Preparing to Shoot Frontiersman Need some Ideas

[Dalion]

Okay, I've been wanting to shoot frontiersman since I bought my first Pieta 1858 Remington .  Since then I have loaded and tested bp rounds for my rifle and my shotgun.  One of the things I decided to do was to not load my pistols at the range so I have been buying extra cylinders for my two 1858 Remmys.  One thing I haven't figured out is how to carry the loaded cylinders to the range and how to keep them safe and undamaged, from not cleaning at the range, back to the homestead.

  I don't have a very large gun cart and I am kind of concerned about what I should do to the fired cylinders between the end of the shoot and when I get home.  In some cases it will be a couple of days before I can give them a through cleaning.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Shootist Dan.

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy Dan,

I do it like this.  At my cart I load the C&B cylinders on my Tower of Power cylinder loading stand.  At the loading table I install the loaded cylinders and cap them.  Then, after I shoot the stage, at the unloading table I remove my cylinders and holster the guns minus cylinders.  Back at the cart, I reload the cylinders.

Because I'm using Big Lube® C&B bullets lube/sized and contained Five each in individual vials, my cylinder loading is quick and easy.  Just put cylinder on stand, dump in powder, set lube/sized bullet over each charged chamber and seat them firmly.  There's no need of over bullet grease smear, under bullet cookies or wads, no mess, no fuss.  Plenty of time to do my posse work and plenty of time to visit.

So, I don't need any "extra" cylinders with their attendant timing and fit questions, I simply shoot the cylinders that came with the gun.

DD-DLoS

[Dalion]

Dick,

I would love to do just as you suggest but the Piettas have .448 cylinders and I can't use your EPP UG bullets in them.  I can't find Big Lube® C&B bullets on your website.  What am I missing?

[Montana Slim]

Seriously.....Loading at the range is not an option?

I generally pre-"charge" the cylinders on both revolvers the night before a match. It's not uncommon for me to be acalled as first shooter in the posse. Otherwise I've only loaded my pistols, mostly Colt 1860s, at the range. I use powder dispensed from a flask, loose round balls, and a dollup of home-brew-over-the-ball lube.....even use the built-in loading lever. Takes about 5-10 minutes (tops) to "charge" two revolvers, then I'm all ready to cap at the loading table.

When I'm done for the day, I go home and clean two revolvers (& only two cylinders). I find the reduced logistic concerns advantageous.
Less than 30 minutes for cleanup of two revolvers. Plus the reduced cleanup of cartridge brass (compared to firing cartridge revolvers).

Cleanup of 12 cylinders at home don't sound like fun to me.

Regards,
Slim

[Angel_Eyes]

Dalion, if you feel you must follow your own method then the easiest way to keep your pistols and cylinders fouling soft, is just to spray them with WD40 or some similar product then dump the whole lot in a sealable plastic container till you can attend to them.
Closing them in will stop any ingress of moisture and stop any evaporation of the WD40.

AE

[Roosterman]

Seriously.....Loading at the range is not an option?

I generally pre-"charge" the cylinders on both revolvers the night before a match. It's not uncommon for me to be acalled as first shooter in the posse. Otherwise I've only loaded my pistols, mostly Colt 1860s, at the range. I use powder dispensed from a flask, loose round balls, and a dollup of home-brew-over-the-ball lube.....even use the built-in loading lever. Takes about 5-10 minutes (tops) to "charge" two revolvers, then I'm all ready to cap at the loading table.

When I'm done for the day, I go home and clean two revolvers (& only two cylinders). I find the reduced logistic concerns advantageous.
Less than 30 minutes for cleanup of two revolvers. Plus the reduced cleanup of cartridge brass (compared to firing cartridge revolvers).

Cleanup of 12 cylinders at home don't sound like fun to me.

Regards,
Slim

Yeah what Slim says.

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy Dan,

Take a look at the DD/ROA-II.  It has a double rebate base just for those guns that have small chambers.  The first rebate is .444".  The Cap & Ball bullets are not separately listed, they are in the same stack as the others.  Click on the DD/ROA and it should open.  There's a good drawing there if you click on the image.

I will have these back in stock within a month.  I have a prototype coming this week.  I'll cast and prove the mold and then they will be produced and delivered.

The EPP-UG won't work in your small chambers.  We will be doing a re-work on that design in the future.

Ride easy,

DD-DLoS

[kflach]

I've been using a Pietta 1858 for matches and shooting it regularly at the range. I only have the cylinder that came with it. I haven't encountered any problems with charging and capping it at matches.

I usually get there early to help set up. With the RO's permission I shoot caps over *empty* chambers prior to the shooter's safety meeting (to make sure and clear out any residue left from cleaning). Then I charge the gun. At the loading stand I use a capper (Ted Cash Version) to load the caps - it's pretty quick and easy. After shooting and going to the unloading stand, I stand off to the side and re-charge my gun. I still usually have plenty of time to help the posse.

I will eventually get a second cylinder, just so I can use it on stages with a reload.

I've read posts where  other's got themselves a bunch of spare cylinders and charged them the night before, but frankly that seems to me to be a pain in the backside. The Remington's are easy to charge thanks to the removable cylinder - especially if you get a stand like the Tower of Power. I'd hate to have to clean 12 cylinders.

For the record, I use .454 Hornady lead balls, Wonder Wads, and Holy Black. I pour the Holy Black out of a powder flask like this:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0006439212239a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=powder+flask&sort=all&Go.y=0&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&Go.x=0&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

The spout measures out 25.5 grains of BP (you can find flasks with spouts that measure out other amounts). Just getting this flask saved me a lot of time in that I don't have to pour the powder into my powder measure and then pour from the powder measure into the chamber.

[kflach]

One thing I forgot to mention is that I've removed one of the nipples from my cylinder so it only has 5. I found that to be an easy way of keeping track of which chamber is my Safety Chamber. After I clean my cylinder I make a different one the Safety Chamber so that they all get used over time.

[Dalion]

Pards,

I appreciate the responses.  I have a little trouble getting around and my thinking was that by having the cylinders pre-charged it would give me a little more time to do the some of the posse duties.  I think I will pre-charge the cylinders but see if I can load during the match.  If I can great, if I can't I'll still be ready.  Thanks again.

Shootist Dan

[kflach]

No problem. One thing that helped me greatly was that I shoot my gun regularly at the Range. It gave me time to figure out what I really needed and how to set up and arrange my loading stuff so that I could load most efficiently.

If you get a capper, be sure and get one of the ones that holds at least 20 caps. I find reloading the cappers to be more of a pain in the backside sometimes than reloading the guns. I've got 2 and load them up beforehand so I don't have to fool with them during the matches.

[Ransom Gaer]

Dalion,

Here's how I handle the reloading on my 1860 Armies.  First off like most I want to help with the posse chores at a match, so what I do is take the unloading table.  The unloading table is a posse chore afterall.  Typically that is where they want you to charge cap and ball revolvers anyway and I can at the same time do a posse chore.

When I am not checking to see the guns of a shooter are unloaded I spend my time recharging my revolvers.  I use a powder flask with a 30 grain spout(approximately).  I measure a charge by putting my finger over the mouth of the spout and opening the valve and let some powder into the spout.  I then pour the charge into a chamber, then put a wonder wad on top of the charge and then seat a .454 roundball.  The wonder wad is lubed so I don't have to slobber(a technical term) any lube over the ball.  Before I start recharging the revolvers I count out five wonder wads and five roundballs for each revolver and put them on the table.  I put the rest away.  Having everything out and on the table for me seems to speed up the process.  When left alone at the unloading table(rare) I can recharge both revolvers in under five minutes.

A word of warning.  If you do decide to recharge your Remmys at the unloading table be prepared to answer questions about what you are doing.  People can be real curious about what we do.

If you get a capper, be sure and get one of the ones that holds at least 20 caps. I find reloading the cappers to be more of a pain in the backside sometimes than reloading the guns. I've got 2 and load them up beforehand so I don't have to fool with them during the matches.

I agree  reloading the capper can be a pain.  I have a Ted Cash inline capper.  I tried one of the snail cappers, but prefer the inline.

Ransom Gaer

[Pulp]

Well, since you've already got the cylinders you might as well use them.  I go to the unloading table to recharge mine.  I don't use a loading stand, just load normally.  It usually takes me less than 5 minutes to load both.  Then I go pick up the scorebook, spotter flag, or something else and go to work. 

[Noz]

With practice, the recharging of cylinders is a relatively quick process. I normally recharge while 1 to 2 shooters are shooting.

[Fingers McGee]

With practice, the recharging of cylinders is a relatively quick process. I normally recharge while 1 to 2 shooters are shooting.

+1

FM