Cap and Ball Revolver

RMG

RMG

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Nelson B.C. aka Melmac
Having never owned one of these personally, what are some of your recommendations for a good fun gun. Used solely for fun at the range, punchin holes in paper and such. I have for many years hunted with muzzle loaders, so have some knowledge regarding such.

Along with recommendations, are there any cap and ball revolvers that one should stay away from.

I have been looking at the Pietta (Colt 1851 Navy). Does anyone own one of these. Ideas and suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,
 
RMG said:
Having never owned one of these personally, what are some of your recommendations for a good fun gun. Used solely for fun at the range, punchin holes in paper and such. I have for many years hunted with muzzle loaders, so have some knowledge regarding such.

Along with recommendations, are there any cap and ball revolvers that one should stay away from.

I have been looking at the Pietta (Colt 1851 Navy). Does anyone own one of these. Ideas and suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,
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Pietta makes an excellent firearm for the money. You need 3F powder, .454 round ball, some kind of grease to cover the ball, and caps that fit. Some guns are #10 and some are #11. I load about 30 grns of 3F in my Pietta Remington 1858 clone and it shoots pretty good. If you shoot BP rifles you should have no problems shooting pistols. They're a little more difficult to clean. I just disassemble mine and throw it in a sink full of hot soapy water. Scrub it, oil it and put it away. Remember, reproduction BP pistols must be registered and you must have an RPAL and ATT and all that good ####.Much more info can be found here: http://www.thehighroad.org/forumdisplay.php?f=12
These guys are really into their C&B pistols.
 
Also take a look at the Uberti. They seem to be of excellent quality and well finished.Here's a .36 1851 Navy I recently purchased.

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I have a couple of pietta's one 1860 .44 and one they call a confederate or reb 1851 that is also .44 ,I have shot them in cowboy action matches for the last couple of years and have been very happy with them. they are a blast to shoot(pun totally intended) I would not hesitate to buy the pietta guns:D
 
I recently bought a Pietta 1851 Navy from Marstar. Good shooter - surprisingly accurate gun especially considering the primitive sights.

Dead Man's Hand

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and having some fun with it a couple of weeks ago

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Fun gun to shoot. About 60-90 minutes of cleaning though so shoot it for a few hours!
 
Here's mine, nothing fancy, just a mid-third model circa 1853.
colt1851navy47zspx9.jpg

If you can find one, Navy Arms made a great 1851 repro.
I have one and it shoots about the same as my antique Colt,
which has gotten 2in. at 20yds. with three shots. KD
 
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If you just want to display it, buy whatever turns you on.
If you want to fire it, buy one with a steel frame, as the brass frames can eventually stretch open after firing heavy loads.

I also went with the Remington New Army 1858 for the same reason,as it has a top strap.

They are a pig to clean, so as someone noted above, fire it for a while each outing!
 
A quality reproduction 1847 (Walker) Colt is probably the most fun to shoot, if you can lift it. It ways in at 2 kilos, not loaded. It will take a maximum load of 60gr of FFFG behind a round ball. If you get the chance watch the Clint Eastwood movie 'The Outlaw Josie Wales' as that is his side arm.
 
I just bought a Remington 1858 44 cal Antique Percussion Revolver.

It needs TLC but im gona love Rebuilding that gun up! :)

Anyone got a 1858 they shoot?
 
Here's my 1856 navy .36 that I've had and never shot! I'm going to try to get organised and use it. Can any body tell me what size caps to use? I believe it is a pietta model but not sure.Thanks



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Caps are a bit unstandardized. CCI #11 were not reliable in mine, Rem #11's work perfectly - the skirt is shorter on them. Some guns like the #10 caps - again rem seem to be a little smaller than CCI. You'll probably have to experiment a bit.

Same goes for balls. Mine likes the .375 Hornady swaged balls fine but some have looser chambers and do better with the .380 balls which are much harder to find if you aren't casting yourself. You want a nice ring of lead shaved off otherwise the balls might come loose under recoil and cause a chain fire.
 
I agree with Arancio^, Walkers are literally a blast to shoot, just look at my avatar! As to the cleaning issue, I find I can totally clean my 2 Walkers in under 1 hour. Initially it took my over an hour for each gun. I no longer fully disassemble the action every time - maybe once or twice a year to clean and re-grease (no corrosion issues to date). I just pop the barrel off, take the nipples out, submerge in boiling or near boiling water, scrub with a bronze brush, rinse, apply water diluted Melamagic (Melaleuca product) or water dilluted Ballistol, scrub again, rinse with hot water, patch dry and apply warmed wonderlube as protectant/lube.
 
dingus said:
I just bought a Remington 1858 44 cal Antique Percussion Revolver.

It needs TLC but im gona love Rebuilding that gun up! :)

Anyone got a 1858 they shoot?
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I have an original 58 I shoot. Mine's got some serious cylinder gap and some deep pits but I shoot it anyway. Only issue is it gets fouled up and after about the third cylinder full it doesn't want to rotate. I would suggest running a brush through the cylinder pin hole in the cylinder and wiping the pin after each cylinder full. I switched to some of that Jim Shockey powder and it works great, I put 6 cylinders full through it and it was still rotating nicely.

Lots of fun to shoot, but shoot it lots if your going to, same amount of cleaning for one shot or 100.
 
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