Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: recurve shooter on July 02, 2010, 01:32:48 am
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hi guys. aint been on here in a while. my computer died on me. anyway i just ordered a black powder revolver and was lookin for any pointers or info or sugestions that anyone would have, because im kinda clueless.
anyway its a traditions Bison pistol (man they arnt very creative with the names of these things.) .44 cal, twelve inch barrel, adjustable sites. i didnt know if they can be accurarte or not so i figured if it has a freakishly long barrel i should be able to hit something with it. ;D
so yeah guys let me know what yall think, what bullets, powder, wadding, lube, cylender sealer stuff, or whatever, anything anyone knows will come in handy. ;D
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You have a Remington style solid frame revolver, vs. the open framed colt style cap and ball handguns. I understand the long barrels are good for pistol whipping the bad guys if you happen to be a marshall on the frontier. Or Gene Hackman. :)
Just like archery, you can go crazy with lots of little accessories. Most important is an adjustable powder measure, a powder flask, round balls in the right caliber, wadding or grease to seal each chamber after you load it, a nipple wrench, and prick, and a set of good screwdrivers. 3F powder will be fine for this gun. Caps, too. Only cast your own balls or bullits if you fall totally in love with cap and ball guns, as they are really cheap to buy.
Crisco is fine for lube, but you can buy it in tubes. Hot water is fine for clearning it, but solvent makes life a bit easier, and they foul up really fast, so have solvent at the range with you. Good oil for keeping the gun from rusting after you clean it.
Almost all guns have far more potential accuracy than we humans are capable of, so you can generally blame yourself when you miss. :)
I think a big thing to remember is when you shoot, keep your brace hand out of way of the front of the cylinder. If you have a chain fire, your hand will be hamburger, and then you can dress as Captain Hook on Halloween with a real hook.
Have fun. I'm building a NW Trade Gun right now. I've been away from black powder for years, and it is a lot of fun no matter what kind of weapon you use.
Dane
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That sounds more like a short-barred rifle with a pistol grip. ;D I've been thinking about getting me one of those Confederate Navy revolver replicas to play with.
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thanks dane, lots of helpful info there. i ordered it online cuz it was 70 bucks cheaper than at the bass pro. im just waitin on it to show up now. i see stainless seel nipples for sale to mod the cylender, would that be worth doing?
hillbilly, yea thats about right lol. its a big booger. ;D
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hey recurve here is my bpp its a cap and ball it should look alot like yours its a navy arms i load around 22-24 gr of fff and she is dead accurate
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Boy , you think these bows are addictive??? you just started another!!! you will love it! once you get the right balls I use a sulphur free powder American pioneer clean no rotten egg smell what I did was make a scoop out of a 9mm hull soldered a wire handle on it the wonder wads are nice Crisco is cheap dane said all you need to know good luck oh,,, I made a loading stand for mine when I go to the range it makes things easy for me, it's the wood kind that props the pistol up you see them in the books I can't post pics maybe somebody will have a ball JEFFW
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thanks for the replies guys.
skyarrow, yup. looks like that but with about twice the barrel and the whole frame is brass (which i dont really like.) and its good to know that they can be pretty accurate. i plan to try to slay a bunnie with it lol. ;D
halfrack, thanks man. i was about to buy the wonder wadds but at bps that would be an extra 24 bucks per hundred shots :o, so i believe i'll find something els lol. i got the sulfer free powder to, i was wondering if it was gunna b ok.
again, thanks a ton guys!
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I have a Ruger New Army, Magnum. I use a slightly larger ball and do not have to use patches or lube for the cylinders. When you press the balls in, it is so tight it cuts a small ring of lead off.
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cool. ;D
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Recurve, Mullet is right, however, the lube is extra insurance to me. Just in case. Pluse, it helps a tiny bit in keeping the fouling down.
Also, as soon as you get home from shooting, clean the pistol. No matter how tired you feel, it will turn into a lump of rusty steel if you put off cleaning for another day. I used to boil a pot of water, then dissasemble the handgun, dump in the parts, scrub and clearn them, and then oil with Hopps. Then take a shower, as I stunk like rotten egg from the black powder. :)
Also, dont forget a good cleaning rod and lots of patches for the range.
Dane
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thanks dane. so the lube is what you seal the end of the cylender with?
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Right. You can use a butter knife or a little plastic artist's spatula, something along those lines, and slap some into the end of the cylandar, on top of the ball. Loading order is powder, ball, lube, last is caping after your loading is done. #11 caps are probably what you will use, but check the manual to be certain. Some guys like putting a fiber wad in after the ball, and then grease, but I think that is overkill.
Using a measure is much safer than just pouring in the powder directly from the flask. Safety is always important, doubly with black powder. And do be sure and point the weapon away from your face as you load it. That is easy to forget.
Oh, have fun with it. Give us a report once you do some shooting.
Dane
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You can seal it with Crisco. I like Bore Butter, it smells good and doesn't make me hungry. ;)
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ok cool i got it now. thanks alot guys. ;D
dane, yeah ima use a measure lol. i do know that much. i hunt with an inline fifty for primitive weapons season. i'll be sure to get yall some pics and an update once it shows up and i get to shoot.
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Recurve, I also have a Ruger old Army, and love it. Very accurate. I used to have an old Remington with a brass frame. It gets dirty very quickly, and is a pain to keep clean. I just quit bothering with it, till I traded it. I also have a colt police, in .36, that I really like, as well as a TC Hawken, and a Navy Arms 12 gauge shotgun. I always, used bore butter, or other brand of lube, or Crisco, when the other stuff wasn't available. But like Dane said, always, always, always, clean it as soon as you possibly can. Black powder is very corrosive. I don't know about the non sulphur stuff though. But real black powder , has sulphur, and salt peter, or potassium nitrate, and when, wet, sulphur makes sulphuric acid, and it will rust immediately. Plus the potassium nitrate is a salt, and it too will aide in the rapid rusting, as it draws moisture. I always, used hot soapy water, and run a brush down the bor, and into the chambers, after removing the nipples, and soaking them, in the hot soapy water, and then rinsed with very hot water, and when dry, ran a rag down the barrel, and chambers, to check for residue, and then oiled it well, and ran a rag down the barrel, and cylinder chambers, again to make sure the oil didn't loosen up some residue, to make sure all the residue was out. Stainless nipples are good. But don't be fooled by stainless, as being rust proof. When stainless steel comes in contact with black powder, and the humidity, or moisture gets on it, it will rust. But unlike blued steel, that will be covered by surface rust, stainless will pit! Make yourself a nice little leather bullet pouch. For my Ruger, I used a .44 magnum, or special shell, to load the chambers. I made a stand also, and you can see one in Dixie Gun Works catalog, or on line. Go on line for Dixie Gun works, and look for the Lee black powder moulds. Excellent moulds, and reasonably priced. Plus you get the handles with the moulds, unlike the other brands. The round ball moulds are made by placing a carbide ball in between two aluminum blocks, and the blocks are squeezed together, by lots of tonage of pressure. this gives a much more precise , and smoother mould. They also make a conical mould also. But I have found the round ball to be better in the guns I have. They run in the neighbor hood of around $25.00 per set. Have fun, and enjoy, just be very careful with the black powder, and be aware that static electricity, can set it off. And they are right, it is very addicting !
Next thing you know you will be wanting to build a Pennsylvania rifle, or pistol, in fifty caliber, with a flintlock. :o
Wayne
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I've been known to carry a 1858 Confederate Navy .44 in the woods as backup. Just in case the past warnings on this thread did not get thru, ALWAYS seal each and every chamber on your pistol after loading EVERY TIME you load. I've seen several of these guns that suffered chain fire and none of them looked pretty.
Another way of sealing each chamber are those Wonder Wads, and yet a third option is to load another 10-15 grains of cornmeal or uncooked grits on top of the powder and under the roundball. It's a pain in the a**, but will not melt and run out on a real hot day.
And for laughts, mix the cornmeal with the blackpowder BEFORE loading so that it cools down the burn of the powder. You will get a smoke cloud so big that you can sneak up on the target and pistol whip it into submission while it is coughing up it's lungs and rubbing it's eyes. Another advantage of the cornmeal trick is that you will fill the chamber more fully so that when the ball is seated, it is fully seated on a compressed powder charge. Some of those pistols will leave you with an airgap between the ball and powder even at full stroke of the charging rod.
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thanks JW, pretty much always really hot down here, so i'll keep that in mind. ;D