Pietta 1851 Navy

[William Lincoln]

Pinch your forearm. See how that feels. That is what the 1851 is
designed to punch through--- hopefully before the bad guy can draw his 1851. Steel drums are dangerous to shoot since lead
can go awry-- flat steel is better and at distance. The 1851 Colt
properly loaded is a side arm to be respected. Because it has
a moderate power it is easy to shoot with extreme accuracy.
Whatever,revolver,training and range time pay off. As for,
the powder issue I prefer natural Holy Black over the citrus
sugar based substitutes, pyrodex or others. This is especially
true if you intend it for possible defensive use---where the
substitutes might weaken or fail to ignite the "black will crack!"

 

[Treestalker]

Shooting at a steel drum / target at 15' seems a wee but dangerous to me. especially since it's not penetrating, where do the ricochet go

My older brother Fred Martin was trying out his new -to him- .36 cal. Colt's Navy repro in the yard, (we lived in the woods surrounded by trees, our folks' old place). I was sitting in the living room, talking to a friend about an upcoming informal muzzleloading match, when bang! A revolver ball came through a glass window of the room and hit the sheetrock wall about 3 feet over our heads! We both jumped up hollering for Fred to stop shooting. The ball had ricocheted off a plywood backer board for the paper target Fred was using! He was shooting at about 25 feet, trying to see where the load was hitting, before extending his range. Needless to say, we never shot at plywood or anything else hard, or too close after that! Fred became an ace Colt's percussion revolver shooter, and could tune one like nobody's business. His favorite proverb was 'Judge Colt and a jury of six'. He had learned to shoot a certain .45 caliber hand held Colt device in the Marines and later owned many repros of Colt's stable of BP hoglegs. He only used Goex black powder.