Spiller and Burr ?

Just picked up a very lightly used Spiller and Burr and took it to the range today for test firing. I loaded it with 20 grains of Pyrodex P, wad and a round ball (.375). Not a very good group with that load but I rushed a little. I loaded the second time with 20 grains of Swiss 3f, no wad, .375 ball and lube over the ball. Group was tighter though high but I expected that. I checked the recoil shield for damage as 20 grains is a little stout for a brasser. No damage at all but next time I think I'll use 20 grains of Schutzen as I've gotten better accuracy with it in my other pistols. My question is for the other S&B owners out there, what are the loads you use and what kind of accuracy are you getting? Just want to compare notes and see if there is some thing else I could try.

Don

is a little stout for a brasser.

What is a brasser?

Is it close to a "she brasser"?

Dixie Gunworks recommends a 15 grain load of 3Fg powder so you might want to try something between that and the 20 grains you using.

They also show the chamber mouth diameter to be .367 and the bore at .360 with .372 diameter grooves.

That's pretty typical of a lot of the reproduction cap & ball pistols but it doesn't contribute to stiller accuracy.

Probably best to just shoot it as a plinker and have fun with it.

I have a brass framed colt that does well with 18 grains of powder. I started with a 20 grain load in the S&B because it has a pretty stout frame and should hold up better. I'll back off the powder and try some conicals as well as round ball. Most of my cap and ball revolvers are plinkers but a few I carry afield as back up. The S&B is just a repro of a revolver I find interesting and when the opportunity arose to get it cheap I jumped at it.

Don

As you know but others may not, the Spiller & Burr was a Confederate pistol that some say is a copy of the Whitney revolver, the main difference being its' brass frame.

There are other differences between the Whitney and the S&B as can be seen in this photo of Italian reproductions of both.



Notice that the S&B has increased the length of the front of the frame, probably to increase the thread length on the barrel.
That would be one way of adding strength to it to make up for the substitution of brass/bronze frame material.

Another difference is the clearance between the face of the cylinder and the frame.
Notice that there is almost no gap in this area on the S&B but the Whitney shows a large gap with just the rear of the barrel coming close to the cylinder face.
This feature is an accurate representation of the Spiller & Burr as it is shown in all of my Confederate pistol books on the existing original guns.

This small gap was one of the mistakes made by Remington on their first Remington-Beals Army and Navy pistols.
It caused the face of the cylinder and inside area of the front of the frame to rapidly build up fouling that locked up the gun. The Army was not impressed with this feature.
One of the first changes Remington made was to move the inside of the front of the frame away from the cylinder and extend the rear of the barrel so the barrel/cylinder gap would remain small. That allowed the sharp edges at the rear of the barrel to scrape away the fouling from the cylinder as the gun was cocked.

Notice that the Whitney in the photo is using the Remington "fix" for this problem.

I've always thought it interesting that the Confederate requirements were very specific. The pistols were to be reproductions of the 1851 Colt Navy.

As Spiller & Burr were already pretty much tooled up for the Whitney copy, apparently the Confederate's covered their eyes to the obvious differences between these guns and the open top Colt 1851 because they gave the go ahead with production.

Oddly, considering the South was hurting for money at the time, I've read that the Spiller & Burr pistols came with silver plating on the brass frame.

We shoot ours with 15 and 20 grain charges. The front sight is woefully too low so we never did any serious testing with it. I did make a taller front sight, then hammered it in so it still shot 3 inches low, then bought a dovetailed Remington but have yet to install it.

Use Schuetzen and Olde Eynsford, no issues. Well one, the cones gave up the ghost rather early. Replaced them with Track of the Wolf cones and no more problems.

Nice little gun, ours has chambers over groove diamter, just like all of our other .36 caliber Pietta revolvers.

Richard Eames said:

is a little stout for a brasser.

What is a brasser?

Is it close to a "she brasser"?

Click to expand...

A "brasser" refers to the brass frame. :wink:

Why not call what it is, "a brass frame revolver" versus a cute teenage girl name?

Kind of like calling each firearm, "she", I find no mammary glands on firearms.

Just my thoughts.

Men throughout the ages have named objects after women, their guns, ships, tractors, aircraft, etc.

Communists in particular though, referred to theirs in the masculine though I did dive a barge called the Sea Emperor; maybe it had been owned by a Commie? :idunno:

A good woman will take care of her man and a good man will take care of his woman.

If memory serves, on the percussion revolvers forum is a great tutorial with photos about a fella who made and installed a taller front sight on his S&B. I copied him to the "T" save for the part of making a little hole in the wood for the tip of the sight to go into when hammering it into place, I crunched the sight down!

Can't you ever just be helpful?

You must be a very miserable person finding anything and everything to complain about. The world must be a terrible place since so much doesn't fit your expectations of what should be...

Does anybody currently make a reproduction of the Whitney revolver? It always seemed to me to be the best of the percussion six guns.

I just don't know............

Years ago Palmetto Arms made a repro of the Whitney. Have not seen any for sale in a long time.

Don

Gosh I hope not! Otherwise there would be another revolver I would have to buy.
Right now I am eyeing the Grisswald and Gunnison that Cabela's has.

Darn! Guess I'll stick with saving up for a Dance Brother's pistol.

I contemplated buying the Dance revolver but opted for the Remington sheriff instead. The Dance seems like an interesting revolver.

Don

I've been interested in them ever since I read a Louis L'Amour western where the main character was given one to replace his missing pistol he'd lost.

If it was missing how could he loose it? :grin:

The Palmetto copy of the Whitney wasn't of good quality. Many years ago someone else made a Whitney copy but I have no idea who it was or what its quality was.

I bought a Pietta Dance a couple of years ago and haven't shot it yet. It is larger than a '60 Army and better balanced than a '51 Navy.

hawkeye2 said:

It is larger than a '60 Army and better balanced than a '51 Navy.

Click to expand...

Hmm, makes me want one even more!

I have a dance, and it's one of my go-to pistols. wether live or at a reenactment.