New revolvers

[doglake]

My grandson is ten and has been shooting .22 rifle and revolver with me for a year now. He has completed his NRA safety course and got to shoot a .50 cal muzzle loader a couple of weeks ago. I bought two Navy Arms 1851 Navy in 36 cal. and am going to shoot my first black powder with my grandson.

Yesterday I got some pork fat from the grocery and rendered it into lard. Now for some beeswax and olive oil and we have our bore butter.

Next stop is the range. A report will follow after it happens. :wink:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

a fairly stiff mix is what you need to cap over the balls. straight lard is too soft in warm temps.
I use a 1/3 lanolin and 2/3 beeswax mix.

a big welcome to the Forum for ya Cody :hatsoff:

 

[doglake]

Thanks for the welcome.

My plan is to mix the beeswax 50%, lard 40%, and olive oil 10%. What do you think, well this work?

 

[Blizzard of '93]

lose the o.o. IMO. just mix up say 1/4 lb of the 60/40 wax/lard and give it a try. if too stiff you can always re-melt and add the o.o.
I bet that will suit ya.

 

[doglake]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try.

I will be visiting your mountains the last week of October. I hope the leaves are in color. After the mountains we will spend four days at New Bern. We really enjoy the back roads on N.C.

 

[mykeal]

Or you could just forgo the grease and use a tight fitting ball with a lubed felt overpowder wad...

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

All really good advice from Blizzard and mykeal :thumbsup: . All I have to add is that you may want to figure-out where those Colt replicas shoot BEFORE the Grandson tries his hand at it. Depending upon the load chosen and the distance from the target, you may have to aim from 4" to a foot UNDER what you're trying to hit :wink: . The Colts tend to be great pointers for man-sized targets, but do require a little finesse to use them as target pistols, since they tend to shoot high.


Enjoy the Grandson and thanks from all of us for infecting him with a look at the "Dark Side" Grandpa :hatsoff:

Dave

 

[Toomuch_36]

All really good advice from Blizzard and mykeal :thumbsup: . All I have to add is that you may want to figure-out where those Colt replicas shoot BEFORE the Grandson tries his hand at it. Depending upon the load chosen and the distance from the target, you may have to aim from 4" to a foot UNDER what you're trying to hit :wink: . The Colts tend to be great pointers for man-sized targets, but do require a little finesse to use them as target pistols, since they tend to shoot high.


Enjoy the Grandson and thanks from all of us for infecting him with a look at the "Dark Side" Grandpa :hatsoff:

Dave

I have noticed this with many replica (and origional) pistols with fixed sights, they seam designed more for point and shoot rather than pin-point (10-x) accuracy.

Toomuch
...........
Shoot Flint

 

[doglake]

I plan to take the first shots from 25 yards at a slow fire target, (B-16) with 5.5 inch bullseye. I have no idea how this will work out, but that is the plan. I got my beeswax today. An old beekeeper sold me 5.25 lbs. for $4.50 per lb. I made up an ounce and put it in a Kiwi shoe polish can. I used the 60/40 mix suggested above.

Thanks for the suggestions everybody and I'll post how it goes at the range.

 

[David Teague]

Unless your going to be shooting 25 yrd matches, nothing wrong with 10 yards. That's what I shoot most of the time as gun fights happen at close range.

DT

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

All really good advice from Blizzard and mykeal :thumbsup: . All I have to add is that you may want to figure-out where those Colt replicas shoot BEFORE the Grandson tries his hand at it. Depending upon the load chosen and the distance from the target, you may have to aim from 4" to a foot UNDER what you're trying to hit :wink: . The Colts tend to be great pointers for man-sized targets, but do require a little finesse to use them as target pistols, since they tend to shoot high.


Enjoy the Grandson and thanks from all of us for infecting him with a look at the "Dark Side" Grandpa :hatsoff:

Dave

I have noticed this with many replica (and origional) pistols with fixed sights, they seam designed more for point and shoot rather than pin-point (10-x) accuracy.

Toomuch
...........
Shoot Flint

Once you figure-out just WHERE they shoot, the repeatability is absolutely amazing! I've earned my Expert rating in ML Pistol from the NRA using out-of-the-box Colt replicas from Uberti! Plenty of shots in the 10 & X rings!

Knowing what the revolver is capable of is half the battle. Believing in yourself is the other half. Making hits with my Walker on torso-sized Gong targets at 135 yards has already been documented on this forum.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Cody,

Start the little guy out at 10-15 yards until the necessary skill set is achieved, then add yardage to set new goals to keep him "hooked". :wink:

Enjoy your Grandson, and remember it's all about the fun, and the accuracy will come when it does. I've seen too many kids get turned-off by adults trying to make expert marksman out of them.

Dave

 

[mykeal]

Dave's right about starting close. I'd go even further. I started at 25 yards and couldn't reliably hit the paper on a B-27. Very frustrating, and I was considering renting a bunch of different guns to see what was going on (it was the gun's fault, you see). A good buddy convinced me to move up to 5 (that's FIVE, as in 2+3) yards. He made me stay there until I put 5 rounds in the X, and then moved me back to 7 1/2 yards and did the same thing. Today I start each practice session at 10 yards and don't move back until I've put 5 in a row in the 10 ring. I won't tell you where I am today, but it's a world of difference at 25 yards than it was when I started.

What the 5 yards thing did was build my confidence. I could see myself hitting the target and getting gradually better, and I believed I could do it. No frustration or blaming the gun, just building the muscle memory and my confidence.

Don't let him get frustrated as he's building the skills - make sure he has successes and he'll make great progress. And beat your butt good before you know it.

 

[doglake]

Thanks all for the advise, it is appreciated and will be heeded. By the way my thirteen year old granddaughter is my best fishing buddy and she wants to shoot BP also. She liked the stories I told her about Cantrell's Raiders.

Both of these kids are enrolled in our gun clubs NRA Rifle Safety Class we conduct each month. It is free to any young person between 10 and 18 years old. Everything is furnished except food and drink.

 

[Kevin Makel]

Cody, You are an excellent grandpa! Your grand children are lucky indeed. Shooting BP will give them memories for life.

 

[doglake]

Today was the test before I take my grandson this Saturday. I found that it shoots 10" high at 25ft. but dead on rather than right or left. After determining this I was able to place 24 rounds in a four inch group at 25ft. I just had to aim 10" below 6 o'clock to hit the center of the target.

It was very interesting how it had almost no recoil. I also noticed the cylinder started to gunk up after about 20 rounds. I suppose a person needs to take it apart and clean the shaft that the cylinder slides on after about 18 rounds.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Sounds like you're getting the hang of it! You didn't mention the load for the .36 Navy you tried. As to the grease around the pin, a heavier grease will keep the fouling from penetrating the area around the pin, so you'll most likely get more shots out of her before she tightens-up too much. Some folks even use the wax seal from installing toilets!

Have fun making smoke. Mykeal's advice about 5 yards is really cool! One note though if you're going that close: be sure of the back-stop. It has to be "soft" enough to absorb the balls at relatively slower speeds. I was at a range last year where someone tested his .36 with only 10 grains of powder. That's O-K, trouble was the target was stapled to a 1/2 inch thick piece of plywood. You guessed it, the balls were coming back from the target 25 yards away and dimpling his car door! If the target was stapled to regular cardboard, it would have just passed through it and lodged into the berm......

Have fun with the kids!

Dave

 

[doglake]

The load was 15g.