Chain Fire

[Tracy]

Just got back from Gander Mountain,they had there gunsmith check out the gun.He said that I should go to .457 balls and dont forget the grease.He checked the cylinder bores and said if they were out of round it was too small of an amount for his gauges to detect.He also told me that he couldnt believe the fit and finish of the gun as many cap and ball revolvers that he has seen can be pretty rough.I asked him about cylinder play and he told me new Smith and Wesson revolvers arent that tight.So it sounds like most of the problem can be dealt with.He was also susprised that the brass frame didnt even show a scratch from 2 chainfires.Sounds like I got lucky.Going to give it another try tomorow.

 

I was shooting a new 58 Rem.by Pietta{Traditions}yesterday.Pointed gun at target pulled the trigger and boom boom the cylinder to the left went off.Ilooked and the cap was almost off.I fired the gun again and it shot fine,cocked the piece pulled the trigger and boom boom another chain fire ...

You kept firing the gun after the first chain fire, without checking to see why it was doing it. :shake: Sorry, but...

 

[rebel727]

Wow, what a mess. So you were forcing the ball onto a heavy charge of BP? Figger some powder was forced out the chamber mouth maybe? Lucky U did not have a finger or 2 taken off!

Yeah, it was a mess. Had a lot of chain fires in the beginning(gotta remember I was 12). Loading lever actually lasted a couple of years. Link went first. Can't tell it in the pic but that link is actually a link from a bicycle chain. Got it all fixed now. Thought about rebluing it but there's a lot of good memories in that old gun. Just can't bring myself to do it. Funny I can't remember when the bluing went. In my mind it always looked pretty much like the pic.

New Uberti lever. Took some fitting but it works fine.

 

[Veno]

I had a chainfire last week in a Paterson. The 4th and 5th rounds (first cylinder of the day) went off together. The cap on the 5th cylinder was intact, unfired. I used a lube pill (beeswax and paraffin) over the powder, no grease over the ball. I think two things happend: I put the lube pill in sideways by mistake and crushed it down unevenly, and...the ball was not perfectly round. I had cast a bunch of .375 balls earlier that week, and some were terribly out of shape, but I used them anyways. My fault. No damage to the gun - don't know where the 5th ball went, but there was definitely a "double fire."

 

[Tracy]

I found some .457 balls and tried them.They made a nice round ring of lead and didnt load too hard.Havent found any wads yet so I set my measure to 20 grains and filled it with cornmeal,put that over 25 grains of 3f Goex topped the ball off with crisco.I shot about 50 loads through it without a hitch.No loose caps no misfires,no caps stuck in the action and no chainfires.The only problem is the gun shoots 8 inches left of POA at 10 yards.The front sight isnt dovetailed so what is the best way to remedy this?

 

[rebel727]

The best way is to have the front sight removed and a new sight dovetailed in. I've handled quite a few original Remmy's made after 61 that had a brass cone dovetailed in so it would be pc. Either that or file out the sight notch to one side or learn to use Kentucky windage. You could have the barrel turned just a tad or have the sight bent but then you have a gun that shoots to poa but has a crooked sight. Whichever one you can live with.

 

[WV_Hillbilly]

I found some .457 balls and tried them.They made a nice round ring of lead and didnt load too hard.Havent found any wads yet so I set my measure to 20 grains and filled it with cornmeal,put that over 25 grains of 3f Goex topped the ball off with crisco.I shot about 50 loads through it without a hitch.No loose caps no misfires,no caps stuck in the action and no chainfires.The only problem is the gun shoots 8 inches left of POA at 10 yards.The front sight isnt dovetailed so what is the best way to remedy this?

Glad to see you got the chainfire solution. If I may ask... did the gun shoot to POA with the previous loads? Does the gun group well despite being 8 inches left of POA? Do you have similar results when firing other revolvers that are known to hit to POA?

I'm not trying to be a snob, but am just attempting to gather some information that could provide a clue to the solution to this problem.

Regards, and safe shooting!
WV_Hillbilly

 

[Tracy]

It is hard to say if the gun was hittung POA befor the chainfires,A friend of mine and Myself had shot a cylinder full at some cans befor the chainfires occured so the gun had only fired 6 shots beror the first chain fire.We had shot 1 cylinder full and had to go so the chainfires happened the next daywith a freshley cleaned gun.I think between us we hit 1 can at about 20 feet and didnt check where the others had hit as we were in a hurry.
I dont shoot handguns very often or very well,but I wasnt too impressed with the grouping but I was shooting offhand so it could be me more than the gun.I had been shooting a friends Ruger Single Six a few days befor and was doing mutch better with it although those groups were nothing to brag about.Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[crockett]

Jess- thanks for being honest on the shooting ability. If you are right handed and curl your finger too much around the trigger, you could be pulling the trigger a bit the the right -not straight back- and that twists the barrel to the left- pulling the shots. Before you start messing with the gun have someone else shoot it or use a bench rest etc to test the gun. Fire left handed from a rest. You may find the sights are okay.
Pulling shots is a nemisis of many shooters, you can fix the sights and be dead on and then the shots start moving left- even after you adjusted the sights.