1858 Remington - 1st C & B

[tnlonghunter]

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks. And yes, I am doing everything I can think of to return the gesture to my wife. She's awesome.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Ghettogun pretty much nailed it! All of my Italian reproductions use .454's. Friends of mine know to use .457's in their Ruger Old Army's (ROA).

The loading stand is an excellent idea, my son and I own three of them!

Just one more thing: some shooters send out their cylinders to get re-bored to a slightly larger chamber diameter, then use the .457's so they can be sure that the forcing cone (the throat end on a revolver) gets to do some squeezing of the ball in order to put the maximum amount of repeatable twist and stabilization upon the balls. I shoot my six revolvers "out-of-the-box" and find no reason to spend the money...I just shoot local competitions and don't plan on shooting at the Nationals.

Good luck with yours!

Dave

 

[Zonie]

...

When I push the rb's into the cylinder chambers with the loading press, a small sliver of lead is supposed to be shaved off the ball, correct? If this is the case, won't every ball be reduced to the size of the chamber, regardless of what size it started from? If this is correct, why would I start with .454, which would be harder to load because it would need to trim a little more off?

Have I missed something, because it seems as though there shouldn't be an difference in rb size after loading.

You are correct. The ball becomes the same size as the chamber.

Interestingly (to nerds like me) is the length of the resulting "sized" land.

If the ball is a .451 diameter and it is forced into a .450 diameter chamber the resulting length of the cylindrical land will be .030 long.

If the ball started out at .454 diameter and it is forced into a .450 diameter chamber the resulting length of the cylindrical land will be .060. A .453 diameter ball results in a land of .052.

Now, while this longer land should result in more ball grabbing the rifling in the barrel it also means that when you load the gun the loading ram and lever must force that extra lead to be sheared off.
Just a little change in the land length can make a large difference in the amount of force needed.

This explains why folks don't usually load .460 or .470 diameter balls in their .44 caliber revolvers.

Each gun will have one load that it likes better than other loads and this includes the size of the ball before loading.
I suggest sticking to the sizes recommended by our members and going from there.

 

[tnlonghunter]

I didn't think about that, but you're right, Zonie. I would imagine that, to a certain point, the bigger that "land" on the ball, the more the barrel's rifling will have to grab and the more stable its flight will be. I guess I'll go with .454 for now and see how that goes.

 

[tv_racin_fan]

I found that the 451's seem to shoot fine enough for me but I got the 454's anyway. The 454's seemed to work fine in my ROA but I got 457's anyway. One of these days I'll get out and give em each a fair shot to see which one is more accurate. I also aquired some 180 and 220 grain conicals I want to test out. The 180's are supposed to be for the 44 cals and they make some 190's for the ROA I want to try out. I am thinking the 220's are a bit large for what I want but someone offered to send them to me and I wasn't about to refuse.

 

[goon]

Glad I stumbled on to this. I just bought a Uberti Remington today from Buffalo Arms and it should be showing up next week. In the mean time, I'll be getting hold of a box of round balls and some caps.

 

[Zonie]

goon:
Welcome to the forum.

As you are new here I don't know how much you know about the ball size your Remington needs.

Buy some .454 diameter balls for it. It should use #11 percussion caps.

The balls are slightly oversize so they can shear off some lead when they are forced into the chamber. That seals the chamber and keeps the balls from "jumping" forward when the gun is fired.

If you have any questions at all about your new pistol, feel free to ask us. You will get good answers from some very knowledgeable folks here.

 

[OLDPUPPYMAX]

I bought the Uberti 1858 New Army conversion--a black powder cartridge gun. Very nice, well balanced and straight shooting weapon.

 

[goon]

Thanks. I picked up a pound of Goex FFFG, a box of Hornady .454 balls, and some CCI No. 10 caps yesterday. I have some No. 11's left over from a CVA cap and ball rifle my dad used to own and a few Remington No. 10's from an old Lyman 1858 .36 caliber I owned so it should be a good cross section of caps to try to find the best fit.
Do I need to smear grease over the front of the chambers to prevent chainfires? I used to do this but I read recently that as long as lead is getting cut off the ball during loading the seal will be good.

 

[Zonie]

I grease the mouth of the chambers more to lube the balls as they pass thru the barrel than to prevent cross fires.
Although a lot of the grease gets blown off of the adjacent chambers some still clings to the ball and lubes it in the bore.

Keep an eye on the unfired chambers caps. Sometimes a bad fitting cap will fall off due to recoil and if it does there is a direct path for the flames at the rear of the cylinder into the unfired chambers.

 

[goon]

Thanks! I can't wait for it to show up. I usually have the worst luck with new guns - they almost always need fixed when I buy them. I really hope this one is different!

 

[Charley Hart]

My load is 30 grains of pyrodex p or GOEX whichever I have on hand.

I use a .454 lead balls and either use wonder wad type over the powder or grease as others say.

Easiest thing is to get a tub of cheap margarine. A plastic butter knife does quite a good job IMO.

Happy shooting.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

AFAIK margarine has some salt in it - not a good thing.
pure lard is available in 1 lb tubs and does well unless the temp is over about 80d F.
I have made my own lube with lanolin (sheep oil) mixed 2-1 with paraffin or if available beeswax.
seems to me the beeswax mix is somewhat better for the purpose.
I warm it up and dip my warm Lee mold conicals in it too, so I don't have to smear grease atop or use grease felts (which I am a big believer in, just don't care to soak them in grease)

 

[goon]

Thanks. I have a source for beeswax, which I was thinking would also work as a good flux for when I get set up to do some smelting and finally get into casting.
Will Crisco work?
I also still have a little T/C bore butter around from a few years back so I'll be able to at least get started with that.
Also, if I use conicals that are already lubed (either by myself or if I buy them that way), will I have to still cover the chamber mouths with grease? IIRC, I enjoyed shooting a BP revolver. I like shooting about anything else, so why wouldn't I? But I did kind of get irritated with the grease all over the place. So if I can get out of that by getting into casting conicals of some sort (I already have some scrap soft sheet lead around), I would probably be all for it.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Greasy mess? Why not just use the wonder-wads?

I'm clean & happy using them :thumbsup: .

Dave

 

[Blizzard of '93]

yes crisco will do ok if temp stays below about 75. I have mixed lard or lanolin with beeswax (melted together and stirred well) for the best ball/slug cover I've used.
I use dry felts overpowder and dip my slugs to fill the grooves or smear the mix atop a ball, doesn't take much just press it in well around the ball. some revolver shooters favor a ball over conicals. (balls I hardly ever shoot anymore since I got a slug mold)