Lyman 1858 Rem. .36

[George]

Anyone shoot a Lyman 1858 Remington in .36 caliber? Can you tell me what size ball your gun takes?

Spence

 

[CaptainKirk]

Spence, I shoot a Navy in .36.....shoots a .375 RB. I can mic my cyl. bores if you need me to...

 

[richard123]

My Pietta Navy in .36 uses a .375 but will also work with the .380 if you can find them. I also like 25 grains of pyrodex P and a 36 cal. wonder wad behind the lead ball.

 

[George]

My Lyman Navy is by Uberti. Thanks for the info, and for the offer Captain Kirk, that won't be necessary.

Spence

 

[CaptainKirk]

You know what? I'll do it anyway, just for the he!! of it. I'm curious now. Will post later this evening.

 

[CaptainKirk]

Spence, I dragged out the caliper and my Excam Navy. Here's what I came up with;
cylinder bore: .375
forcing cone bore: .375
barrel groove: .375
barrel lands: .362

I shoot either .375 round ball or conical bullets out of it. It seems to prefer the roundball for best accuracy.
Hope this helps! :wink:

 

[George]

Spence, I dragged out the caliper and my Excam Navy.

Thanks, Capt. I haven't shot this pistol for a long time, but I seem to recall that .375" balls didn't shave as much as I thought they should when I shot it last. I don't have a good way to measure the cylinders, but my cheap calipers seem to show .373", so maybe I'm remembering wrong. Need to shoot it and find out.

Spence

 

[kwilfong]

FWIW; I like to chamfer & polish the chambers on C&B revolvers so they don't shave rings of lead.

 

[Pete Gaimari]

I've found .36 cal revolver does best with .380 balls. A .375 seemed too loose to me. .380 balls are not always easy to find. Dixie sells them, or they used to.

 

[George]

Why is that, kwilfong? I thought shaving lead was a good thing.

Spence

 

[Pete Gaimari]

It is.

 

[kwilfong]

With the chamfer, loading is easier & cleaner.

 

[George]

With the chamfer, loading is easier & cleaner.

Yes, I can see that it would be. I learned that shaving was a good deterrent to chain firing, but swaging on loading would do the same thing. Or is windage between ball and cylinder still considered the source of chain firing?

Spence

 

[kwilfong]

Others probably have better info on this, but I think loose caps or undersize balls could do it. It's never happened to me.

 

[CaptainKirk]

While it is true that undersized roundballs can attribute to chainfire, this can be negated by use of a good chamber lube (i.e. Crisco) or Wonder Wads. You run almost the same risk via loose fitting caps.
I'm a proponent of snug seating of the ball in the cylinder bores, but not to the point where it's downright difficult.
As I said, proper lube or wads will go a long way towards solving the chainfire dilemma...

 

[Bon Sauvage]

I'm sure that chamfering and polishing would cause easier loading of the cylinder but wouldn't it also make it easier for the ball to separate from the powder charge during recoil.

It seems that you could easily lock up your cylinder.

 

[kwilfong]

I think you actually get a very slightly longer bearing surface on the ball with a chamfered cylinder. I've done it to a '58 Remington, a Walker, and an ROA. The Remington & ROA have been shot quite a bit with all the FFFg they'll hold under a Wonder Wad & RB with no evidence of the balls creeping forward.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Well shoot! That sounds like the way to go. :hatsoff:

 

[Zonie]

It would be interesting to know what the thoughts of the Colt people were back in the day's.

His early model 1851 Navys had sharp edges at the mouth of the chambers and they switched to a chamfered style. Then, they switched back.

Nothing I've read has given any insight to what they were thinking about this.

If I put on my guessing hat I would guess they changed the chamber mouths to a chamfered style as an improvement and due to cost cutting programs (nothing new here) they decided to omit the chamfering operation.

Then, again, a chamfer reduces the amount of the chamber and this area piloted the heeled bullets that were sometimes loaded. Perhaps they thought it was more important to have that extra little bit of pilot for the bullets?

 

[CaptainKirk]

Is it possible they noticed that the chamfered chambers might have tended to oblong the bullet rather than shave off a ring a lead (as mine do, unchamfered)i.e "squeeze it" into the bore?
This is a question, not a comment, as I don't own any caplocks with chamfered cylinder bores. I'm not sure if those with chamfers still shave off a ring or not. Just an idea...