How to fill powder horn?

[wulf]

I sandwich a nut between the two pieces of wood
that I make the base plug out of and screw the
Acorn type plug I make into that closing the hole
and making it easy to fill through the 5/16 to
3/8" hole when removed...

 

[Vairochana]

Um, does the big end screw off leaving a large opening to fill it with (mine does)

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Carrying a spare, loaded cylinder for Percussion revolvers, as Clint Eastwood does in Pale Rider, is about the only "speed loader" I can think of that works. Historically, the Texas Rangers originally armed with Walker Colt .44s were issued a couple of extra cylinders for the big revolvers, and carried them either in a holster around their saddle's pommel, or on the gun belt.

I have read this before and have read some exchanges of the differing views on this. I'm not familiar with any of the percussion revolvers except the 1851 Navy. I can tell you for certain that packing an extra cylinder for an 1851 will not be a fast reload situation!

I remember the Pale Rider movie and that scene with Clint standing in the street at the end of town changing the cylinder in his gun. Can't for the life of me rememember what gun it was but think it may have been an 1860??

I recall it being a '58 Remington- half-****?, drop rammer, pull pin, rotate and extract cylinder (and drop it, if you're Clint), rotate and insert new cylinder, push pin back, close rammer. I tried this a few times with a buddy's and it was straightforward once I remembered which side to come from and which direction to rotate the cylinder to get the hand out of the way.

I was killing time in a hotel once, and found an episode of a Aussie TV show about their rural lawmen, kind of like Texas Rangers. The troopers carried Colt Navies with two spare loaded & capped cylinders, plus Spencer carbines. Well, the two good guys got involved in a moderately prolonged shootout, and I recall one of them hunkering down behind his rock and doing a cylinder swap - half ****?, push wedge out, barrel off (may have used the rammer to start the barrel loose - it's been a LONG while), cylinder off, cylinder on, barrel on, push wedge in (and maybe tap it?). As I recall, this being an Adelaide-wood thing, and these being well trained and experienced troopers, he did it mostly by feel and kept talking with his partner as they developed their plan. A d@mn sight faster than loading 6 cartridges and 6 caps. They probably carried cartridges and caps, as well, but I don't recall them coming into play in this episode. I do recall reading sometime later that Navies & Spencers were indeed their arms when first formed, but I can't recall anymore if mention was made of spare cylinders among the accessories.

Regards,
Joel

 

[sundog]

Well our Church has candle light services on Christmas Eve. We are sent out of Church with lit candles to spread light upon the world. The candles have plastic holders with a wide wine glass shaped top and a tapering base.
I found that by cutting off the bottom of the base the candle holder made a very nice no spill powder funnel. Side benifit is it makes me think of Christmas and remember the time we walked to Church and whyle we were in service it started snowing,when we came out my then little daughter was awe struck and our family walked home by candle light.

 

[TxRambler]

Sundog -
What a great idea and a wonderful memory you shared.

Thanks

 

[ronrryan]

I'm with Gordy. I just use my hand as a funnel with the thumb and forefinger around the nozzle and pour slowly. Don't lose much powder and it's simple. But a lil bitty funnel sounds like a good idea. Good smoke, Ron

 

[Skychief]

I once got beaten up by an angry gun store clerk when I asked him to sell me a speed loader for single action revolver. !

Ha! That's the funniest thing I've read anywhere in months Glenthilthie! :rotf:

As far as a funnel for your powder horn....Why not just make one out of a piece of paper? Simple, costless, and workable! :thumbsup:

Good luck, Skychief.

 

[mazo kid]

Well, since Tedd Cash is a friend of mine and lives close by, I use one of his funnels. Before that, I made several cartridge case/can cap funnels using the size case that worked in the horn, a couple of ones I recall are 22 Hornet and 223 Remington.

 

[Okurok]

I found that the cap from a oil bottle fits a goex can.

Just squeeze the can and it blows the powder in the horn quick.

Here's one thompson center makes. From Cabelas.

But I like the ones with a catridge soldered to a cap better for aesthetic reasons.

 

[nkbj]

Solder the case mouth to the lid and it makes filling flasks easy.
Need to make one with two lids top to top and the neck-shoulder of a 7mag sticking through.

 

[Ketchakah]

Yep, Thats what I do too. Works fine.
I do have a small brass funnel and have used small plastic ones too. Ifn you go to the doctor, you can liberate one of the plastic ends that go on the ear scope thingy, They work great too.
But in reality the best thing i have found is just to use my forefinger and thumb wrapped around the spout and the resulting opening funnels the powder just fine. Plus, i dont loose it.

 

[Celt5494]

My method is extremely technical. I get an envelope and cut off a fairly large chunk of a corner section then depending upon the size of the horn spout I cut off a smaller portion of the envelope's uncut corner and press the flattened sides to form a funnel. Stick it right in the spout and the powder pours through like a dream.