58 Remington and Nipple fouling

[Boom Stick]

My son and I just tooK our 58 Remington revolvers out and shot them over the last couple of weekends and I've got to say that we are greatly impressed, surprised, and enamored with them versus our 51 Navies. Our Navies and our Remington Navies are Uberti Manufactured, so same quality - same manufacturing standards.

What we have notice is that the Remington revolvers hold more powder, 23 grains in the 51 Navys vs 30 grains in the Remington Navys, both with excellent accuracy worked up to that level. But with the Remington revolvers after about the third cyliner the caps require hammer strikes on all 6 nipples / caps before the caps will actually fire. Yes, we use a dowel rod to firmly seat each cap before holster the pistol and then moving to the target line to shoot. I've even tried using a stiff military M16 cleaning kit 'tooth brush' to brush off some of the carbon on the nipples to help seat the caps but it doesn't seem to help any.

I'm wondering if we should reduce our charges to 25 grains to help reduce the fouling might help? That would be an option I guess but the accuracy we recorded is much better at 28 grains vs 25 grains, and better still at 30 grains vs 28 grains, and this was for both of our guns. Surprising, but when you record notes with a new gun you cannot go wrong.

The only other thing I can think of to do it to go ahead and pull out the slix shot nipples and install them and see if they will help with reducing the fouling.

Any thought, recommendations?

 

[Gtrubicon]

Are you still using the factory nipples? I’m using Treso nipples on my uberti 58, and homemade caps which are pretty dirty.

 

[SDSmlf]

My son and I just tooK our 58 Remington revolvers out and shot them over the last couple of weekends and I've got to say that we are greatly impressed, surprised, and enamored with them versus our 51 Navies. Our Navies and our Remington Navies are Uberti Manufactured, so same quality - same manufacturing standards.

What we have notice is that the Remington revolvers hold more powder, 23 grains in the 51 Navys vs 30 grains in the Remington Navys, both with excellent accuracy worked up to that level. But with the Remington revolvers after about the third cyliner the caps require hammer strikes on all 6 nipples / caps before the caps will actually fire. Yes, we use a dowel rod to firmly seat each cap before holster the pistol and then moving to the target line to shoot. I've even tried using a stiff military M16 cleaning kit 'tooth brush' to brush off some of the carbon on the nipples to help seat the caps but it doesn't seem to help any.

I'm wondering if we should reduce our charges to 25 grains to help reduce the fouling might help? That would be an option I guess but the accuracy we recorded is much better at 28 grains vs 25 grains, and better still at 30 grains vs 28 grains, and this was for both of our guns. Surprising, but when you record notes with a new gun you cannot go wrong.

The only other thing I can think of to do it to go ahead and pull out the slix shot nipples and install them and see if they will help with reducing the fouling.

Any thought, recommendations?

What powder are you using?

 

[Blackpowderart]

I always seat my caps with the hammer and never have any failure to fire. I also use the bronze brush or the nylon brush when it starts getting buildup. I also use treso nipples on my remington.

 

[Boom Stick]

Using Goex 3F Powder. Going down to 25 grains did not help the issue this morning. I have been seating the caps on the original nipples with a wooden dowel. Next step is to just go ahead and cock the hammer and pull the trigger (at the target six times) to seat the caps using the hammer) and THEN be ready to shoot.

I have been using a very stiff military M16 cleaning brush with no improvement, but will see if I can find a wire tooth brush type cleaning brush locally tomorrow and see if that works. If that fails, then I'll unpack the slix shot nipples and give them a try along with the No. 11 caps. Just kind of preplexed as to what is going on as my son is experiencing the same issue.

 

[ArmorerRoy]

Shouldn’t you be using #10 caps?

 

[RiverRat]

I am using slix shot nipples on my Uberti 1858 with #11 caps. Things are running smoothly.

 

[wiscoaster]

I concur with installing SlixShots. I have them on all my cap 'n ball revolvers.

 

[45D]

Shouldn’t you be using #10 caps?

#10 of what brand? They're not all the same!!

( here's everyones monthly reminder that cap size doesn't cross from manufacturer to manufacturer)

 

[SDSmlf]

#10 of what brand? They're not all the same!!

( here's everyones monthly reminder that cap size doesn't cross from manufacturer to manufacturer)

And here is a chart showing various sizes of caps by manufacturer to along with the ‘monthly’ reminder.

 

[AlexB]

Is the mainspring too loose?

 

[Boom Stick]

Some confusion so let me clear some things up ...

Brand new Uberti 1858 Navy revolvers with 7 3/8 barrels.
Stock nipples.
CCI No. 10 Percussion caps. (NOTE: Have been sticking to the stock nipples and No. 10 caps as I still have 4.5K left)
Goex 3F powder.
.380 ball, 99.9 lead.
Son's powder charge is 25 grains, my charge is 30 grains.
Both guns are cleaned in pans of water and soap to squeaky clean, spritzed liberally with moose milk to keep rust away, and then a grease that I 'concocted' of bees wax, mutton tallow, and olive oil is applied to the cylinder pin, the cylinder pin channel on the cylinder, rubbed on the rammer and lightly applied on a patch and ran down the barrel.
The guns are then put back together ready for the next range session.


Alex B,

I assume I have to take the grips off to check the mainspring tension. Sadly, I stripped my grip screw as I did not notice that Uberti put some kind of lacquer that coated and cemented the screw in place. I ordered a replacement and in the meantime am trying to scratch / chip out the old lacquer and remove the old screw. It would be strange that both revolvers would have loose mainsprings though would it not?

 

[M. De Land]

Using Goex 3F Powder. Going down to 25 grains did not help the issue this morning. I have been seating the caps on the original nipples with a wooden dowel. Next step is to just go ahead and cock the hammer and pull the trigger (at the target six times) to seat the caps using the hammer) and THEN be ready to shoot.

I have been using a very stiff military M16 cleaning brush with no improvement, but will see if I can find a wire tooth brush type cleaning brush locally tomorrow and see if that works. If that fails, then I'll unpack the slix shot nipples and give them a try along with the No. 11 caps. Just kind of preplexed as to what is going on as my son is experiencing the same issue.

Sounds like you may have a weak hammer spring or the hammer stroke is being impeded by some interference.

 

[AlexB]

Some confusion so let me clear some things up ...

Brand new Uberti 1858 Navy revolvers with 7 3/8 barrels.
Stock nipples.
CCI No. 10 Percussion caps. (NOTE: Have been sticking to the stock nipples and No. 10 caps as I still have 4.5K left)
Goex 3F powder.
.380 ball, 99.9 lead.
Son's powder charge is 25 grains, my charge is 30 grains.
Both guns are cleaned in pans of water and soap to squeaky clean, spritzed liberally with moose milk to keep rust away, and then a grease that I 'concocted' of bees wax, mutton tallow, and olive oil is applied to the cylinder pin, the cylinder pin channel on the cylinder, rubbed on the rammer and lightly applied on a patch and ran down the barrel.
The guns are then put back together ready for the next range session.


Alex B,

I assume I have to take the grips off to check the mainspring tension. Sadly, I stripped my grip screw as I did not notice that Uberti put some kind of lacquer that coated and cemented the screw in place. I ordered a replacement and in the meantime am trying to scratch / chip out the old lacquer and remove the old screw. It would be strange that both revolvers would have loose mainsprings though would it not?

On the inside of the grip frame is where the tension screw is you don't need to take the grips off.
Loosen it until the hammer relaxes then tighten it until it drops that should be good but may need to be tightened more.

 

[Boom Stick]

AlexB,

I'll give that a try then. I wanted to take the grip off to be able to see the hammer spring and see what effect the tension screw was having visually. Plus, I wanted to take the grips off to strip that blasted ugly 'store-bought glaze' off the grips and give it a nice, natural finish.

Thanks for the suggestion and I'll try it for this weekend! I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Blackpowderart]

Took my glaze off, couldn't be happier.

 

[Boom Stick]

I like the looks of you gun, and your grips. The grips have a kind of tiger strip look to them. I bet they will only improve with age, nice job!

 

[Blackpowderart]

I just antiqued it. I have a thread up now explaining it all

 

[No second place]

Simple and cheap solution. Spin polish in a drill with 1000 grit sand paper. Even my single shot nips work better longer with a bit of polish...c