BP Pistol: Conicals stink!

[drdirk]

Ok, I should have know better, been there before, made the same mistatake again. Fact is conicals in my 58 Remington or my Old Army are just not that great! Here is why:

1. Harder to load. It is very difficult to load them with the built in ramrod. They are just too big and do not fit under the ramrod without much care.

2. Accuracy is just not as good. I am shooting around 28 gr of Pyrodex today and the groups are around 3 inches at 20 yards out of my Remington 58.

3. They are more expensive.

Now that I got your attention, what is your experience? Conicals or Round Ball? The only reason I see for concicals is for hog hunting or other big game.

Nevertheless, today was a great shooting day. It has been a while since I took my Pietta Remington 58 out to play. Almost out of the concicals. Thank God!

Happy shooting!

 

[Tom2]

Well, do you think they are a bad fit, or are they for sure getting seated straight? I mean, when you put one of the cylinder conversions on a Remington, you are shooting brass cased cartidges and the bullet is not a ball, it is basically sort of a conical, if traditional, except seated in a brass case instead of in the cylinder mouth. Do cart conversion cylinders shoot accurately? Maybe a different bullet design would work better. Or maybe there are voids or something in the conicals from the casting process. Would be interesting to get some insight from conical shooters with experience. I guess on some imports the end of the ram has to be remachined to fit the conicals well. Or so I have heard. I have some conicals for the little 32 cals and some for my Remington but have not tried them yet.

 

[arcticap]

What brand, style, diameter and/or weight of conical bullet are you using in your pistol that are causing the loading problem?

 

[mec]

they do have a much higher stink potential than round balls. I've had some luck with them though, and have been surprised by the accuracy I get with some of them some of the time. Even so, about the only reason to use them over rb is exploring a loading option that was popular in the 19th century.

 

[James K]

Many modern percussion revolvers were intended for use with round balls and do not allow enough clearance under the rammer for conicals. But that is the fault of the gun, not of the conical ball itself.

Conicals were popular in the 19th century because that is the way cartridges came loaded. Many civilian shooters, and almost all military, used cartridges exclusively, not round balls and loose powder.

Jim

 

[drdirk]

I buy my concials and round balls from ebay, I think they are called Black Jack Hill Hunting or similar. I don't think it has to do with there product however. I also get my round balls from them and they seem good. I think it is just a matter of ballistics. Some combinations are just not as accurate. In addition when I load them with the built in loading lever they sometimes get
a bit deformed. With the tight clearance it is hard to seat them as well as round balls.

I am sure given much time and care in experimenting with an optimal loading procedure and charge, one could get good accuracy. My point was that is is much easier to work with round balls for general shooting. I certainly recommend to beginners to start with round balls.

The revolver itself is very accurate. I have the adjustable sights and it shoots as well as my Ruger Old Army (probably my favorite firearm).

Cheers,

drdirk

 

[Mark whiz]

I've had good luck with the Buffalo Bullet conicals and 30gr of Goex 3fg in my 1858. About as accurate as .454 balls and my son took a nice boar with the conicals a few years ago - great penetration and a clean kill.
I don't shoot the conicals much though, just for hunting & load development - ball IS a lot cheaper to plink with.

 

[M14fan]

Rifling twist

Conicals require a different rifling twist than round ball. A .54 cal rifle for example should use 1:26" rifling twist for conicals and a 1:70" rate for round ball. TC compromised with their Hawkens and gave them 1:48" twist. This makes them usable with either ball or conical but you will not get exceptional accuracy with either. Talk to someone like Green Mountain barrels, they are experts in black powder and can probably help you.