Dragoon Gumming Up

[jjsemperfi]

My Dragoon worked flawlessly until it started gumming up and became hard to cycle. Not sure what the part is called that the cylinder slides over and revolves around (cylinder rod maybe) but I'm thinking it's because I put standard hops lube on that for the cylinder to ride on and it gummed up. Any suggestions? I didn't want to leave it dry. I'm shooting .454 ball with lubed patches, about 30 grains of Tripple 7 3F and covering cylinder with a little bore butter. Oh and PS, my loading lever (on 3rd model dragoon) started dropping when I fired 40 grains. The max it seems to like is 30. Thanks guys.

 

[Stubert]

I use crisco on the cyl. pin on my Ruger old army, It works well.

 

[M. De Land]

The term your looking for is cylinder Arbor and I like and use Hoppe's gun grease on my arbors. Mike D.

 

[Cowboy2]

Its a problem, to one degree or another, with all cap and ball guns. I've had good luck using ballistol as a lubricant. Regardless, its common to need to wipe the fouling off the arbor every few time you empty the cylinder. They had to do it in the old days, too.

 

[jaxenro]

I se jojoba oil

 

[jjsemperfi]

Thanks! I'll try it out next time.

 

[Many Klatch]

I find that white lithium grease works in my Remingtons. I can shoot 5 or 6 cylinder full without having to remove the cylinder to clean the arbor.

Many Klatch

 

[M. De Land]

I should have been more compete in my answer. In open frame guns the cylinder axial is called an Arbor and in closed frame guns it is called the Base Pin. Mike D.

 

[Zonie]

Ole' Sam Colt put grooves on the cylinder arbor to hold grease.
The grease not only lubricates the cylinder but it keeps the fouling from the burning powder from blowing into the area.

Fill all of the grooves with grease and some of your problems will go away.

I say "some" because after a few cylinders of shots are fired the gun will still get fouled up a little.
It wasn't until the Rogers & Spencer Army Model pistol was made that this fouling issue was properly addressed. It's cylinder has a protrusion on the front of it which eliminates the direct path of the powder gasses into the cylinder/arbor joint.

 

[Shotar]

In addition to what the others have said, your load is throwing a huge mess of yuck. If you are using lubed wads, you don't need additional grease on top of the ball.

 

[jjsemperfi]

Thanks everyone. My dragoon functioned much better today! I thought I was doing well at 25 ft with 6" grouping until a range worker came by and he was getting about 2" grouping. Amazing how accurate these cap and ball guns are.

 

Vaseline

 

[Heelerau]

Mate, I have been using my own felt greased wads over the powder, and good old water pump grease, which is calcium based on the cylinder arbors of my pistols. You should be able to find it somewheres on the net. I can shoot all day without any cylinder binding, in my Navy, 3rd mod Dragoon, and ancient Remington .44. The felt wads seem to have made the greatest difference re fouling, don't know why I did not use them 40 yrs ago!!
I messed about deepening the grove int he loading rod retaining latch pin thingy, has helped some. I only use 28grs of fffg swiss black when shooting cowboy action, and mostly the rod stays in place, heavier loads use and india rubber band !!

Good luck

Gordon

 

[CaptainKirk]

I've always had good luck with white lithium grease, specifically Lubriplate AA650 or AAA650.

 

[Golfswithwolves]

I have been experimenting with the method of putting the dab of grease BEHIND the ball over the wad instead of in front of the ball. This seems to help grease up the action and is less messy too.