Dragoon

theED

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Hello All,

I am about to go for my first shooting cession with my new Uberti Dragoon 3rd model.

If you have the same model I will be more than happy to get some good advises.

Thanks.

 
It is fairly common for the cylinder to become difficult to advance after firing several rounds..if this happens use your left hand to advance the cylinder rather than pulling hard on the hammer. Take the gun apart for cleaning when it is warm..the barrel can become stuck onto the arbour and it is worse if it is cold.
Because the chambers will take a lot of powder the fouling can be a problem particularly on a tight new gun.
Now the good news...these "horse pistols" are a lot of fun to shoot, they make a lot of noise and smoke.
 
It is fairly common for the cylinder to become difficult to advance after firing several rounds..if this happens use your left hand to advance the cylinder rather than pulling hard on the hammer. Take the gun apart for cleaning when it is warm..the barrel can become stuck onto the arbour and it is worse if it is cold.
.

I had that problem with a Walker Colt that I once owned. I put a thin layer of grease on the cylinder pin and had to clean the pin about every 2 cycles of the cylinder. Tried to go 3 cylinder fulls and had to put the gun muzzle down in a bucket of water with the water up to the trigger for about 5 minutes. That softened the fouling and the gun came apart easily. The gun could not be forced apart otherwise. Obviously you need to strip the gun and dry the inside out afterwards

cheers mooncoon
 
It is fairly common for the cylinder to become difficult to advance after firing several rounds..if this happens use your left hand to advance the cylinder rather than pulling hard on the hammer. Take the gun apart for cleaning when it is warm..the barrel can become stuck onto the arbour and it is worse if it is cold.
Because the chambers will take a lot of powder the fouling can be a problem particularly on a tight new gun.
Now the good news...these "horse pistols" are a lot of fun to shoot, they make a lot of noise and smoke.

Thank you sir !
I love noise and smoke too ;)
 
Thanks for good advise and sharing experience.
I intend to load it with 35 grains of FFF, does it make sense to you or not ?
 
I just measured the maximum amount that my Dragoon will take allowing enough room to seat the ball flush with the face of the cylinder and it came out to 46 grains of FFFG Goex. If you load 35 grains and seat the ball on top with no filler or wads it will take a lot of whatever you use to prevent chainfires (bee's wax/vegetable shortening) to cap off the chambers, with that kind of load I fill the extra space with corn meal or cardboard wads so the ball seats flush. Also make sure the caps on live chambers stay on after recoil, if they fit loosely pinch them until they are oval shaped and this will help keep them on.
Looking forward to a range report from you with pictures.
 
Most people havent got a clue how to load these and they have been doing it wrong for years. Pay Attention- 27 to 30 grains in a 44 cal is were you wanna be with 777 powder. Some shoot more accurate with less than 30g. Experiment, youll soon know. Next...triple 7 is great powder. It doesnt gum your gun very fast. Black powder is Awfull dirty,..and you will be cleaning as much as shooting!! With triple7,..just pour warm water over the dirty parts..."the powder comes right off" so simple. When i was in cowboy shooting I used to watch every one cleaning while I was shooting LOL. Next..your ball size..very important. Most idiots use the wrong ball size!! Most pietta revolvers, that are chambered in 44cal TAKE A 454 BALL. ..NO smaller. The ball should fit "so tight that it shaves off a little when your pressing it into the chamber.This ENSURES you wont get a chain fire!!!!!! If you use a ball thats to small, then you got to lube the gun up like a cheap hooker, and then clean up all the mess it leaves behind!!
1- pour in 27 to 30grains tripple 7.
2- put in round "leather or cloth" wad."diameter of the chamber"
3- press proper size ball in chamber.Tripple 7 doesnt like to be compressed hard, so leave a little room.Dont cram the ball in all the way.
4-put on number 11 cap on nipple
forget about grease and other witch doctor potions. If you have a PROPER FITTING BALL you dont need grease or lubes.
It really erks me when I see some clown loading a capNball thats never been taught properly.


see good video here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV38iQwySCs
 
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I would like to remind the previous poster that this is the Black Powder forum and that Black Powder behaves differently than substitutes and should be handled accordingly.
 
Well, I don't want to intrude on a good fun argument, but I started shooting these things about 1961 myself.

Doesn't matter if you use an oversized ball or not, YOU GREASE THE DAMNED CYLINDER.

Once saw a "Colt 1960" Liege-made gun in almost-new condition blast FIVE (5) rounds at a single pull of the trigger.

Problem?

Short of Vaseline and still had a few .454 balls left.

MOST impressive.

I still have the gun, but it doesn't get used like that any longer!
 
I have also heard that the use of Wonder Wads (greased felt wads) eliminates chain fires. Even though I use wonder wads I still use Remington's Wonder lube around the mouths of the cylinder. It smells really good... like minty lemons :) Also it keeps the BP fouling nice and soft. In my Walker Colt repro I usually get six full cylinders fired before I have to start hand advancing the cylinder.
Better to be safe than wreck a nice gun.
Just my 2 cents
edit: I'm not saying anyone's way is wrong and I'm not insulting anyone's way of doing things. I'm just telling the OP how I use my revolver with great success.
 
I use just the wonder wads and no other lube/sealer for both my .44 revolvers. (Pietta 1851 and Pietta 1860.)

I use both 777 3f and Goex 3f for powder, and I use .454 round balls. A nice unbroken ring of lead is shaved off every ball when they get rammed down.

I can typically go 12 shots before the cylinder gets sticky.
 
Thank you all for very interesting experience and advise.
I will use some wonder wads and .454 round balls.
For loading I will start low and try to increase slowly afterward. I am shooting guns and rifles for a while now but first time with Black powder and I am pretty exited with this new experience.
Thanks again.
Ed.
 
all i use is wonder wads in my new army remington uberti, and in 500 rounds or so I've never had a chain fire. I once for an experiment put bore butter over the balls in the cylinder, shooting 24gn loads...after the first round, all the grease on all the chambers was blown out and coated the pistol quite comprehensibly...If the ball is sized properly to the cylinder, and you pay attention to where you put the powder, (ie, don't leave grains stuck all over the face, which extra lube seems to encourage) you won't have an issue...in my experience, there are many here with more then me.

One thing i do is put a small (maybe a match head size) dollop of lube between the wad and ball, i find it goes a long way to keeping the fouling soft. I can run 5-6 cylinders thru before the drag becomes really noticeable. This particular gun is polished stainless steel (presumably to look like a plated gun) so that may affect how the build up sticks, I've never thought of that before...hmmm) I get my best accuracy this way.

My father has an original colt pocket in 31, and the cylinders are corroded internally to the point that you can't get a tight fitting ball...that one gets a good dollop on top, and a wad underneath.
 
Hello All,

I am about to go for my first shooting cession with my new Uberti Dragoon 3rd model.

If you have the same model I will be more than happy to get some good advises.

Thanks.


Aim low...@ 20 yards, belt buckle/balls POA= torso POI. I don't own one but have shot a few. I like my BP rifles and keep pistols to the more modern side of things. Just too much mess and muck for me to find owning BP revolvers "fun".
 
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