|
Jesse's Hunting > Gun Room Articles > Gun Room Archives > Accuracy or Tradition? Shooting Blackpowder Revolvers
Accuracy or Tradition? Shooting Blackpowder Revolvers
Andy Moe - JHO ProStaff
- San Diego, CA
December 09, 2004
Accuracy trumps tradition
The author with a group shot at 20 yards, offhand, using a Ruger Old Army .45cal. |
With a load of 30 grains of 3F black powder, a Hornady round ball, and some Crisco for lubricant, I kept at bay the cabin fever that a bleak South Dakota winter can visit upon you. For a good two weeks I alternately gunsmithed the .44 into shooting shape and then shot it loose again, knocking cord wood off of the wood pile some 10 yards from the back steps. The gun was cord wood accurate -which may not seem like much- but at least it went off when I pulled the trigger. I was thankful for that.
Each shooting session lasted about 12 shots, at which time the sub-zero temperature buddied-up with the lard/powder residue to bind the gun into an inoperable lump. I'd strip the gun down to its component parts and dunk them into boiling water to clean them. Sewing machine oil lubed the pins and screws and an old brad-set, reground for the purpose, re-staked the ever-loosening cylinder pin into the brass frame.
I kept it alive until I traded it off. What I got for it in trade eludes me but it probably wasn't much. I do remember wondering who could have "Won the West" with such a weapon. At the time it was “good riddance.” I was done with black powder revolvers for the next 14 years.
Scan forward to the winter of 1991 and my wife was assigned to an Indian Health Service Hospital in Montana. We were living in cramped government housing and space was at a premium. I wanted desperately to reload but there was no space to set up my equipment, even if I could get to it under the sea of boxes in my storage shed. To compensate, I shot quite a bit of black powder rifle and kept myself occupied juggling patch sizes, ball diameters, and powder charge. Fun as this was, I missed my pistol shooting.
After much deliberation I finally decided to again delve into the hell that was cap and ball revolver shooting. I called my favorite dealer in New Mexico to see what they might have on the shelf in the way of a decent cap and ball revolver and learned that they had a used, Uberti-made 1851 Colt replica in 36 caliber at a reasonable price. That seemed fine to me and I asked to mail it as soon as they could. It arrived a few days later.
The gun was a real beauty but wasn't an 1851 Navy. It was an 1861 Navy, one of the most elegant and well-balanced revolvers I have ever handled. I wasn't displeased. Mechanically sound and clean, I pronounced it fit to shoot after a brief inspection. I gathered the goods I needed to shoot it at Lammer’s Trading Post, which served as our local gun shop. Thankfully, they had balls, caps, and lube aplenty. I loaded all my gear in a cardboard box and drove out to a spot along the Big Horn River that served as the local shooting range. I set up a target at 20 yards, feeling optimistic that this fine revolver was at least twice as capable as that old clunker I had in '77. I got back in the Chevy to warm my hands and load. There would be no Crisco and FFFg black powder used today.
One of the things I'd learned in my black powder rifle shooting was that a pre-treatment of the weapon with Thompson-Center's "Bore Butter" bullet lube and bore conditioner worked wonders in keeping rifles accurate and functional for long strings of shots. In hopes of aiding the performance of this new black powder revolver I pre-treated the metal parts with the T/C lube per their instructions: The Colt was disassembled, cleaned of all traces of petroleum-based lube using boiling water, and then swabbed down with liberal amounts of "bore Butter" and allowed to cool. This treatment is much like the "seasoning" process a cook goes through with a new iron frying pan. Once cool, the parts are wiped of excess lube and the gun reassembled. From that point on, no petroleum solvents could be used without undoing this treatment -much like that frying pan you keep out of the soapy dishwater. I even lubed the internal parts with the Bore Butter.
That wasn't the only change made in the loading chain. In the Dakota days I would lube the bullet with Crisco vegetable shortening by smearing the lube over the loaded chamber mouth. While this actually worked pretty well, its main draw was it was cheap and available everywhere. In reality though, you need very little lubricant for a round ball fired from a revolver. The ball is oversized and swaged to fit the chamber by the loading lever. The pressures and resulting velocities are low and the bullet only rides on a very short length of its edge; leading would be minimal to nothing without any lube at all.
So, why bother? Well, the lube actually does a three-fold job. First, and most obviously, it lubes the bullet, but it also keeps powder residue soft. This second function is important for accuracy sake and cleaning. The third and final task is deemed the most important: The lube in the chamber mouth guards against "chain fire". Chain-fire is the result of a spark from the chamber being fired getting past a ball in one of the adjacent loaded chambers, causing detonation of the powder. This is an exceptionally dangerous situation that the author has experienced first hand. Trust me, that lube can be that ounce of prevention well worth a pound of cure!
To do away with the Crisco -in fact, any external lube- I used Ox-Yoke brand "Wonder Wads". These are felt wads impregnated with a lubricant very similar to T/C's Bore Butter. Wonder Wads are slightly oversized for the revolver's chamber and seated over the powder charge and under the ball. The danger of chain-fire from an errant spark is negated and the powder residue is kept soft by the passage of the wad through the bore. Anybody who has experienced the joy of having melted bullet lube run out the bottom of their holster and down the leg of their Levis during hot weather cap and ball shooting can appreciate the Wonder Wad as well. Using Wonder Wads insures that the cylinder face remains clean and dry without grease to run or attract dirt and debris. Wonder Wads are available in all the popular calibers including the .36 caliber my Navy Colt required.
My last change was in the propellant. This time I shucked the 3Fg powder and opted for Pyrodex "P" grade. Pyrodex is Hodgdon Powder's well-known black powder substitute that is exchanged, volume-to-volume, for the equivalent grade of black powder. This means that if you set your powder measure for 30 grains of 3F, you'd simply substitute Pyrodex and have the appropriate load. Pyrodex is less dense than black powder so it is never weighed. As an example, a 100 grain weighed charge of the less-dense Pyrodex would result in a 30% overcharge in whatever weapon you were using. Always use a volumetric measure for Pyrodex.
Proper Loading Sequence
Step 1, load powder charge. Step 2, place wads. Step 3, load bullets. Step 4, set caps (proper size). Step 5, shoot safe and have fun! |
Pyrodex is available in several granulations, or grades, depending on your usage: "P" grade is for pistols and small bore rifles, "RS" grade is for rifles and shotguns, and "CTG" grade (now discontinued, but found on shelves still) is usually for metallic cartridges. For my 1861 Uberti, I chose a 25-grain load to be tucked under a Hornady .375" round ball. I used CCI #10 percussion caps to ignite the Pyrodex, and that brings me to a cautionary warning.
If you'll recall a couple of paragraphs back I mentioned a chain fire I had. It was more than one, actually, and was caused my own stupidity with regards to percussion caps. The revolver I was using at the time was a CVA copy of a .31 caliber Remington pocket revolver.
I'd made my own "wonder wads" from some thick "hat felt" punched into discs with an 8mm hole punch. The homemade wads were lubed with T/C Bore Butter and seemed to be an excellent fit in the chambers of that .31. Still, when I touched off the first shot a second chamber fired, causing the 10-grain powder charge to flatten a ball against the frame. It was disturbing to say the least! I disassembled the gun, cleaned and inspected it, and loaded again. On the second shot, a different chamber fired, repeating the scene. I decided then and there that my homemade wads weren't cutting the mustard and loaded using a daub of T/C lube over each chamber mouth, confident that the immediate problem had been solved. On the second shot the gun chain fired again. Now I was flummoxed.
It took me a minute or ten but I finally figured it out: The percussion caps were the wrong size for the nipples on the cylinder. I had run out of #10 caps and simply squeezed a #11 cap to a snug fit in the nipples. This is practice causes no harm when I use it on my side-lock .32 squirrel rifle but it proved to be a dangerous practice for revolvers. The flash and flame that engulfed the cylinder was finding its way into the opening left by my “pinching” of the oversized caps. I proved this by loading one chamber with a charge but just capping the others. I would find one cap burned for every two or three firings. When I switched back to #10 caps on this revolver the problem was cured. Save yourself some grief. Stick to the manufacturer's recommendation for percussion cap size.
So now I was ready to shoot. I had my revolver pretreated with "Bore Butter", I had 25 grains of Pyrodex "P" loaded under a .36 caliber Ox Yoke Wonder Wad and a, .375 Hornady round ball. I was capped with the proper CCI #10 percussion caps. Now it was sink or swim. I stepped out of the Chevy and took careful aim at the "X" in the middle of the 10 ring of my target. At the shot a hole appeared 4" high and 1.5 inches to the left. The Colt’s crude rear sight arrangement of a rear notch in cut in the hammer nose accounted for less than precision sighting so the lack of center hit didn't bother me too much. My second shot struck an inch from the first. My third formed a neat triangle about 1.5" on each side. I ducked back into the car to warm my hands and ponder the target. Not bad for off hand shooting! I got out of the car and finished with a 2.5" group.
Pretty good you say? Well, I actually shot a couple of smaller groups that afternoon, spending the waning daylight hours alternately loading and shooting. All my groups were great! I learned the hold under and windage needed to hit center at 25 yards in that first session. I drove home sooty and happy.
About half way home I realized I hadn't had to clean the 1861. Not once. What a difference! The temperature was below zero for the entire shoot. When I got home I found that the cleanup was fast and easy using Thompson Center's Number 13 water-based solvent. Number 13 is formulated to work with the Bore Butter treatment and will not strip the seasoning from the metal parts. After cleaning every nook and cranny of each part they were lubed with the Bore Butter and reassembled. A pound or two of powder and 1000 round balls later and that 1861 still looks and shoots as good that first afternoon.
I have abandoned the use of traditional black powder entirely. When I needed to prove that the 'new age' method of cap and ball revolver shooting truly worked best I reverted to 3F and petroleum based lube products. Accuracy went to about 4" from that same 1861 Navy. This answers a question that has been nagging me for a while: Why some really reputable writers of black powder sports didn't get revolver groups as good as I got. Simply put, their loads were geared towards traditional loading techniques, not accuracy. And that's fine. Doing it the traditional way can be fun I guess. Personally, I'm a shooter. When given a choice, I’ll take results over tradition.
I also like my firearms enough to not want to subject them to the erosive nature of black powder and the risk of rusting that black powder residue brings about if the gun isn’t cleaned immediately. Hodgdon states that Pyrodex is not non-corrosive but in my tests it has proven to be far less apt to rust your gun than black powder. When combined with the use of the Bore Butter seasoning, Pyrodex has negligible effect on you bore –especially in the drier climates where powder residue has less moisture to absorb from the atmosphere. Like that favorite iron skillet, perhaps h20 just beads up on the metal surfaces when treated with Bore Butter? I believe this is the case.
To give you an idea of how well this system works, I once had a Remington 36 caliber revolver with two extra cylinders. I fired 90 rounds one warm Labor Day afternoon using all three cylinders. As a test, I tossed the gun and the sooty cylinders into a box and left them until Thanksgiving without cleaning. I checked in on them periodically, but left them otherwise unattended. On Thanksgiving Day I cleaned off the gunk and soot. Not a speck of rust. No corrosion. In Montana's low humidity I was confident I could get away with such abuse and indeed, I did. I’m not advocating excusing yourself from a prompt cleaning of your cap and ball gun but there are times when immediate cleaning isn’t practical.
I’ve found that some of the best fun you can have with a cap and ball revolver is an all day rabbit hunt. On a hunt like that you often fire a shot, and then fire another much later. I just don't think I'd like to leave a good revolver lying about with black powder residue for the whole day. And I wouldn't relish stopping to strip and clean it, either. With the modern loading techniques I shoot and reload without the urgency of cleaning hanging over my head. (PS: If you've never hunted rabbit with cap and ball revolver you've missed out on a whole world of fun.)
I’ve now got about a dozen cap and ball revolvers, from the pocket-sized 1849 Colt Baby Dragoon in .31 caliber, to the massive Colt Walker .44 caliber. I don’t shoot either of these as much as a brace of Ruger “Old Army” .45 caliber guns and, of course, the old Navy Colt. All of them shoot as well as I can hold, and all of them get the “modern” loading technique: T/C Bore Butter, Oxyoke Wonder Wads and Hodgdon’s Pyrodex “P”. These are the keys to safe and accurate shooting with trouble fee cleanups. 
All the right stuff
Here is everything you'd need to get the most out of your blackpowder revolver shooting. Some of isn't quite what the early gunslingers might have used, but the author prefers accuracy to tradition. |
These days I leave the black powder to those who don’t mind dealing with it. And the Crisco? Well, it still makes for good biscuits.
AUTHORS NOTE: Safety precautions must be adhered to while handling and shooting black powder firearms. Always follow manufacturers recommended loads, loading practices, and loading sequences. To do otherwise may cause injury to shooters and/or bystanders. Always wear proper shooting eyewear. All data and events contained in this article have been chronicled for entertainment purposes and are in no way to be understood to be a guide for any readers to use in their own shooting and reloading endeavors. The author and JHO will not be held responsible for injury or damage that occurs as a result of trying to replicate any of the loads or loading techniques outlined in this article.
|
