Bullet to tight in 1858 REMINGTON

[danpttm]

I have a UBERTI 44cal. 1858 remington. I bought some sample bullets. Some 200 grain R.E.A.L. & some 220 grain conicals. I put one of each of these in the cyclinder. As tight as they went in, I'm about scared to shoot them. Has anyone shot a tight bullet such as this?
Thanks Ahead Daniel

 

[Robert an saa fan]

Safety first.

If the cylinder's chamber diameters are within a few thousandths of an inch of barrel bore diameter should be o.k. to shoot.

I have shot heavy bullets in quality guns, like a Uberti, Ruger or 2nd Generation Colt with no problem.

In some of the older and/or low end guns it would be better, especially with brass frame guns, to use round balls and moderate powder charges to delay loosening up the gun over time.

If you remain unsure or encounter a problem with the cylinder vs. bore size then pull the bullets or remove nipples and tap bullets out with a non-sparking rod after shaking out the powder. Deactivate any remaining powder with water or liquid soap.

 

[biliff]

I don't believe the REAL bullets are meant for percussion revolvers (Rifling Engraved At Loading) so I would expect them to cause problems during loading.
Don't know about your other conical.
In any case, conicals tend to load harder in a revolver than a roundball because of the increased bearing surface. You should be shaving some lead when you load to get a good seal no matter what you're loading.
Another issue is to use pure lead. Some companies have sold lead balls and conicals for percussion revolvers with the same composition as the bullets for cartridge guns. These load very hard to the point of breaking loading levers.
In any case, if you got them to seat on the powder and didn't bend or break the rammer you're probably O.K.

 

[Zonie]

If Dixie Gunworks information is correct, the barrel has a .440 bore and .460 grooves.
They say the chambers are .450 so, if you got the bullets into the chambers they should be safe to shoot.

zonie

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I haven't shot them but have read some articles (NRA magazine) that says they do well. I have used Lee conicals in my '58 Rem. and good results.
And Lee conicals in my ROA. :winking:

 

[Leatherbark]

Maybe whoever made them did not use pure lead? If there was any tin or antimony in that lead then the diameter was too large..............Bob

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Most Uberti's will handle a .454 diameter projectile. What is the diameter of the stuff you're feeding her? If it's say .457 like the Rugers like, then you really had to work to get it in there! Bottom line, if it is all the way in and down on the charge, then you should be able to safely shoot it out!

Next take a micrometer and measure the conicals to determine their exact size.

There is a chance that the Remmy may like .451's. My Euroarms did!

BP pistol is supposed to be fun...so if none of this sage advice works, do yourself a favor and go back to roundball .
All the best, Dave

 

[Zonie]

As was mentioned above, all of the "bullets" are harder to load in a C&B pistol than a round ball.
This is due to the fact that with a round ball, the chamber only has to shear off a little ring but with a bullet it has to shear off quite a bit of material.

I've shot .36 cal bullets cast from pure lead using one of the .36 cal brass bullet/ball molds that are in some pistol cases.
The castings weren't very precision but with a little extra effort they loaded and shot alright.
zonie

 

[Wes/Tex]

You're going to have natural problems with rifle designed projectiles in revolvers. I'd recommend you switch to round balls for which the guns were designed to use. I some interesting tests with black powder revolvers and ballistic gelatin, the round balls were 17% more potent than any conical, across the board (.36 and .44 revolvers from 1851 Navy to the big Walker). The only thing the conicals were better at was total penetration. My take is that anything that requires that kind of penetration needs to be shot with something that goes to the shoulder! :haha: