Has Anyone Here Mastered The Art Of The Percussion Revolver?

And TOTW's table of nipples even specifies which caps fit the nipples.

I'm just better at fixing what I've got than ordering things though.

Curse you, never mind all the history and waxing poetic about the romance. They are just plain FUN to shoot. The BP produces a whole different feel than what you get with smokeless.

A Remington and a Colt open top would be the combo to get. Or maybe go for three, a Remington, a Colt 1851 and a Colt 1860. That gives you what could well be considered the big three of the time.
 
Geez I had to laugh a couple years back. I was at the outdoor range shooting my 1860 and an expert that knew everything there was to know about guns was introducing his young friends to the fine art of pistolcraft down on the end of the firing line. They had a duelling tree set up with the swinging plates and it wasn't too long before we got in a fight for control of it. He would fire two or three quick ones and make a hit, and I would fire one and send the plate back to him. It pi**ed him off and on the second round he was firing 5 rounds to make one hit. The madder he got the worse he shot.

Finally one of his buddies wanders over and he sees me futzing around with caps and ball and powder - and asks to handle the gun. You should have seen his eyes light up...that gun was stinking with the rot of a thousand dead animals from the burnt black powder, the barrel was blazing hot after six fairly quick shots - and he fell in love with that pistol right then and there. He asked all kinds of questions and I offered to let him load it and shoot it but he declined, saying he was going to buy his own. The expert at the end of the range was incensed and told him these things are toys and nothing more but the kid would have none of it.

It would have been nice to follow up with him and see what he finally ended up buying... yannow, if they ever legalize open carry in Canada I am going to annoy the crap out of EVERYONE and carry the old cap and ball gun. Perhaps I would go to the 1851 Navy...octagonal barrels on pistols are truly a high fashion statement...:)
 
Yep, just because they push round balls downrange and are an older design too many folks think that they can't possibly be accurate. Such folks are ripe for the picking.... :D

Another factor that some folks "don't get" is the degree of interaction with the firearm. Some want to simply pull the trigger and send as much lead downrange as possible as fast as possible with the least fuss. Others find something rewarding in the need to manipulate the gun more for each shot. Among such folks some find that the need to #### a single action is enough. For others it's the pace of a single shot rifle. Yet others enjoy the manipulations needed for cap and ball or flintlock shooting. It all just depends on how deeply they want to be involved with the process. For those of us that enjoy cap&ball and other front stuffers we're collectively at the bottom of a rather deep well.... :D

The buddy and I that share in running my Chilliwack club's Jr .22 program bring out the "big stuff" once a year for the kids. Last year I brought along a flintlock as well as my Mosin Nagant. The other guy brought out a few things along with his AR clone which he'd built up and was rather proud of. When the smoke cleared all you could hear the kids talk about what that darn smoky flinter and how it would go POOF! right there in front of their faces. It totally upstaged the poor guy's black rifle.... :D
 
For comic relief I took my 44 cal coal-burners to the range. I cheated and loaded the cylinders in the comfort of my shop, and only fired the 6 shots per gun. I was shocked at how well all three of them shot. Each gun was loaded with 25 gr of Pyrodex. Seemed a bit light. Will try 27 gr next time.

I used Rem #10 caps. These are a bit loose on the nipples, but I pinched them before installing , and that worked. One of the Remington has had a nipple replaced and it is too short. The hammer does not reach the cap.

Is there a make of cap available that is tighter than a #10 Remington?

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I don't mean to hijack this thread and apologize in advance but I always wondered about this historical account about accuracy and "stopping power" and thought it might be of interest here in this discussion.

"An officer who especially prided himself on his pistol-shooting, was attacked by a stalwart mutineer armed with a heavy sword. The officer, unfortunately for himself, carried a Colt's Navy pistol, which, as you may remember, was of small caliber (.36), and fired a sharp-pointed picket bullet of sixty to the pound and a heavy charge of powder, its range being at least 600 yards, as I have frequently proved. This he proceeded to empty into the sepoy as he advanced, but, having done so, he waited just one second too long to see the effect of his shooting, and was cloven to the teeth by his antagonist, who then dropped down and died beside him. My informant, who witnessed the affair, told me that five out of the six bullets had struck the sepoy close together in the chest, and had all passed through him and out his back."

Lieutenant Colonel G.V. Fosbery
 
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The original .45Colt round was intended to be able to take out horses as well as enemy combatants. So if 38'ish grains of black powder can push a 250gn bullet long ways through most of a horse why are you so skeptical that .36cal round ball pushed by something like 25gns of black powder might be able to fully penetrate a human torso?
 
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