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Keeping an 1858 loaded indefinitely

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nick_1 said:
how to you avoid rust if you don't oil your guns? a dry gun with no oil will rust in my climate..
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I am "blessed" with an exceptionally dry environment. But even so, I keep my gun well oiled and carefully clean out the chambers and load it. The only points that don't have rust inhibitor are the chambers and with the hydrophilic nature of BP, there won't be any corrosion going on.
 
I find the safest way to really know its going to go bang every time is shoot it dry once a week and re load fresh .
 
While I get it, also keep in mind, the dry fire only proves the last set of Caps worked!

I only use mine for shooting at the range so no big deal one way or the other for me, I load up a few days before I go down, sometimes I miss a window and its a week or so.

On the 47 Walker I never know if a cap is going to wind up on the inside of the hammer. I only know if I look or more common, the next chamber does not go boom. Two of those and I know I have part of a cap stuck to the hammer curve or the frame curve.

We all dance to different tunes depending on how we think and what we are doing.
 
As it is now illegal for me to keep any firearm loaded it is a moot point, however the advice that I got from the gentleman who gave me my first Navy Colt was to drip a little candle wax on the ball and the cap thus sealing them or to use shellac; a modern quick dry product would be clear fingernail varnish.
 
Trust me, I am not delusional enough to think this thing is as reliable as a modern cartridge gun. I do however think its pretty good with fresh loads and my actual threat level is green. If my threat level was orange I would have something modern handy and I would make sure my eotech has been zeroed recently and has fresh batteries in it.
 
The only time that a C&B revolver failed to fire was some years ago. Purchased a box of Remington caps (Are these still made?) Anyway, 4 out of 6 misfired. CCIs are the only thing that are available where I live. These give me consistent ignition. As for fired caps falling into the action, have only had this happen once. Turned my revolver upside down and it fell out. There is or was a solution to split caps in your action, saw somewhere that someone made 'cap keepers', simple nylon rings that held caps in place on your nipples. Don't recall the name, but an internet search should find these if you're interested.
 
Some of you obviously have the Majic touch but personally I have half a million rounds down range with cartridge guns with perhaps a handfull of miss fires not counting jams in semi autos but actual failure of the cartridge. I have hundreds of no bang incidents with BP guns and its not just me. I have yet to attend a muzzle loading match without witnessing multiple misfires throughout the day. .
 
Saturday, I shot my 1851 Navy that I had loaded since December of 2023. I had loaded bullets directly over 20grs of fffg and greased over the cylinder with 50/50 bee’s wax and lamb tallow. I didn’t cap the nipples and had put the revolver back in my gun safe because something came up and I was unable to go shooting that day.
Saturday I caped the nipples with CCI # 10’s and all 6 fired. 4 were like fresh charged rounds but 2 were weak. The weak ones fired just not quite up to snuff.
Old Shepherd
 
Dark Angel said:
Carry my .44 New Army loaded for months at a time. Never had any problem when the time came I wanted to shoot. Read somewhere/some when, that BP doesn't degrade much over time if it is kept free from moister, in a sealed container. Can't think of anything more sealed than the chamber of a BP revolver. Despite some popular myths? when I first got into BP shooting, neither does it corrode your chambers. Still. wouldn't want to go any extended period with firing the recharging my weapon.
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Black powder has an indefinite shelf life as long as it is kept dry. 200 years, at least.
Unburned BP will not corrode anything. Burned BP fouling will.
A black powder revolver with clean, dry chambers can be loaded and expected to fire on demand many years later. Even with lightly greased wads.
Properly fitting caps are a requirement, of course.
 
Don't know if this helps, some, most of you probably do this, but when I load with loose powder instead of paper cartridges, I cap the empty chambers and fire them. This burns out any contaminates left over from cleaning and such. (Just another trick I learned for the 'old timers' that were still around when I was growing up.) The only time had a failure to fire was with 'bad' caps. Like anything mechanical, even modern cartridge pistols have problems. Wish I had a dollar for every modern automatic pistol I've used stove piped. (Google that one.) The beauty of a revolver, even BP revolvers is that you can easily and quickly cycle to the next round.
 
Dark Angel said:
Don't know if this helps, some, most of you probably do this, but when I load with loose powder instead of paper cartridges, I cap the empty chambers and fire them. This burns out any contaminates left over from cleaning and such. (Just another trick I learned for the 'old timers' that were still around when I was growing up.) The only time had a failure to fire was with 'bad' caps. Like anything mechanical, even modern cartridge pistols have problems. Wish I had a dollar for every modern automatic pistol I've used stove piped. (Google that one.) The beauty of a revolver, even BP revolvers is that you can easily and quickly cycle to the next round.
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Busting caps on empty chambers can be problematic as well.
Sometimes this causes a small piece of unburned fulminate or something from the cap to block the tiny flash hole in the bottom of the nipple, which then can block the flame from the next cap from reaching the powder after loading.
With the current prices of caps, I don’t waste any popping on empty chambers.
I would pop the caps regardless of cost under some circumstances.
 
Colonial Boy said:
As it is now illegal for me to keep any firearm loaded it is a moot point, however the advice that I got from the gentleman who gave me my first Navy Colt was to drip a little candle wax on the ball and the cap thus sealing them or to use shellac; a modern quick dry product would be clear fingernail varnish.
Click to expand...
Fingernail polish is good.
 
smoothshooter said:
Busting caps on empty chambers can be problematic as well.
Sometimes this causes a small piece of unburned fulminate or something from the cap to block the tiny flash hole in the bottom of the nipple, which then can block the flame from the next cap from reaching the powder after loading.
With the current prices of caps, I don’t waste any popping on empty chambers.
I would pop the caps regardless of cost under some circumstances.
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Going through a normal firing sequence can also (possibly) leave bits of fulminate to block the flash holes, but in of 40+years of using cap & ball revolvers, I have never run into this issue, and I have fired hundreds of rounds from C&B revolvers. But then, I suppose anything can happen. As for wasting? caps, ensuring positive ignition by burning out possible contaminates is something that I do not consider wasteful.
 
Dark Angel said:
Going through a normal firing sequence can also (possibly) leave bits of fulminate to block the flash holes, but in of 40+years of using cap & ball revolvers, I have never run into this issue, and I have fired hundreds of rounds from C&B revolvers. But then, I suppose anything can happen. As for wasting? caps, ensuring positive ignition by burning out possible contaminates is something that I do not consider wasteful.
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I always just look thru the nipple flash holes. If I see daylight, I know it’s clear.
 
smoothshooter said:
I always just look thru the nipple flash holes. If I see daylight, I know it’s clear.
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Looking through your nipple to 'see daylight' doesn't mean that there is no residue from cleaning solvent or oil left in your chambers that degrade your powder and cause a misfire or even incomplete ignition. To be sure, I dry patch the chambers several times before loading loose powder after I clean my weapon. Still, one of Murphy's Law is, 'If something can go wrong it will!' Even using paper cartridges, I do this. Sometimes. I even catch myself blowing gently into the chambers if I reload immediately after firing, to extinguish any lingering embers from un burned powder or paper,
 
Dark Angel said:
Looking through your nipple to 'see daylight' doesn't mean that there is no residue from cleaning solvent or oil left in your chambers that degrade your powder and cause a misfire or even incomplete ignition. To be sure, I dry patch the chambers several times before loading loose powder after I clean my weapon. Still, one of Murphy's Law is, 'If something can go wrong it will!' Even using paper cartridges, I do this. Sometimes. I even catch myself blowing gently into the chambers if I reload immediately after firing, to extinguish any lingering embers from un burned powder or paper,
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I do the dry patch thing most of the time, but I put an absolute bare minimum of oil ( usually Hoppe’s #9 ) in the chambers after cleaning, and sometimes none at all if I know I will be loading or shooting again in a few days. So the visual inspection always works for me because of that. I don’t believe in slathering a lot of oil on my guns.
Like you, I blow in the chambers before loading if i am reloading quickly.
 
Last edited:
After cleaning, I wipe the entire gun and cylinder with a patch with olive oil. Then wipe dry, including the bore and chambers. Never have any issues with rust or hang/misfires.
 
Rfp10000 said:
Curious on thoughts on Keeping an 1858 Remington Pietta or Uberti loaded on 5 chambers with simple 30 gr load with no wad or lube over .454 ball.
This load always works but I always loaded , shot & cleaned daily but I’d just like like thoughts from people who just keep them loaded until they feel like shooting.
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I've had 2 1851 Navy 44's loaded for well over 2 years laying in my garage that have seen 118 degree days constantly, and fired both of them off over a month ago and all went bang on the first strike
 
Hooch33 said:
I've had 2 1851 Navy 44's loaded for well over 2 years laying in my garage that have seen 118 degree days constantly, and fired both of them off over a month ago and all went bang on the first strike
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I see you are in the Phoenix area and it’s great to hear your 1851s have no issues firing after laying in your garage for 2 years.

What are your test results in a not so dry environment? Around here (Western North Carolina) tools left in the garage (closed door but not climate controlled) can show rust within 24 hours. Leave a cap and ball revolver laying in the garage for two years and unless it’s stored in oil, there is a good chance the cylinder may not turn at all and whether or not the loads will fire would be a secondary concern. This is the weather expected locally for the next few hours.
1727369903050.png
 

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