ASM Revolver ???

[hou5ton]

I'm a black powder wannabe, and a friend just loaned me an ASM BP revolver in a .44.

He showed me how to load it with 30 grains of Pyrodex P and shove the RB down in there. There is no patch, as the balls fit REAL snug. He said he thinks it is so inaccurate as to be practically useless, but I thought I would try it.

You have to take the cylinder out to load it. It says it is made in Italy. Anyone know anything about this gun, and does the load sound about right?

 

[jdhiii]

Read this post very carefully, print it out and read it again. If the link doesn't work, the post is by Gatofeo a few pages back in this section of the forum. http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/ubbthr...mp;page=3#37584

ASM Armi San Marco is a maker of repro guns. To shoot your gun safely you need to be well informed and have your gun checked out by someone qualified to do so. Then, be careful, BP shooting is addicting. Have fun!
-d

 

[hou5ton]

yep, ... found that posting and it answered about all the questions I could think of at the moment.

I'll put this thing on the sandbags tomorrow and see what happens.

 

[db4455]

Armi san marcos I think Coneticut valley arms carries them. Not a bad pistol. Loads a bit heavy. 20 grains of tripple f or p pyrodex should work better with a round ball.
use a .451 to .457 round ball. you should shave a little lead off when you load. It's makes a gas seal(prevents chain fires).Top off the cylinders with bore butter or crysco.This keeps fouling soft and prevents chain fires. Put a percusion cap on all loded chambers. This really prevents chain fires. Chain fire is when more than 1 chamber fires at once. Real bad to have happen. CVA has dowloadable owners manuals on their web site.
Read the manual then listen to everyone

 

[Rebel]

Don't judge all BP revolvers by the ASM. I have had about 4 of them, and everyone of them was junk. Thankfully ASM finally went out of business from what i heard. Uberti is a real good quality revolver, and the Pietta's aren't bad, but ASM's, at least the ones i've seen were not much good at all.

 

[hou5ton]

Welp; back from the range, and using several different loads, (20 grains - 32 grains, with wads, without, etc.), the best that ASM 44 will do is a 3" group at 10 yards, off sandbags with steady hands and clean underwear. At first I started shooting at my standard 25 yards (at least, that's where I normally start with a pistol), and it couldn't even keep them all on the paper.

Obviously, that pretty much makes it useless for anything but to look at, and I'm not really into that. I thought it would be fun to squirrel hunt with a BP pistol, but unless this is just really bad and others are much better, I'll have to stick with the .22 target pistol. It's obviously much easier to load, but on the other hand, it's kind of cool to have that puff of smoke coming out the barrel and I thought I would enjoy the challenge.

I wonder which would be more accurate, .... something like that Lyman Plains Pistol, or one of those Uberti wheel guns?

Any thoughts?

thanks,
larry

 

[Zonie]

IMO, the single shot will be the more accurate pistol, if it has a good trigger and lock.
There are several single shot pistols available (like the CVAs) which are somewhat lacking and would loose to a good Urberti revolver.
The Lyman single shot is IMO a fairly priced gun which can produce excellent groups with a patched undersize round ball.

I mention the undersize ball because, while the revolvers need to use a ball which is larger than the bore (like .457 in a .44 cal gun), the single shot pistols are loaded just like a muzzleloading rifle, that is, with a patched ball.

If it is a .45 caliber barrel, it will use a .440 or a .445 dia roundball with a .010-.018 cloth patch.
If it is a .50 caliber barrel, it will use a .490 or .495 ball patched with a similar cloth patch.

::

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

Which revolver do you have--a Remington or a Colt type? Why does the cylinder have to be removed for loading? If it is a Colt style, adjusting the cylinder gap with the wedge can improve accuracy as can going to a tighter fitting ball.
ASM revolvers may not be the best made guns but a little time spent can get them to shoot quite well. If your friend became discouraged with the gun, he may not have shot it very much and the bore may benefit from a little honing with a very mild abrasive on a patch. I wouldn't give up on it so quickly, but I don't know as I would expect it to be a good squirrel either. Given the sights on these guns that might be asking a little too much.

 

[jdhiii]

Russ makes a good point about getting the revolver set up correctly. Each of the revolver types has its own quirks which can diminish accuracy. Not to get into a discussion about ASM quality, but I have an older .36 cal 1851 Navy Colt ASM repro which was a kit, not even a factory finished gun. However, I can consistently put all shots with it into a pie tin at 20 yards, which for me is good enough. Last time out I used a laser bore sight to reconcile the sight picture with the axis of the bore, and now figure I can get better yet. All things considered though, I would not hunt squirrels with this pistol, if'n I was hungry. A match grade .22 target outfit would be a much better choice.
-d