.36 cal Percussion Revolver

[Chief Beck]

I was never impressed with the .36 conicals. I used an original Colt mold and most powder I could use was about 15-17 grains of 3F not much in the way of penetration. I was using a late 70's car door at point blank range and not a single round penetrated the outer sheet metal. Round balls had no problem.

Dennis

[Orville]

Use pure lead, ball should or could be slightly larger then the chamber, it will shave off a ring of lead this is ok. Make sure ball is below chamber end, cover with grease, unsalted crisco, or a commercial available lube. I’ve used all the lubes I mentioned. Use fffg powder or any of the new fake black powder that is made for cap and ball revolvers. RWS used to be the best caps if you can still find them, I’ve used the new Remington and CCI, they’re good, cap should fit snug on the nipples. Some of the second gen colt the nipples are too big, just replace them, I’ve built a jig to turn them down. If the caps are too loose I just pinch them with my thumb and fingers. When you clean the gun and put it back together be very liberal with grease on the cylinder shaft, the extra grease will push back into the recess where the hand works which helps to keep fouling out. When I say grease I’m taking about wheel bearing grease.

[mdeland]

I've owned and been shooting percussion revolvers for 50 years now and have never had a chain fire of any type using grease over ball predominately but always using balls large enough to shave lead which prevents the authors crushed powder grain theory.
I'm not sure his no cap , open nipple test is the same as a loose cap becoming partially dislodged and loose powder in the chamber , in preventing chain fire.
If he is using paper cartridges (which seems to be the case) than the paper is a barrier between the nipple hole and the powder, probably preventing the open nipple chain fire. A percussion cap seated on a nipple will direct fire into and through the paper cartridge but this is an entirely different scenario to indirect percussion brisance deflecting into the nipple port of an adjacent chamber.
Another point that makes me skeptical of his stuck powder grains crushed between the cylinder wall and a ball is that most target shooters use both a ball and cream of wheat filler which also negates the stuck powder grain theory. It sounds like he uses mostly conical bullets and these do have a habit of being seated out of alignment which could very well promote front end chain fire. I don't shoot conicals and don't know if they are purposely made over size to shave lead as is necessary for ball shooting, best accuracy. I would guess that the paper cartridge would work as a sort of patch on the conical in a cartridge to seal off the bore instead of having to shave lead to accomplish the same end.

[rgchristensen]

Fitting nipples to caps -- I have found it useful to file or grind the nipple cone to a hexagonal shape. This allows a snug fit that still doesn't get wedged into the cap like a Morse Taper. The caps will slide completely onto the nipple, won't jam half-way down, and yet will stay in place.

CHRIS

[Glen Ring]

Thanks Chris. Those kinds of tips only come from experienced shooters and they are priceless to a fellow like me.

[Clark Badgett]

A proper conical for the .36 is .380" and for the .44 is .460". Haven't had a chain fire since I was a kid and didn't know any better. Sometimes I use grease over the ball sometimes I don't. I always use bear grease on my cylinder pin and haven't had any binding issues since I switched to that. I'm getting as good accuracy from this Colt clone conical from Era's Gone as I do from RB, the Lee conical was not so good.

[Nuclearcricket]

I have been following this thread and its been quite interesting. I have also been doing some research on the Rem revolvers. It seems that back in the day they made the frames in 3 different sizes. one for the little pocket model .31, small frame. a Medium frame for the 36 and the large frame for the 44. Can anyone tell me if the Uberti's are both made on the same frame size or if they are actually different. I was also wondering what the cylinder length was on the .36 cal models. I currently have one of the Revolving carbines and one of the pocket .31's. Research has shown me on the carbine that the cylinders were made in 2 different lengths on the .44 and there really doesn't seem to be much info that I have found on the .36 models.
If anyone has a somewhat current manufacture Uberti Rem, could you measure the length and diameter of the cylinder for me for a .36 cal model?
Much appreciated.
Sam

[Coltsmoke]

You don't need all that grease in front of the ball, you can use a lube cookie directly on top of the powder and seat the ball. It works great with no mess, no chain fires, keeps everything from binding up, easy to load.

[mdeland]

Yeah, the grease cookie idea should work fine but that is all a felt grease wad really is. I learned that method from Elmer Kieth books many years ago but had been taught to use Crisco over ball from a cousin as a kid. It worked so well I never thought of change until I got tired of having to wipe off my shooting glasses and spotting scope lens of Criso in any kind of head wind, while shooting matches.
I think your grease cookie idea would increase the powder capacity a bit as it formed around the ball from loading pressure but wonder how well it would work for long periods of time as far as powder wetting is concerned. Actually come to think of it that shouldn't be much different from a felt wad in that regard if the same lube is used.

[Coltsmoke]

I'm not asking if it will work, I'm telling people it has been proven to work by many shooters, not just myself. I don't know about leaving the cylinder loaded for extended periods of time, I can't seem to do that. It will keep the cylinder from binding up and it is a lot cleaner. I've shot 60 times at one outing and never had any problems.

[mdeland]

How is the cookie pressed into the cylinder chamber over the powder? Is it paddled in or is it like a wafer that can be fingered in?

[Coltsmoke]

Finger it in the hole push it down with the ball.

[DAG4570]

Coltsmoke

How do you make your wad cookies. Do you just melt some lube in a pan and cut them out with an old cartridge case and how do you store and carry these to the range without having them get squished or stuck together? I am sure we can figure out a way to do it but maybe you can save us some trial and error time. Thanks

Dave

[SFogler]

As far a price goes, why are we shooting Shilohs when Pedersoli makes a cheaper Sharps? Same with Colts IMHO.

So I have several 2nd gen BP Colts and use the lubricated wad over powder instead of Crisco. My wife actually likes to load them and she shoots the Colt 1849 Pocket pistol. Takes about 8-10 grains of black powder and is like shooting 0 buckshot one ball at a time.
The Walker, however, does fine with a .44 round ball and 50 grains of fffg.

But nothing I have shoots as well as the 1851 Navy. Can't go wrong with one of those.

Some of the second gen colt the nipples are too big, just replace them, I

This was certainly true with my Walker and Dragoon. The Colt nipples were made for a brand of cap that is not too common anymore. I replaced them with the smaller Uberti nipples ordered from Track of the Wolf. Shoots the common caps you can get anywhere now. Gun Broker always has a lot of these revolvers both original and reproduced. I got an unfired Colt 1851 without the box for way less than half what it would have been in a box. If you are going to shoot them you don't need an expensive one in a box. Get a shooter and enjoy it.

Hang out on the Colt percussion revolver forum site and ask those guys your questions - a lot of really good stuff on that site; very experienced BP revolver shooters there. https://www.coltforum.com/forums/colt-p ... olvers.52/

[Coltsmoke]

Dave, the lube cookies I used was made by a friend of mine and he would sell me small boxes of them for a couple of dollars. They were made out of tallow and bees wax. They were laying in neat rows in the box, they were .100 thick. I never ask him how he made them. As neat as the rows were leads me to believe he had some kind of tube and just used the end of it to cut the thin layer of lube. Had to have some kind of a plunger in the other end of the tube to push out a perfect row of wads. If I kept them a couple of years they wanted to stick together a little and was hard to separate. I usually used them before that became a problem.