My "New" 162 year old Remington Army!

[Cheyenne Logan]

"Newest" Remington.....1861 'Old Model' Army 44......really good bore, chamber smooth, nice gun overall......haven't pulled nipples/cones uyet, they'll take a bit of work, but they are clear......making up some cartridges to get this out to the range!

[Cheyenne Logan]

1861 alongside one of my older Uberti's....this one is 1970's vintage.

[hellgate]

It is interesting how much higher the hammer spur sits on the original. I guess they weren't shooting SASS matches back then.

[Rube Burrows]

Very nice.

[lv2tinker]

Just a heads-up:
I had to replace the nipples on my Original Remington and I had to get the Ted Cash Ratcheting Nipple Wrench in order to get three of them out as they had never been removed.

[Cheyenne Logan]

Hellgate, the hammer spur came down on the New Model Army, which came out in 1863, and utilized the Beals patent of 1858, which is why the New Model is commonly referred to as the model "1858"........replicas are New Model Army's, the 1861 didn't use the beals patent for retaining the base pin, it can be pulled forward with the rammer in place under the barrel.....this apparently was not a really great thing, as with wear, there's not really anything to keep the cylinder pin in place.  Mine, as well as others I have seen, have a field modification, there is a screw set into the rammer to hold the cylinder pin in place.

Also the profile of the hammer is like the Whitney and Beals revolvers that preceeded it, they had high upswept spurs......it's really nice when you use it.

From what I've read, there was about 2000 1861's made.

[Cheyenne Logan]

   42 cartriges, starting to get the hang of it!  Nitrited paper, Johnson & Dow bullet......going to try some Kerr conicals and will probably get that mold.

[Cheyenne Logan]

  Took the 1861 Remington to the range yesterday, father-son outing for Father's Day......of course I paid range fees and supplied ammo  , The 1861 performed great! Love shooting this pistol! Paper cartridges worked great too! Next batch will use the Kerr bullet, as the Johnson-Dow was a bit finicky in the Uberti's......the original ate them right up!

[Cheyenne Logan]

Just a note, I don't think the bullet had as much to do with the Ubertis loading the cartridges as much as the cartridge itself.......I had nitrated paper cartridges made on the former that Guns of the West sells, and it's a neat setup, but I recently picked up a new former off EBay that is 3D printed and roills the cartridges tight and is easy to use......the cartrdiges made with it are better tapered and much more uniform.

[hellgate]

Welcome to my world. (See photo)

[Marshal Will Wingam]

It looks like you had a good day. Glad to hear the original performs so well.

How do you get the powder to compress into the paper cone? I made some and they were floppy loose no matter how I did it. I was also using the Guns of the West former.

[Cheyenne Logan]

For, the GOTW former doesn't get the paper cone very tight, and I don't  try to compress hard, the new former gives me a much stiffer, better formed cone, again, I don't try to do much compression, just former set the bullet into the cartridge,then roll the edge to get the glue to grip. It'll compress when seated.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

I tried that but the powder wouldn't compress into the paper cone. Not even a little bit. The top 1/8-1/4" of powder maybe got a little compression but below that the whole thing was floppy and wouldn't hold shape. I tried larger cones, smaller cones, cigarette papers, hair rolling papers, coffee filters, more paper, less paper, more powder, less powder, large balls and small balls but nothing worked. I didn't even get to conicals. I finally gave up on the whole idea and threw what I had in the trash. Load balls on top of a grease wad over the powder in the cylinder and compress it with the rammer. Done. No muss, no fuss.

[Cheyenne Logan]

Picture of the printed cartridge roller

[Cheyenne Logan]

Light colored cartridge on the left is from the roller, the tan colored one from the GOTW former.....roller gives a nice tight cartridge. Using 25grains (volume) leaves plenty of room to seat the bullet......I don't "compress" the powder, just firmly seat the bullet against the powder.

As soon as I make a template for the roller paper, will try some with my nitrated paper. They work really well, and they do make loading fairly simple and quick.....at least quicker than with loose components, though the J-D bullet can be a bit of a hassle with unmodified 1860's or Pietta 1858's, but in the original 1861 and the Uberti NMA, they load slick.

Just got a Kerr mold and am looking forward to trying this projectile as it supposedly loads well in unmodified guns.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Those Kerr bullets look like they might be a good design.

[Cheyenne Logan]

  I'm hoping!  They have a shorter, more squat profile, so I'm looking forward to trying them.