New 1851 Pietta Colt

[Terry Fairchild]

I just took delivery of an 1851 Colt Navy( Pietta) from Cabela.
I'm inpatiently waiting for a bullet mould that was backordered from Cabelas. My question is do I need to patch my balls when I load this pistol? I have not seen or read anything relative to this topic anywhere. The manual says to use a patch(or "a dose of semolina")and then fill the chamber on top of the ball with Crisco ! Does that sound correct?
What is semolina? Spaghetti?
I need some advice from some of you more experienced revolver shooters on the best way to load this gun. I can't help but think that back in the day when they were loading these pistols they used grease(Crisco) in the manner prescribed in the manual.
Thanks for any pointers.

 

[Paul_R]

This should help.

[youtube]Cdya8qK7vtM[/youtube]

 

[Many Klatch]

Semolina is another name for Cream of Wheat.

It is thought that the best accuracy in a C&B revolver comes from loads that keep the ball just below the mouth of the chamber. However that means consistently loading with a full charge of 30 grains of powder (or more). If you are just punching paper, you may not feel like shooting full charges all day long. So if you wanted to shoot a lesser charge, say 15 to 20 grains, then you would fill the chamber the rest of the way with a measure of C.O.W. and then ram the ball down.

The other advantage to using the C.O.W. is that it gives another layer of insurance against a Chain Fire. We can be fairly sure that no fire will get past both tight fitting lead ball and compressed C.O.W.

I have never felt the need to add another messy element to the loading procedure so I don't use C.O.W. but I do use a Wonder Wad over the powder.

Many Klatch

 

[cynthialee]

My only issue with that video is the loading from the flask thing.

Measure your powder in a separate powder measure.

(with that said: If I am loading a gun for the first time in a days shooting I will load from the flask that first go around. However, second time around and on it is just better to play safe and not load from the flask.)

 

[SinCityPatriot]

I thought that with that type of flask AND measure spout, you were good to go with loading directly into the revolver chambers. Am I mistaken?

 

[Zonie]

I load my unfired revolvers directly from the powder measure on the flask for the first load of the day.

After that I still use the powder measure on the flask to do the measuring but I pour the measured powder into another slightly larger powder measure and then use it to pour the powder into the chambers.

This has been debated over and over but most of us feel that there might be a chance of a small bit of glowing powder left from the last shot.

Although I have never seen it happen, if there are any glowing embers and the new powder charge gets dumped into the chamber the powder will ignite.

I (we) figure its better to get a burned finger from a 20-30 grain powder charge than it would be if the entire powder flask exploded.

 

[nkbj]

Remember the Daniel Boone comic book where they were stuck in a tight spot and the bad guy threw a powder horn in on them with a fuse stuck in it?

No? OK, never mind. :redface:

 

[pargent]

It's not rocket science is it ? , but still a tad confusing to most :shake:

 

[Grenadier1758]

With revolvers, the sealing of the ball to bore is done by using an oversized ball. The excess lead is shaved off in a small ring of lead. You can see why its very important to use pure lead which is soft enough to do this easily. No patch around the ball is required.

Measure the diameter of all the chambers in your cylinder. The round ball mold should be 0.005" larger. My Uberti pistols' chambers measure 0.375" diameter so a 0.380" mold was required. A 0.375 ball would move ln recoil either jamming the cylinder or falling out. Both conditions are bad.

Make sure your ball is the proper size. Measure thrm after you have cast some. Dimensional tolerances could leave you with an undersized ball.

 

[SinCityPatriot]

Perfectly clear now. Thanks very much for the clarification and answer.

 

[Terry Fairchild]

Thanks to all who responded to my questions. Very good info.
This forum is the best!