M 1860 Spencer: Blank Testing

[Sean Thornton]

Using the 32 Gauge based .56-50 Blanks in an Original Spencer

This project of making Spencer .56-50 blanks from 32 gauge shot shells has been very educational.  The Taylor Arms Spencer Rifle in .56-50 seems to have no problems using these 32 gauge based .56-50 blanks.  These blanks have been tried in 4 of the Taylor Arms Spencer rifles and seem to work great.  Today I have not had access to a Taylor Arms Spencer carbine in .56-50 but I would assume they would work since they would have the same chamber. Also an individual purchase some of the Black Squirrel .56-50 Blanks and they worked in his Taylor Carbine.

Using the 32 gauge based .56-50 blanks in an original M1860 .56-56 has proved to be a real education.  Not all Spencer carbines are "equal".  In one of the original Spencer carbines I tried these in I swaged the rims of the 32s to make them a little larger at .638-.640 to help with extraction.  However that created a problem that now the case rim was too thin and out of a seven round magazine there might be 3 misfires due to the firing pin not being able to reach the case.  Recocking the hammer and firing again fire the round most of the time.  To me that would be a pain and not worth the effort.  I then tried the blanks where I did not swage the rims in this same carbine.  They seem to feed and extract fine with little to no problems.  The misfiring was not eliminated but reduced.  Some time I could fire the entire magazine with no misfires and other times I might have a misfire.  My conclusion is ,at least for this carbine, not to swage the rims and use the same round that I use in my Taylor Arms Spencer.

I recently purchased a M1860 carbine and it had some different results.  First off the blanks I make for the Taylor Arms would feed but extraction was not positive. My next test was to swage the rims to see how these preformed.  The result was a good positive extraction.  I have not been able to make it to the range so I just tried some of these with the primers in them to see if they would fire or not.  All of the first magazine,7, fired and extracted perfectly.  I then loaded the magazine with 7 more of the swaged rounds loaded with just primers again.  The results were the same, No misfires.  I will load up some swaged rim 32 gauge based .56-50 blanks for this carbine loaded with 30 grains of fffg and test them at the range next week.  My thought is that these will work without any problems.

I got a chance to get to the range to test my original Spencer M1860 Carbine.  I made up 50 of the 32 gauge based .56-50 blanks.  I swaged the case rims to a diameter of .640, used the deburring tool on the case mouth, loaded with 30 grains of fffg, crimped and clipped the points off.  That is the load I tested.  First off the report of the round was fantastic, definitely not a wimpy load.  All rounds cycled perfectly in feeding as well as extraction.  In fact with a brisk movement of the lever the case was thrown clear of the action and away.  I fired all 50 rounds and they all functioned perfectly, pretty much the exact way my Taylor Arms Spencer does.  After 50 rounds there was little to no fouling in the action of the Spencer.  The 32 gauge shot shell seals the chamber and does not allow any fouling to blow back.
 
I have not tried these .32 gauge based .56-50 blanks in any other original rifles or carbines.  My thought is that a person may have to experiment to see what works in their original.  However if you have a Taylor Arms Spencer I think that you would have not problems.