A couple of months ago a Belgian made Centaure came up for sale on the EE, I had read quite a bit about these guns but had never seen or handled one.
It took me quite a while to decide to shoot it as it was unfired when I got it, today it got shot and it turns out to be a good shooter.
There were a few issues that came up as I was putting rounds through it, the cylinder gap on this gun is very small even with the cylinder pushed back and as a result the cylinder would start to bind after shooting 6 rounds.
The load that I was using wound up as 35 grains FFFG Goex, a 1/8 inch thick .455" wad and a .454" ball. this brought the front of the ball flush with the face of the cylinder and it was shaving a ring off the ball so I know the ball is big enough.
Cap fragmentation also proved to be problematic, the CCI #10's that I was using needed to be "pinched" in order to stay on and the fragments could ususally be shaken clear of the action by inverting the gun. On several shots the cylinder needed to be indexed by twisting by hand due to pesky cap bits in the works.
Overall the gun is well made and shoots great, here are some pictures:
It took me quite a while to decide to shoot it as it was unfired when I got it, today it got shot and it turns out to be a good shooter.
There were a few issues that came up as I was putting rounds through it, the cylinder gap on this gun is very small even with the cylinder pushed back and as a result the cylinder would start to bind after shooting 6 rounds.
The load that I was using wound up as 35 grains FFFG Goex, a 1/8 inch thick .455" wad and a .454" ball. this brought the front of the ball flush with the face of the cylinder and it was shaving a ring off the ball so I know the ball is big enough.
Cap fragmentation also proved to be problematic, the CCI #10's that I was using needed to be "pinched" in order to stay on and the fragments could ususally be shaken clear of the action by inverting the gun. On several shots the cylinder needed to be indexed by twisting by hand due to pesky cap bits in the works.
Overall the gun is well made and shoots great, here are some pictures:
