. That removed the fouling.
The best group was achieved with the load I had already discovered for this revolver and currently use in competition - 45 grains 3F Shuetzen with filler.
However, surprisingly, 35 grains with filler also did very well.
45 grains without filler had some bullets make a good group, but one bullet missed the target entirely.
I had a few targets with a "missing" bullet, either it went through an existing hole or missed the target entirely. As I was cleaning up I discovered a hole in the bucket I use to hold my "bullet catcher" bucket so I know at least one of them went about a foot low, but I don't know from which target it came from.
Here are the images of the targets:
http://imgur.com/a/1U6jH
So, from this very limited experiment, I believe that there may be merit to using filler such that the ball is seated near the face of the cylinder, and thus near the barrel opening.
I'm also very much a fan of over-the-ball lube as the effect on keeping the fouling soft is obvious and large.
Steve