So you want a cap and ball revolver?

[wogpotter]

Did you get some overpowder wads yet I don't see them listed.
These are IMHO the greatest thing ever for the C&B shooter easier to use than grease, less messy & they hold the powder in the chamber if you have to put the pistol down to do something (like picking up a ball) when re loading.

I'd raid the medicine cabinet too.
Q-tips & toothpicks are handy to have there for things like handling nipples (poke the pick in the hole for a handy-dandy handle/thread starter) & swabbing down inside the recesses with lube or cleaner. If you have a source get a couple of test-tube brushes as well they are handy for cleaning out the lower recesses of the cylinder.

 

[azyogi]

Anti-Seize & Lubicating Compound

Slowhand get a can of antiseize compound at the hardware store I like the 'silver' kind that has nickle flakes in it. A 4 oz can should last decades. Put just a dab in the nipple threads, and you'll never break a nipple wrench, or strip the threads on a breach or cylinder. My can came with a brush in the cap but I use a safety pin to apply this to the threads, just a tiny bit goes a long way.

 

[Slowhand]

Good Stuff. I'm adding to my notes of course.

Overpowder wads sounds good. I have plenty of tooth picks and Q Tips in my cleaning box for cartridge weapons, plus plenty of picks, brushes and ectera.

I have a tube of Thompson Super Lube, anti-seize lube, I did a load of reading about jammed nipples. The cylinder kind.

UPS delivered the Uberti Colt Navy Replica about an hour ago. So when I get back from the Gun Store she's getting all that factory grease cleaned out of her. An order from Dixie Gun Works and Midway USA also showed up. Should make for a fun evening.

I took this week off from work and have been getting a lot of things done around the house. First vacation I've taken since 2001.

Thanks to all for their suggestions. If we've done nothing else, we have livened up this forum.

 

[mykeal]

You appear to have some familiarity with modern cartridge handguns, and so you may already have a set, but in case you don't....

Gunsmith screwdriver set. Best I've found is Brownell's Magna-Tip, but there are many that will do just fine; I have a Chambers set and an old set of Wheeler wooden handle drivers that are old friends.

Best investment you can make for working on your expensive hobby.

 

[Slowhand]

Brownell's and Chamber's Old Wooden Handles? No Magni Tips but I inherited a couple of different cheaper sets from my father and have added a few over the years. Hollow ground tips are the only way to go. Even if just turning a grip screw.

Appreciate the input.

 

[Gator Weiss]

Pachmyr Screwdrivers - 12 bucks

Pachmyr - the rubber grip folks - they put out a screwdriver set for guns in a light blue box with a large number of gun-smith type magnetic tips to plug into a very good handle. They sell for about 12 bucks and they work very well.

 

[Slowhand]

Starting a BP Collection

Fed EX, UPS and USPS have made a few trips to my door the last couple of weeks. I do believe at this point I have most of the stuff I need to get started. Ball pullers, nipple wrenches, patch worm, lead balls, percussion caps, wads, Bore Butter, Ballistol (Spray and Liquid), cleaning kits, a set of Brownells Magni Tip screw drivers, basically all the previously listed stuff, plus a few additions. Both in .36 and .44 Caliber. I'm going to get a Piano Fishing Tackle box, with slotted trays, on both sides to carry/organize all this stuff in. A smaller size will also serve as a Range Box. I've done that for years with my cartridge weapons and it works.

In addition to the Uberti 1851 Colt Navy, I acquired a Uberti 1847 Colt Walker and of course a Mendi "Dueling" Muzzle Loading, Spanish Pistol, in .36 Cal. The Spanish Lady ought to be a hoot to shoot.

Next week I have to make it to a Membership Meeting for a local Outdoor range club and get a membership. Then I'm hauling the ladies out to range and going to burn some black powder. The vacation money has been well spent and I'm holding off on any new purchases, unless of course I run into a Cunningham or a good deal on a Remington.

Thanks for all the information.

 

[Sgt.Saputo]

I'm thinking of buying my first ball and cap revolver (clone of a Colt Navy), this was very helpful .

 

[crgator]

Sarge, don't think any more, just go ahead and do it!

 

[Sgt.Saputo]

Haha. Well there are a few other guns I have been looking at. This will most likely be the one I get because it's only $150. I'm a bit short on cash .

 

[Zathras]

I was just wondering..I just bought a pietta 1851 colt navy ..how long can one keep black powder guns loaded?? does the gunpowder have a "shelf life"?? or the caps??

 

[mykeal]

Neither real black powder or percussion caps have a 'shelf life'; they will last indefinitely. However, one is advised to keep them dry. They can be recovered but it takes some effort if they get wet.

Substitute black powders have been reported to degrade over time and are much harder to recover from wet conditions.

Keeping a black powder gun loaded over along period is not problematic, but considering that one should practice with the gun regularly to maintain proficiency it makes little sense from a practical standpoint.

 

[Doc Hoy]

Zathras

You can read many posts on this and other forums from folks who ran across BP weapons that had lane dormant for dozens of years. The person finding the weapon also found, much to his or her dismay, that the weapon was loaded.

Probably someone will respond whith their own personal story. It has never happened to me but I think others on the forum may have something to add.

 

[Zathras]

the reason I asked is I figured that these in there day were pretty formidable weapons in thier own right...although I keep all my modern weapons loaded for home defense, and thought it couldnt hurt to keep this one loaded as well..but again, I'm brand new to the BP thing...And many thanks to you all for the comments...I am probably going to get a .44 as well as the Hickock white handle version.

 

[Gator Weiss]

Old Caps do work

Mykeal; I found some caps in my garage last year, that I had forgotten about in one of a thousand junk boxes stacked out there. I had used some of these caps way back when I had bought them. This particular cap container wound up in a junk box, probably from my wife doing house or car cleaning thing. These were Eley musket caps that were purchased from a friend in 1985, who had a small embrionic gunshop business then. I have bought thousands of caps since then. Anyway, I put these old caps in my shooting box after I found them. When I went shooting, the old caps behaved just the same as my new caps. You could not really tell any difference, visually or ignition-wise. They shot the same.

I had them stored in the factory container, which is pretty much air tight. That must have had a lot to do with it.

 

[Gator Weiss]

Doc Hoy, here is some stories for you.

A guy took a barrel off from an old gun because he stuck the rod down the barrell, and determined it had a load in it. He was worried the load would rust out the barrell. He was inexperienced with firearms. He owned a torch. He put steel wool pads on his vise, and used the vise to hold the barrel while he attempted to use the torch to melt the bullet and pour it in liquid state out of the barrel. He did this in his garage. A neighbor came over to visit. The neighbor stood there talking in the garage while he is waving the torch over the barrel. The barrell got very hot and went BOOM. Either the heat set off the powder, or flame entered the touch hole. A lead bullet came out and hit the neighbor in the upper arm, blowing out meat and shattering the upper arm bone. The lead bullet was obviously not melted.

Some guys were holding a christmas party in someone's cabin in Tennessee. They built a mountain of a fire in the fireplace. There were some old cannon projectiles from the civil war days in that cabin. They stacked some of them up in the fire place to stop the burning wood stack from tumbling off of the grate. A little while after, there was an explosion in the fireplace. One man was killed by the flying debris or flak from the projectile entering his skull. Some say that he might have been the last person killed by a bonafide civil war produced munition. One of the cannon projectiles in the collection appeared to be hollow and filled with an explosive powder or black powder. The heat from the fire set it off.

 

[Zathras]

my pietta 1851 navy Clone broke down well, ( after I got the hang of it)..after shooting, I cleaned it per professional instructions here...I was wondering whats a good brush to use when cleaning the areas on the cylinder where the nipples go in?? I used a regular ( Id assume) plastic fiber brush) but theres still some fouling stuck on it....

 

[CameronP]

I save my old tooth brushes for the task. Also use pipe cleaners.

 

[Gatofeo]

Not sure if I mentioned it in this post, when I created it originally.
But, a good assortment of nylon or bristle, small brushes may be found in gourmet stores, particularly in the cake decorating or kitchen cleaning sections.
A toothbrush will work, but some may be too wide. Cutting away some of the plastic side of the toothbrush, to make it narrow enough to get into tight spaces, will work too.

 

[pjmather]

Percussion caps

Earlier in this excellent thread someone recommended pinching caps to make them sit tighter . . . is it OK to do that with one's thumbnail, or would pliers be safer? (I just bought my first C & B revolver)