bamaranger
New member
Memorial Day, a shooting pal and and I broke out our percussion revolvers and had at it. I'd wanted an 1860 Army for years, bought a well used one back before spring turkey season, and finally got to shoot it yesterday.
Total of 24 rounds each fired, and I think we spent nearly 3 hrs doing it! Load was 25-30 gr of FFFg and my self cast .454" balls. We covered the charge holes with Bore Butter, 'cause it's what we had. I forgot the Crisco.
My Pietta shot 9-10" high at 15 yds, his faux Griswald (in .44) was about 6" high. Both our revolvers shot well windage wise. Both his old brass framed gun, and my steel Pietta, performed flawlessly for 12 rds, two cylinders. Then assorted issues cropped up, mostly related to fouling and odd caps. Cap jams were not as much an issue as I expected, but the #11's on hand were not ideal. With my present cones, I will need to use a CCI #10 cap and my cap shedding issues should diminish. Accuracy was acceptable, one handed 15 yd groups could be covered by the hand, and a 10" gong was no problem once we figured out how low to hold. I intend to tweak the hammer on my Pietta at some point for a 25 yd zero.
We had a tremendously good time. My first go with cap n' ball revolvers,. of which I have been fascinated with since childhood. Even with our modest 25 gr loads, I was surprised as to how much gun we had. Blast and recoil was satisfying, and the steel targets testified to how hard those lead balls were hitting.
State of the art in 1860, and very entertaining over 150 years later!!
Total of 24 rounds each fired, and I think we spent nearly 3 hrs doing it! Load was 25-30 gr of FFFg and my self cast .454" balls. We covered the charge holes with Bore Butter, 'cause it's what we had. I forgot the Crisco.
My Pietta shot 9-10" high at 15 yds, his faux Griswald (in .44) was about 6" high. Both our revolvers shot well windage wise. Both his old brass framed gun, and my steel Pietta, performed flawlessly for 12 rds, two cylinders. Then assorted issues cropped up, mostly related to fouling and odd caps. Cap jams were not as much an issue as I expected, but the #11's on hand were not ideal. With my present cones, I will need to use a CCI #10 cap and my cap shedding issues should diminish. Accuracy was acceptable, one handed 15 yd groups could be covered by the hand, and a 10" gong was no problem once we figured out how low to hold. I intend to tweak the hammer on my Pietta at some point for a 25 yd zero.
We had a tremendously good time. My first go with cap n' ball revolvers,. of which I have been fascinated with since childhood. Even with our modest 25 gr loads, I was surprised as to how much gun we had. Blast and recoil was satisfying, and the steel targets testified to how hard those lead balls were hitting.
State of the art in 1860, and very entertaining over 150 years later!!
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