C&B Newbie

[Zenus]

Howdy,
Been sittin around the fire for a while, figured it was time to jump in. I've been shooting BP in my CAS Shotgun for some time now, and I just got my first C&B revolver (Pietta Remington from Cabela's). As soon as I get healed from shoulder surgery, I'm going to see if I can figure out how to shoot it.

[john boy]

Zenus, here's some reading material until your shoulder heals ...

http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?topic=132.0
http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?topic=9093.0

[Zenus]

Thanks, John Boy. I'm gonna need a lot of advice here.

[wildman1]

Pretty simple really. Powder. Ball. Lube. Cap. Boom. WM

[Slowhand Bob]

From whut I have always herd, the easiest way to git into trouble with these things is to fail to seat the ball completely.  The true black does not like air space and can mimmick smokeless pressure spikes when the bullits aint seated down snug on the powder.  Keep yore thumbs offen the caps when they are being seated, use a dowel, antler tip or some other device fer thet last tiny bit of cap seating pressure.  Always keep the body parts behind the cylinder front when firing, though I have not had a chain fire, some seem to get them regularly and you do not want yore hand in front of one.  I think those are the main safety rules that differ greatly from smokerless loading??  The reast is mostly jist smoke and grins, with a bit of cussing thrown in occasionally fer flavor! 

[rickk]

Probably the two hardest parts are figuring out what to use for a lube and trying to find a cap that fits good.

You can get by with Crisco over the ball to start with (messy, especially on a hot day).  A lot of C&B shooters (me being one of them) switched over to  wads  lubed with wax/tallow based BP lube behind the ball.... less messy. More than likely you can soak felt wads in whatever lube you are using for your BP cartridge guns an be doing just fine. You can also buy pre-lubed wads, but I found it is pretty easy to punch out my own from felt gotten from Durofelt and lube them myself.

As far as caps go, seems like different vintages and different suppliers of nipples want different size caps.  Plus, cap dimensions  seem to have changed over time so some advice you run into might be outdated sometimes.

LOTS of cap discussion here.   

My Remingtons are all Uberti, and I have aftermarket Treso nipples in every C&B I own, so I cant give you good advice on best cap for what you have.

I know I wound up buying a can of every brand and size I could get my hands on to see what worked best for me.... caps are where you are going to spend some time tinkering.

Rick

[cpt dan blodgett]

finding a capper that works really well wtih a remington can be problematic.  The snail type cappers will not work at al without some milling on the cylinders to replicate the wide openings on a colt.

[Dick Dastardly]

Clear nipples first.  Then, powder and seat a Big Lube bullet.  The bullet is lube/sized for an interference fit and carries all the lube needed.  Cap at the loading table and go shoot.

No  need for wads, cookies or over ball smear.  Simple, quick and accurate.

DD-MDA

[rickk]

finding a capper that works really well wtih a remington can be problematic.  The snail type cappers will not work at al without some milling on the cylinders to replicate the wide openings on a colt.

cappers are only a nightmare because no one will make these again:



--------

with a few minutes of work on a bench grinder, one can turn a currently manufactured capper that doesn't work into one that does:



Rick

[Noz]

The cylinder does not require extensive milling. 5 minutes with a Dremel. Give me a PM and I'll tell you how.

[Yakima Red]

If interested, I have Tresos in stock for that Pietta Remington. $35 a set, $5 shipping anywhere in the lower 48.