Where do you guys get your BP supplies? I plan on getting an 1861 Navy, but I'm not sure where to buy the supplies. I'm already set up to cast balls, but I'm not sure what the best place is for wads, caps and any other BP accessories.
BP Newbie Question
- Thread starter Anthraxis
- Start date
Best place is Brian Densmore's in musqdobiot valley. He normally has everything you need.
If your interested in black powder clubs in Nova Scotia PM me. Our club in Truro is having our yearly rendezvous
next weekend. All BP clubs in NS also have their rendezvous throughout the summer months. Also a monthly shoot.
If your interested in black powder clubs in Nova Scotia PM me. Our club in Truro is having our yearly rendezvous
next weekend. All BP clubs in NS also have their rendezvous throughout the summer months. Also a monthly shoot.
I've never bothered with lube wads either. I've been lubing and sealing the balls with a drop of Canola oil over the ball so it wicks around the "V" between the chamber and the ball. This has always kept the fouling good and soft and easily cleaned away at the end of the day. And with very little or no leading..... at least none that I've ever seen other than the occasional fleck or two of shiny marks on the cleaning patches.
I don't use filler either. But then I'm loading and shooting in Frontiersman cowboy action shooting. So no time or need for the niceties. For serious target accuracy shooting though I'd certainly want to play with different charges with fillers between the charge and ball.
You'll want to check the chamber bore to figure out what size round ball to use. My Colt .44's need .454 balls while my '58's need 457 in order to swage off the proper lead shaving.
So you don't have a gun yet? You planning on a .44 or a .36?
I don't use filler either. But then I'm loading and shooting in Frontiersman cowboy action shooting. So no time or need for the niceties. For serious target accuracy shooting though I'd certainly want to play with different charges with fillers between the charge and ball.
You'll want to check the chamber bore to figure out what size round ball to use. My Colt .44's need .454 balls while my '58's need 457 in order to swage off the proper lead shaving.
So you don't have a gun yet? You planning on a .44 or a .36?
Worth mentioning that when I shot full loads in an Italian navy colt, the recoil crushed the barrel key and I had to make a new one. The key is relatively soft with a groove down the center for the head of the retaining screw. I also had a replica Walker Colt for a while but could not go more than two cylinders without washing the fouling from the cylinder pin or the gun would seize up. The only way to get it apart was to put it muzzle down in a bucket of water for 5 minutes to soften the fouling. Water was only up as far as the trigger. I never had that problem with the Colt Navy
cheers mooncoon
Can you remember what were you using for a load in your Walker? I am just in the process of picking up a new Uberti. I sure hope it doesn't foul as bad as yours did.
geotndtwine
CGN Regular
- Location
- Calgary, Alberta
I shoot the walker. My plinking load is 40gr and iv gone up to the 60gr. But as said before 60grs batters the wedge pretty hard. I shoot a lot of CnB were r u shooting in the calgary area
geotndtwine
CGN Regular
- Location
- Calgary, Alberta
As well my trick to keep the fowling down is pure crisco in each camber and crisco on the arbour. Once the gun starts to stiffen knock the wedge out clean arbour and applie fresh crisco. I find 24 to 30 shoots i break quick clean and go again
Hello, thanks for the load info! I was thinking 30 grains working to 40 grains FFFG, 20 grains of filler, cream of wheat or semolina, and then sealing each ball with Crisco. PM sent about shooting locations...
Thanks for the heads up on paying attention to the arbour as well!
The gun was made by Armi San Marco and while I don't remember the powder charge, it was not spectacularly heavy; probably around 30 - 35 gr of 3F. I liberally lubed the cylinder pin with grease and I still don't understand why it fouled so quickly while my Italian Colt Navy did not.
cheers mooncoon
You guys with the fouling issue should try the Canola oil trick in place of the Crisco. I've got pairs of both Uberti '58's and '60Army C&B revolvers and I have no issue at all keeping them rolling freely for a day of cowboy action. And the last stage sees the cylinders still rolling over slick as the second stage.
I put a drop of oil on the arbor or base pin joint then roll the cylinder a few times to work it in. The fouling is still there but the oil loosens it up really well and turns the whole mess into a black oily ink like consistency. And while messy as blazes it keeps the cylinder running smoothly.
The other issue is cylinder gap. I found that all the open top guns from Italy that I've seen do not set the length of the arbor correctly. They are all too short. That makes setting the wedge to get the ideal gap a problem. And also because it springs the gun to achieve that gap it is prone to jumping around or shooting the wedge loose. I wonder if that is part of the problem of peening the wedge?. On my open top guns I did up some tooling to make spacer buttons that allows the barrel to seat solidly against the end of the arbor and then trim that spacer button to achieve the proper minimal gap. The less the gap the less the blowby and the less the fouling that gums up the arbor. The buttons are then soft soldered to the end of the arbor. That saves them falling out and getting lost each time.
A variation on this I've seen quite a lot is to drill and tap the end of the arbor for a set screw which can then be set to provide the same positive seating and adjust the cylinder gap.
I you opt to give it a try let me know how it goes.
I put a drop of oil on the arbor or base pin joint then roll the cylinder a few times to work it in. The fouling is still there but the oil loosens it up really well and turns the whole mess into a black oily ink like consistency. And while messy as blazes it keeps the cylinder running smoothly.
The other issue is cylinder gap. I found that all the open top guns from Italy that I've seen do not set the length of the arbor correctly. They are all too short. That makes setting the wedge to get the ideal gap a problem. And also because it springs the gun to achieve that gap it is prone to jumping around or shooting the wedge loose. I wonder if that is part of the problem of peening the wedge?. On my open top guns I did up some tooling to make spacer buttons that allows the barrel to seat solidly against the end of the arbor and then trim that spacer button to achieve the proper minimal gap. The less the gap the less the blowby and the less the fouling that gums up the arbor. The buttons are then soft soldered to the end of the arbor. That saves them falling out and getting lost each time.
A variation on this I've seen quite a lot is to drill and tap the end of the arbor for a set screw which can then be set to provide the same positive seating and adjust the cylinder gap.
I you opt to give it a try let me know how it goes.
Thanks Mooncoon, I will start at 30 gr. BCriders tips on Crisco, etc, well found. Great info from all....
I would start off with 15 grains of 3F which is what I shot in my navy, I think. I doubt I shot more than 20 grains in it. The Colt Walker was 44 caliber. Heavy charges in an open top revolver will compress the barrel key
cheers mooncoon
Your starting load needs to be based on the gun caliber. And in particular since you mentioned that you're looking at .36 caliber as your first BP revolver. I'm not sure it would be even possible to use 30grns and still seat the ball correctly. But in any event it would be an overcharge for a .36 for sure. You need to start with more like 15 as Mooncoon suggests above and work up to find the sweet spot for accuracy. Heck, I know of some with brass frame guns that started at 10 grains with a little corn meal filler over top to space the ball near to the front face and found that this provided a very accurate load. Not a lot of smoke or kick mind you....
In my case 30 grains in the Uberti Remingtons represents pretty much a minimum for ME since with 30gns and no filler the ball seats deeply and nearly at the limit of the travel of the built in ram. So I can't shoot much less than 30 even if I wanted to without opting to use some sort of filler or grease cookie or grease wad behind the ball.
BCR
The OP was the one who was discussing the want for an 1851 Navy, in .36....Geo, Mooncoon and I got to talking Walkers, got sidetracked. Hence my starting load of 30 grains. Walker talk.
Great info anyway though on loads for the .36 open tops, and uploading for the ‘58 Remington’s. I am thinking my next acquisition will be exactly that....
