This forum keeps coming up with answers to question I had in regards to Black Powder revolvers, I figured I should join and as a dues paying member as this has suddenly turned into an area of deep interest.
My first interaction with Black Powder revolvers was back in the 70s, shot it once and the mess with the lard loaded ahead of the ball, my brother still remembers me declaring, this is bad (to be polite, ). I sold the gun. Huge mess. I am not neat and tidy but it was even more than I could stand.
Lo many years latter, after being married for 20 years, my wife comes into my office (smallest bedroom in the house) and hands me a Black Powder pistol (and ASP NMA) . You might as well keep this with the guns in the safe or sell it. Hmmm. Nice action but..... For many years I would look at it and think back to my experience and ungh. Always nagging in the back of my mind was, they could not have put grease in the chamber for real, attracts dirt, the mess alone and hot enough it would melt or slog out.
So one day I got to looking at U Tubes on the subject and it was a revelation there being a school of thought that the right size ball or bullet and you get a seal that does not require grease. I know its a subject with differing opinions, that suits my technical brain (technician/engineer for 30 some years) and logical for the era and what went into loading those.
I quit work 4 years ago, I do serious target shooting and it occurred to me that the BP revolver would be kind of fun. I know they are not accurate like my pistols were/are. But it struck me as a diversion from my more serious shooting (rifles, I build them up myself off Savage actions).
So I got the caps and powder (my wife had a sack of the balls (.457) that I had in my what to do with old reloading stuff). You can't get Black Powder here (so far I have found) but you can get substitutes. Good enough. I checked some balls in the ASP and got a wide band. Good enough. Odd that they did not shave lead and I approached shooting carefully.
My conclusion was that the old ASP had tapered chambers, you could clearly see lead deposit on the sides, just did it differently back then or at least ASP did.
My eyes don't see like the used to when I was pretty good with a pistol (placed in the top 5 of 20 active target shooters on a Practical Police Course of its day and all the other non target shooters placed below the lowest target shooter on the list (another 20 shooters roughly).
But with a bench rest and the long sight picture I could see well enough to shoot at 15 yards. I have an Eyepal I have put on my old glasses (frame were falling apart) and that works pretty good. I can't hold all that steady free standing but I can hit a man sized target at 25 yard with enough accuracy and I can hand rest for the the fun shooting part.
The ASP shoots about 100 fps faster than the Pietta NMA with the same load. Possibly due to the .454 balls being a it larger than needed in the Pietta. .460 JD conical s will probably wind up in the Ruger when I get it.
I had been looking hard at a 48 Walker for a max blast hand cannon, but the reports of the various fitting issues left me cold. Looks like $250 or so form someone who knows what they are doing to tune it which with all the shipping puts it in Ruger Old Army range and that has vastly better sights. I can load it up with the 777 3F or even 4F if I want to go nuts.
The ASP has been interesting, not being a single action sort I had not known what should be happening on the half cock. Someone had shaved the bolt where it interfaces with the hammer pin on the wrong side. It did not function. Not knowing what related to what parts wise I ordered a Pietta parts kit (which goes with the Pietta NMA regardless). I did some hand fitting on the bolt even though its quite a different shape on the cylinder index part and it worked. Then I saw that the Uberti bolt was far more simlitar to the ASP bolt and ordered one. It looks right but does not work. At that point I quit, I get good ops out of what I did, I may send it for a tune up at some point. The Pietta NMA works fine.
All in all its been an interesting voyage of discovery and fascinating all the aspects of Colt, Remington, chain fire theory etc (the guy I was saw induced a chain fire and could get it to do it reliably down in the .451 ball range. I have a couple hundred shots off so far and no issues in that regard.
My first interaction with Black Powder revolvers was back in the 70s, shot it once and the mess with the lard loaded ahead of the ball, my brother still remembers me declaring, this is bad (to be polite, ). I sold the gun. Huge mess. I am not neat and tidy but it was even more than I could stand.
Lo many years latter, after being married for 20 years, my wife comes into my office (smallest bedroom in the house) and hands me a Black Powder pistol (and ASP NMA) . You might as well keep this with the guns in the safe or sell it. Hmmm. Nice action but..... For many years I would look at it and think back to my experience and ungh. Always nagging in the back of my mind was, they could not have put grease in the chamber for real, attracts dirt, the mess alone and hot enough it would melt or slog out.
So one day I got to looking at U Tubes on the subject and it was a revelation there being a school of thought that the right size ball or bullet and you get a seal that does not require grease. I know its a subject with differing opinions, that suits my technical brain (technician/engineer for 30 some years) and logical for the era and what went into loading those.
I quit work 4 years ago, I do serious target shooting and it occurred to me that the BP revolver would be kind of fun. I know they are not accurate like my pistols were/are. But it struck me as a diversion from my more serious shooting (rifles, I build them up myself off Savage actions).
So I got the caps and powder (my wife had a sack of the balls (.457) that I had in my what to do with old reloading stuff). You can't get Black Powder here (so far I have found) but you can get substitutes. Good enough. I checked some balls in the ASP and got a wide band. Good enough. Odd that they did not shave lead and I approached shooting carefully.
My conclusion was that the old ASP had tapered chambers, you could clearly see lead deposit on the sides, just did it differently back then or at least ASP did.
My eyes don't see like the used to when I was pretty good with a pistol (placed in the top 5 of 20 active target shooters on a Practical Police Course of its day and all the other non target shooters placed below the lowest target shooter on the list (another 20 shooters roughly).
But with a bench rest and the long sight picture I could see well enough to shoot at 15 yards. I have an Eyepal I have put on my old glasses (frame were falling apart) and that works pretty good. I can't hold all that steady free standing but I can hit a man sized target at 25 yard with enough accuracy and I can hand rest for the the fun shooting part.
The ASP shoots about 100 fps faster than the Pietta NMA with the same load. Possibly due to the .454 balls being a it larger than needed in the Pietta. .460 JD conical s will probably wind up in the Ruger when I get it.
I had been looking hard at a 48 Walker for a max blast hand cannon, but the reports of the various fitting issues left me cold. Looks like $250 or so form someone who knows what they are doing to tune it which with all the shipping puts it in Ruger Old Army range and that has vastly better sights. I can load it up with the 777 3F or even 4F if I want to go nuts.
The ASP has been interesting, not being a single action sort I had not known what should be happening on the half cock. Someone had shaved the bolt where it interfaces with the hammer pin on the wrong side. It did not function. Not knowing what related to what parts wise I ordered a Pietta parts kit (which goes with the Pietta NMA regardless). I did some hand fitting on the bolt even though its quite a different shape on the cylinder index part and it worked. Then I saw that the Uberti bolt was far more simlitar to the ASP bolt and ordered one. It looks right but does not work. At that point I quit, I get good ops out of what I did, I may send it for a tune up at some point. The Pietta NMA works fine.
All in all its been an interesting voyage of discovery and fascinating all the aspects of Colt, Remington, chain fire theory etc (the guy I was saw induced a chain fire and could get it to do it reliably down in the .451 ball range. I have a couple hundred shots off so far and no issues in that regard.
