777 in the Pocket Navy .36

[Stantheman86]

I took my 2nd Gen Colt Pocket Navy out today, and loaded it with the 15 grain spout on my flask full of 777 "3f" , .375 balls and CCI #10 caps. No lube or wads. 15 grains seems ideal as 20 would probably blow the excess out the short barrel unburned anyway

With the ok quality rig from LePierre leather, I was able to wear everything I needed....the cartridge box has a pouch for a cap tin, and I had a bag of round balls and a brass flask in the main compartment

The "Navy frog" holster holds the gun nicely

I fired 2 cylinders point shooting at the red circle, at 25 yards and sprayed the balls high. Finally fired 3 cylinders from 25 yards, aiming at the bottom "waist" area of the silhouette . It still hit high but dropped them into a decent cluster, given the short sight radius, hitting a foot high at 25 and small grip making this less of a target revolver and more of a self-defense piece.

My arbor was bone dry and only after 5 cylinders did it begin to get a little sticky. With some good lube on the pin like MicroLube 2000 , I've shot larger .36 and .44 Navies all day with 777 , upwards of 15-20 cylinders with no wiping , cleaning or relubing arbor pins and nothing over the ball and no wads.

The CCI #10 caps seem like they are just a little lacking in pop to instantly ignite the 777. With other guns , CCI #11 Magnums have no problem lighting off the 777. I'm going to put Track of the Wolf nipples in so I can use CCI #11's.

 

[Tyler L]

Very interesting, and nice accessories

I didn't have any trouble with CCI #10s and 777, but I too want to get some #11's to compare.

 

[nhmoose]

Any chrono results?

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Problem with #11 caps and revolvers is the loose fit. They will fall off the nipples under recoil and jam the revolver. Also, most chainfires happen from loose fitting nipples, not ungreased chambers as is widely believed. I wish somebody would make #11-sized nipples for revolvers.

 

[Davey Boy]

Problem with #11 caps and revolvers is the loose fit. They will fall off the nipples under recoil and jam the revolver. Also, most chainfires happen from loose fitting nipples, not ungreased chambers as is widely believed. I wish somebody would make #11-sized nipples for revolvers.

I was under the impression that Colt designed the pistol so the caps would not fall off until after the chamber was fired and rotated to the next chamber.

If #10 caps blow back on the hammer, don't you imagine #11 caps will be even worse and cause damaging shock to parts?

 

[Stantheman86]

Problem with #11 caps and revolvers is the loose fit. They will fall off the nipples under recoil and jam the revolver. Also, most chainfires happen from loose fitting nipples, not ungreased chambers as is widely believed. I wish somebody would make #11-sized nipples for revolvers.

Track of the Wolf makes revolver nipples sized for CCI #11

 

[Stantheman86]

Very interesting, and nice accessories

I didn't have any trouble with CCI #10s and 777, but I too want to get some #11's to compare.

Thank You

I always like the CCI Magnums with subs just to have as much flame as possible

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

I was under the impression that Colt designed the pistol so the caps would not fall off until after the chamber was fired and rotated to the next chamber.

If #10 caps blow back on the hammer, don't you imagine #11 caps will be even worse and cause damaging shock to parts?

What they designed for is one thing, what they achieved is not necessarily the same, and original Colts are now all more than a century old, so are not always in shooting condition. Modern replicas are not Colts. Fit and finish of the Italian clones are not quite up to the same standards Colt had back in the day... though the modern steels are better. In point of fact, even #10 caps fall off sometimes... most often on smaller frame revolvers. It's generally called "cap sucking".

What happens is the cap will expand into the locking notch (not sure of the name) and when you recock the revolver, the hammer will pull the cap off. There are various ways to fix this, the most common way being to plug the notch with JB Weld and carry the gun with the hammer down on an empty chamber.

This problem is even worse if you use #11 caps on a revolver. Number 11 caps do not produce significantly more explosive force than number 10 caps do, they are just a bit larger in diameter. Because of that, they fit looser on the nipples and can allow both a flash to exit the rear of the chamber and for the possibility of said flash detonating the cylinder on either side of the one under the hammer. This is called a "chain fire" and, though the revolver is designed to survive such an event, it is still not something one would choose to experience if one could avoid it.

Also, because of the larger diameter and looser fit, they WILL fall off the nipple under recoil even before they are struck.

Trust me on this, I have had it happen to me when I could not get #10 caps and substituted #11. You need to use #10 caps on all revolvers, some single-shot pistols and even some rifles, though you can cheat a bit on single shot pistols and rifles.

To further compound this issue is the fact that the people who make the nipples and the people who make the caps do not always agree on the proper sizes, so some brands of 10 caps are still too big (or too small) to fit the nipples they are supposed to be used with. When you find a brand that works on your gun, keep using it if you can.

You generally do not have misfiring problems with cap & ball revolvers because they are essentially inline guns, but you can certainly have jams.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Track of the Wolf makes revolver nipples sized for CCI #11

Groovy!

 

[Stantheman86]

Any chrono results?

No I don't have a chono

 

[Davey Boy]

Dale Allen Raby,

Check this link



The explanation given is a simple and makes much more sense to me.

If I have problems with my revolver and cap jams, I will try his method before I get out the JB Weld.

Take a look and watch the entire ten minutes, tell me what you think.

dave

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Dale Allen Raby,

Check this link



The explanation given is a simple and makes much more sense to me.

If I have problems with my revolver and cap jams, I will try his method before I get out the JB Weld.

Take a look and watch the entire ten minutes, tell me what you think.

dave

There are several methods for fixing cap jams... the JB Weld is the simplest. Don't currently have a computer with sound wired up. If it makes sense to you, then groovy.

OK, watched the video and read the subtitles. None of it was really new to me. I have heard of the "file the slot" method of fixing the cap sucking problem, but never actually tried it, so I don't personally know if it works or not. I think it MIGHT if and only if the person doing the filing does the job right. If he screws it up (and people screw things up with a file quite often) he may end up with a buggered up hammer and need to replace it.

The aftermarket nipples are always a good idea, but six good quality nipples tend to be a bit pricey. My Pietta nipples work fine with Remington #10 caps... the current ones anyway... and the cap sucking tendency of the revolver was fixed with JB Weld, which can always be removed if I ever decide to do so.

Duelist1954 on YouTube was talking about reworking the slot on one of his small frame revolvers a while back. I had some interest because I am thinking about acquiring a Model 1862 Police from Uberti. That is a small-frame five-shot revolver, so carrying it on an empty chamber and JB Welding the hammer slot would effectively make it a four-shot revolver... not something I want to do really. If I acquire that gun, I MAY try it, but only if it really does suck caps.

I guess I would suggest that you make sure it is going to work before you get the files out... and maybe use a "slip stick" with very fine grit flint paper or aluminum oxide paper rather than a file. Blackie doesn't demonstrate his modified revolver with an extended shooting session at the range (unless I missed it). I am skeptical of people on the Intenet who say, "yeah, do this, it works", but don't demonstrate it's effectiveness. I am reminded of the "magic" cleaning formula of Murphy's Oil Soap, alcohol and hydrogen peroxide that was widely touted as the best black powder solvent EVER. In the end, it turned out that the hydrogen peroxide was rusting and pitting the bore in as little as a few minutes.

I still use Murphy's Oil Soap, but leave the alcohol and hydrogen peroxide for disinfecting wounds.

 

[Pete453]

I ordered Slixshot nipples for a couple guns, one of them an Uberti 62 Pocket Police. I have them on my 60 army, it runs like a sewing machine. Hopefully I get the same results with the pocket gun. I'll report back here when I've tested them out.

 

[Stantheman86]

I ordered Slixshot nipples for a couple guns, one of them an Uberti 62 Pocket Police. I have them on my 60 army, it runs like a sewing machine. Hopefully I get the same results with the pocket gun. I'll report back here when I've tested them out.

If my 1862 Pocket Navy will run 100% with the SlixShots , and I can shoot the 777 through it, it's a win. It's actually a super accurate and fun to shoot gun.

 

[Blue_Duck_97]

If my 1862 Pocket Navy will run 100% with the SlixShots , and I can shoot the 777 through it, it's a win. It's actually a super accurate and fun to shoot gun.

Same here. Slixshot nipples on my pocket police are great!

 

[Stantheman86]

My local gun shop has 777 "3f" too, luckily

 

[William P Sepessy]

I wish I could say the Slix-Shot nipples cured the problems on my Uberti Pocket Navy and 1849 Pocket. Using light charges of 3F and Remington #10s my biggest issue is hammer blow back which will partially rotate the cylinder. Going to further investigate the mainspring strength, but I am already using a cut down SAA spring which is stronger that the standard Uberti offering.

 

[Stantheman86]

I wish I could say the Slix-Shot nipples cured the problems on my Uberti Pocket Navy and 1849 Pocket. Using light charges of 3F and Remington #10s my biggest issue is hammer blow back which will partially rotate the cylinder. Going to further investigate the mainspring strength, but I am already using a cut down SAA spring which is stronger that the standard Uberti offering.

I have this issue in two of my brass frame Navies

I was going to try doubling up mainsprings

 

[Bad Karma]

I wish I could say the Slix-Shot nipples cured the problems on my Uberti Pocket Navy and 1849 Pocket. Using light charges of 3F and Remington #10s my biggest issue is hammer blow back which will partially rotate the cylinder. Going to further investigate the mainspring strength, but I am already using a cut down SAA spring which is stronger that the standard Uberti offering.

You might investigate the diameter of the orifice. Too large and it will allow back pressure to impinge upon the hammer. I’ve used the slixshots but never measured the orifice. I’ve also used ampco nipples and measured the orifice, seems to run around .025” or a bit less according to my pin gauges. This orifice is a critical dimension in rifles and muskets. I don’t know how critical it is in revolvers although I don’t know why it wouldn’t be at least one of a few critical components.

 

[William P Sepessy]

The biggest surprise I had was getting hammer blow back when just snapping a cap with no powder/lead at all! This with the installed Slix-Shot nipples. I have not measured the orifice size myself, but over the years since they became available I have seen others report on the relative orifice size(both front and back) of all aftermarket and stock nipples. The Slix-Shots have always had the smallest diameter hole in the threaded end.