Remington Fouling With Blackpowder

[Blackpowder Burn]

I recently acquired two early production Uberti 1875 Remingtons in 44-40, and after a little TLC from our local cowboy gunsmith got them running smoothly.  I am beginning to shoot black powder, but find the guns foul rapidly.  Within 10 rounds they have fouled to the point that the cylinder will barely turn.  I'm using a 200 grain Desperado Cowboy bullet over a case full of Pyrodex.  A similar load will run all day in my Ruger Vacqueros in 45 LC.  I am told by local shooters this is typical for Remingtons.  Can anyone offer suggestions to minimize the problem?

[Bull Schmitt]

Aggie Desperado,

That is not a problem, it is a feature!!!

Use a good BP lube. Maybe reduce the powder charge. Clean between stages.

Bull Schmitt

[hellgate]

My suggestion may not help if the 1875 is different in the cylinder/frame forward junction than the NMAs. What I do for fouling in my C&B Remmies (besides a lube wad, over ball lube etc.) is to keep a small plastic squeeze bottle of oil in my ammo box. I put a single drop of oil right at the point where the front of the cylinder rubs onto the frame. I jiggle & twirl the cylinder while holding the gun pointed up to work it down onto the cylinder pin. I toyed with having the front of the cylinder & frame modified to install a bushing to divert the fouling away from the cylinder pin as is the case with more modern revolvers. I find it takes about 10 seconds to put a drop on the spot and I'm up & running every time. I do it between each stage. You can use Ballistol or what I use: olive oil. The Ballistol is probably much better but olive oil works for me. So might a drop of water, to keep fouling soft. No need to disassemble and get your hands and clothes all dirty.

[Icebox Bob]

I shoot both Uberti NMA and 1875/90 in wholly holy black.  The trick to shooting multiple stages is lube - on the gun and in the load.  I apply a liberal coating of Crisco to the outside of the cylinder and especially to the cylinder pin and cylinder pin hole.

[Sod Buster]

Aggie:

I had the same problem with a pair of Uberti 1875s I purchased in 2006.  I couldn't get through 5 rounds (one revolution of the cylinder) without the cylinders locking up tight!

I sent them off the Happy Trails (The Smith Shop) where cut the frame a bit and installed busihings (similar to the Colt) into the cylinders.  I haven't had any trouble since.

[Wolfgang]

That was happening to me with my first Remington.   I was making the mistake of lubing it with petroleum based oil.  NO GOOD . . . . NO GOOD, . . NO GOOD, . . . !   Black powder fouling mixed with petroleum based lube is GOOK, . . .  and worse with pyrodex than with real black powder.   I cleaned the gun good and started lubing it with good old fasion "Farmer John" brand lube  (  hog lard  ) . . . no more binding up.  In hot weather the lard gets messy fast so am now using 50/50 mix of olive oil and toilet bowl wax for over bullet lube.  Also working good.  Good shootin', . . .     

[Blackpowder Burn]

Gents,

Thanks for all the excellent advice.  I am glad to see it is just part of the learning process with holy black and these revolvers.  It would appear that I can make a significant improvement with a liberal application of the proper lube to the cylinders/pins.  If that fails I'll take Sod Buster's advice and have the bushings installed.

I like warthog loads, so I don't anticipate reducing the powder charge!

[Sod Buster]

Aggie:

I just sent you an email.

-Sod Buster

[Doctor Bill]

Same problem with the same pistol.  The only twist was that I had two 1875s in 45 colt and they were made about five years apart.  One would shoot BP until the cows came home without a problem.  The other one fouled and jamed after three or four shots.  I finally traced the problem to three items.

1) USE MORE LUBE!!!  Get a bullet that hauls as much grease as possible and then use a good non-petro lube.

2) Cylinder to forcing cone gap:  The pistol that shot forever had an amazingly tight gap while the one that jammed had a gap you could drive a truck through.  I had that one tightened up by a smith.

3) Recoil plate to primer clearance: The jamming pistol had a cylinder that was much closer to the recoil plate causing the primers to drag on the fouling.  Some work with a water stone and attention to primer seating solved this.

I suspect the whole thing could have been avoided by shelling out the cash for a couple of those new Hartford pistols but they's a little out of my price range right now so I'll keep going with my eye-talian copies for now.

Doctor Bill

[Flint]

I installed a gas ring on some of my Remingtons, don't have them all done yet.  I can do it for you, see my website flints-shop.com.  Email me if you're interested.  The gas ring's offset makes it, like a Ruger, much more resistant to fouling to a stop.