loading 1858 remington

[monkr]

I been using corn meal as a filler after powder. Decided to get some lube wads from Cabela's. Here is my question I usally load around 20 to 30 grains of powder then corn meal and ball to bring ball close to top of cylinder. The wads dosen't seem too thick and wonder how far from top of cylinder can be loaded safely or can I put 2 wads on top of each other though seems costly. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[rafterob]

20 grains a wad and then ball will be no problem, press it down. The gap between the ball and the end of the cylinder is not a safety issue, some believe it is an accuracy issue. The safety issue comes in to play in smaller loads, where there is a possibility of an air gap between the powder and ball because the loading lever is incapable of seating the ball all the way down. I have the Pietta Remmy and mine will still seat a ball firmly against the powder with a 15 grain charge, I have not tried anything smaller.Keep in mind these guns were designed to fill the chamber with powder, leaving enough room to seat the ball, so the levers were not designed to ram the ball down on a 10 grain load. IIRC 35 grains will fill my cylinder to the top, so that 30 grain load with a wad and ball is probably your maximum load.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

You didn't mention the revolver you have, or the caliber.

My '58 NMA Remmy & 1860 Army both use 27 grains really well, the '58 Buffalo gets 35 grains, the 3rd Model Dragoon gets 40 grains, and the Walker gets 52 grains. All of the above use a single pre-lubed wonder-wad and a .454 ball on top of that.

Lower charges might need additional wads, if you want to bring the balls up to the cylinder's chamber mouths.

Dave

 

[Blizzard of '93]

a .357 caseful of 3F is a good powder meaure for a 'warm' target load about 25-27 grs.

 

[tnlonghunter]

I use about 25 gr. 3f with a 3/16" wad and .454 round ball. It sits about 1/4" to 5/16" below the cylinder opening. Though for a time, I didn't have any wads and just loaded and shot ball and powder alone. It fouled faster, but there was no change in accuracy. So, I really don't believe corn meal or any other filler is needed.

 

[Zonie]

For a (hopefully) useful bit of information, here's a link to our resources area where Claude added a cartridge table listing the grains of BP that each case will throw. http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/247958/

 

[monkr]

Thanks guys once again ya'll have given me tons of information that I needed.