Reliability of long loaded C&Bs

[Dickydalton]

I hid one back in the 70s. Never found it until we had a house fire and the firemen threw everything out the window. That was the only bright thing of the day.

 

[t.l.a.r. eng]

After all, since the first such revolvers, percussion caps have also been sealed inside, over their priming mixture with lacquer or similar waterproofing.
Though it's not evident, modern percussion caps have the same protection.

Being somewhat curious about caps being sensitive to moisture, I put one in a small bottle of water overnight, shaking it to remove any air pockets from inside the primer.

18 hrs in water, then 6 hours on a paper towel open end down, put it on a pistol and tried it.

First strike, nothing. Second strike nothing, so I thought that's that, it aint gonna' go off.

The third strike however, it did go off. :shocked2: Was not as strong as a dry good one, but sparks came from the end of the muzzle so it probably would have lit a powder charge.

These caps are not as sensitive to moisture as I once thought. :idunno:

 

[neo297]

Amazing it still fired but were you able to hit the speed boat with that dislocated shoulder?????? :grin:

 

[ChrisPer]

The earliest printed reference I've found referring to lubricated, felt wads between powder and projectile is in a 1928 American Rifleman. A reader wrote in, asking how best to load his old revolver, and is told to use a felt wad lubricated with petroleum jelly.
I've yet to find a 19th century reference to such wads. I suspect it may have begun late in the 19th century or early 20th century.

The Adams Revolver (1851) was initially sold with instructions and molds for a greased felt wad retained on a spike cast on the ball. The idea was to thumb the ball plus wad into the cylinder, but in practice the balls started out when other chambers were fired so they had to make it tighter. There are a lot of cased Adams about with these molds and balls.

 

July 6th, 2012, a friend of mine loaded his ASM made CVA Colt type .44 1860 Army with 28 grains of ffg Elephant powder topped with a lubed OX wad and .454 round ball. Then,capped with CCI #11's. After which, he put it away till July 21st, 2013.

Taking it out, four of the five charged chambers went off without a hitch. The third chamber did not fire, as the cap did not ignite. It was tried three times, it never ignited. The defective cap was removed, the nipple was picked, a new cap applied. After which, the chamber discharged normally. I find the fault with the manufacture of the cap and not how the revolver was loaded or stored.

I will, also, note that the nipples were the originals shipped with the revolver, which I had handfitted for #11 caps.

 

[Heelerau]

Gents,
I kept a Navy Colt loaded in my safe for over a year on one occasion, 25 grs FFFg Goex, and the end of the chambers sealed with water pump grease, R&WS 1075 caps, all shots went off fine


Cheers

Heelerau

 

[lonehunter]

Just this morning I unloaded my Colt Dragoon that was loaded mid Nov 2011, No problems at all.

 

[dikman]

Lucky you weren't subject to a random police check!

 

[Mulebrain]

This has been brought up before many times.

I decided to put it to the test, and kept a loaded 1851 for over 2.5 years. I pulled it out and it fired like I had just loaded it.

I would trust real black over pyrodex, for this type of thing. Black powder just doesn't go bad. Ordnance from the Civil War will still go off today.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Ordnance from the Civil War will still go off today.

Amen brother. My most interesting experience was at a gun store I worked for back in the late 70's. The guys got a Union Maynard carbine in the store. For those who may not know, the Maynard fired a brass cartridge but with a very small hole in the center of the base. The rimmed case was actually ignited by a standard percussion cap on a nipple that flashed into the hole in the brass case...cool idea, but kind'a silly. Digging through the odd cartridge box, we found a Maynard cartridge and bets started about whether it would work. Finally, Jerry took it back into the gunsmith's room to give it a go! I was out front dealing with a customer when BOOMPF! The front windows actually shook and everybody jumped a bit. This was followed by smoke and black powder stench coming out the air conditioning vents (the intake was in the back rooms). Well, to get to the point, it not only worked but after many years in the Texas humidity and with a small open in the case bottom, but did it first time and with authority! Cowabonga! :thumbsup:

 

[Junior1942]

One of my stainless ROA pistols has been loaded since 1993. I'll try it out in a month or two. I'll probably write an article about it, but for sure I'll post the results here.

The story begins with my college garage apartment and a second story man at circa 3 am. All I had for defence was a golf club.....

 

[Dickydalton]

Children are welcome everywhere.

 

Kept my Remington Pocket 31 revolver loaded for three years and it discharged without fail. I read about handgun trials in Europe between the Colt Navy revolver and the Adams DA revolver. They were dunked in water then fired. 5 out of 6 chambers on the Colt discharged. But the Adams fired all six shots.

 

[Lonegun1894]

Neo, I seriously thought of trying to shoot the boat, or preferably the driver, but I didn't so we will never know. For what it's worth, I always practice with both hands. Never understood it, but I can shoot with either hand, but unless you just want a good laugh, don't ask me to write anything with my left. Now if that guy had come back for another pass, we would have found out if I could hit him.