Did the old-timers use lube in cap & ball revolvers?

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cyborgfairyprincess

New member
Cap and Ball, no chain fires

Hi ;) I literally signed up for this forum to comment on this particular thread. I been shooting 1858s since 2004 and I have never once had a chain fire. I stopped using lube and wads in 2005, it only took me a year to realize that wad and lube fouls the hell out of the gun. I been using a #11 cap pinched onto a #10 nipple with about 30 or so grains of pyrodex and a .454 round ball for over a decade and I have never ever had a chain fire. The oversized ball ;D is the key, you can't chain fire with a .454 round ball. Many people say using an oversized cap will cause a chain fire but I never found that to be true. I've shot over a thousand rounds with a pinched #11 cap on a #10 nipple and have never had a chain fire. I think sealing the front end of the cylinder with an oversized lead is more important than the size of the cap. If it was, I woulda had chain fires a decade ago. As it stands I've had 15 years of cap and ball shooting without a single chainfire. Also, leaving the wad and lube out of the equation reduces fouling significantly. By an extreme amount. It's worth noting that any added material to the catalytic reaction will add more material fouling. Less is more. All you need is a cap, powder, and an oversized bullet.
 
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cyborgfairyprincess

New member
1858s are awesome!

Also, I've carried these guns loaded in every environment from rainforest downpours to desert heat and the 1858 has always been dependable in every condition. Even despite months of neglect the 1858 Remingtons are above and beyond my expectations. They take a lot of abuse and can hold up and still shoot in the dankest of conditions. Simple is better. Just the cap and powder and a .454 roundball is all you need for these guns. They're designed for a rugged life. Don't treat them too softly, they're powerhouses designed for war.
 
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Nodak1858

New member
Holy necro-thread Batman.
But anyway I'll pile on, last few times I shot my revolvers I stopped using grease over or wads. No problems with fouling more than usual. I hate the grease over, makes a slippery mess out of everything. Wads are nice but a guy has to make or buy them, I stated making them which isn't hard but another step. Since I have a bunch of wads made I'll be using them up, but I don't have any issues shooting without them in the future.
 
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logeorge

New member
lube

My experience is long, but thin. That is, I've been shooting percussion revolvers since about 1968, but don't get to do it very often. I have "Sixguns" by Keith and tried his method of loading wads under the ball in a Uberti made Remington .44. I found that putting Crisco over the balls was ineffective. After one or two shots almost all the lube was gone. The cylinder would start binding after six shots and the bore was full of fouling so the rifling was nearly invisible. With lubed wads under the balls, I could fire at least 18 shots before any sign of the cylinder binding showed up. The front half of the bore looked clean and the fouling in the rear half could be cleared with one dry patch through it. Lately I've been using the methods advocated by John Fuhring (geojohn.com). I've also set up the revolver with minimal barrel/cyl. clearance as advocated by .45Dragoon. Less fouling getting out through the gap seems to help, also. I have never yet had a chainfire. I believe that the combination of a ball that is somewhat larger than the cylinder throats and the lubed wad is the reason. Fuhring claims that most chainfires are caused by powder getting between the cylinder wall and the ball, making a chain of crushed powder past the ball. He claims that the wiping action of the wad, when being seated, clears any powder out of the front of the chamber, preventing ignition from cylinder flash. I can't prove him right, but so far it has worked for me.
Fuhring also claims to have, on several occasions, loaded all chambers, but capped every other nipple in an effort to induce chainfire and it didn't happen. I've never tried it myself. He believes most, if not all chainfires originate at the front of the cylinder. At any rate, his website is quite interesting. L. O. G.
 
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Hawg

New member
I'm not a fan of geojohn but he does get some things right. I have fired guns just capping one nipple at a time and no chain.
 
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SIGSHR

New member
How much of what they did back then is well documented ? How much comes from factory manuals, military manuals as opposed to "common "practice." And so much of what we do today-hearing protection, e.g.-comes from bad experience and learning the hard way.
 
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Catman42

New member
has anyone brought up that the use of a hard 60 thousands thick fiber wad under the felt wad seals the powder from the round going off? i use them in my 45 long colt cases all the time, also helps keep the bore cleaner also. if i didnt use them i would get leading in the bore. it may work for you percussion shooters also. also i read but can not verify that loose caps on a nipple can cause a chain fire. may or may not be true. it sounds like a problem that can be fixed when every one gives good input. had to laugh when the same reply got run about 4 times. must have sneezed with his finger on the post button. he has good advice though, keep it coming.
 
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Hawg

New member
has anyone brought up that the use of a hard 60 thousands thick fiber wad under the felt wad seals the powder from the round going off? i use them in my 45 long colt cases all the time, also helps keep the bore cleaner also. if i didnt use them i would get leading in the bore. it may work for you percussion shooters also. also i read but can not verify that loose caps on a nipple can cause a chain fire. may or may not be true. it sounds like
Click to expand...

I don't use wads in cartridge cases. They take up too much room and you can't get an original charge in them as it is. I use wheel weight lead in my brass cartridges and get no leading.
 
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logeorge

New member
geojohn

Hawg: I wouldn't say I'm a fan of geojohn, either. I came across his site about 4 years ago and read his cap and ball stuff. It sounded reasonable, so I thought I'd try it out. So far it has worked for me. I'm trying to figure out some sort of tool to squirt a measured amount of grease on top of the wad. It's a real pain to try to dab it in with a knife blade or popsicle stick and it's hard to control the amount. It would probably be easier if I loaded the cylinders out of the revolver. L. O. G.
 
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logeorge

New member
Olive oil

I've never tried olive oil, but I read somewhere that is works. Probably on a forum somewhere. I have a little sperm oil left over from years ago when it was still legal to buy and some jojoba oil. Both work OK for cleaning, and I don't get any rusting, though the humidity is pretty high here in the Tennessee Valley. I just looked up the pronunciation of jojoba to see what is correct. I've heard it pronounced joe-JOE-buh, ho-ho-BAH and ho-HO-buh, but the last is correct. At least that's what I found on the internet, so it must be right, right? L. O. G.
 
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woodnbow

New member
Ho-ho-basis how I pronounce it... and yes, I’ve used it for Cleaning as well as mixed with beeswax and applied to two layers of Bounty quicker picker uppers for the lube cookies. It’s good stuff.
 
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cheatin charlie

New member
Lube on bullet

I just finished reading the book "The Story of Colt's Revolver" by William B. Edwards. This is a biography of Colt. Colt received patent 16716 from 1857
which is an oiler attached to the fire arm barrel that would lubricate the projectiles as you loaded them in the cylinder. First paragragh.

Quote: Be it known that I, Samuel Colt of Hartford, in the State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful method of preventing balls from fouling the barrels of rifles and other fire arms and facilitating the passage of the balls through barrels in the discharge.

So it seems Colt knew back then that unlubed balls caused fouling problems. The whole patent is 2 pages long with an attached drawing.

Wife gave me this book for Christmas and is filled with letters,patents and pictures of model pistols.
 
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