[kbbailey]

What is wrong with me??
Recently I have:
<Ignored all my cartridge guns.
<Shot 100 rds of Hornady .454 balls.
<Ordered a 1858 Remington with a 5 1/2" barrel. (That makes 3 Remingtons now. )
<Riddled my favorite cowboy hat making felt wads.
<melted bore butter, bear grease, and bullet lube on my woodstove in the shop.
<Ordered new .454 molds
<Cast 200 rds of .454 balls.
<Found out my "soft" lead was too hard.
<Sized 198 .454 balls in my .452 sizer.
<shot 198 sized balls through my Uberti 1858.
<Paid too much for some soft lead at the junkyard.
<Put together an Altoids tin with 50 #11 caps, 40 felt wads, 36 .454 balls.
<bored my family, friends, and THR talking about '58 Remingtons.
<Going to shoot my '58's at Fort Lamotte Sunday afternoon.(maybe that will break the fever)

[kameron1858]

I'm haveing some of the same problems... thinking about getting another 58 and kirst 22lr converter to go with my 58 in 45lc. at least your sticking to black powder

[ClemBert]

Nothin' wrong with you. Its the sickness that all soot lords have. :D

[towboat_er]

Sounds like your having a lot of fun...Aint nuthin wrong with that.

[PRM]

Riddled my favorite cowboy hat making felt wads ~ kbbailey

Whaa.......... I never heard of such??? Yor hat??? How ya going to keep your head from getting cold.

[Voodoochile]

Nope there is nothing wrong with you but I do have a question.

Why are you sizing .454 balls to .452 since they will size when you compress them into the chambers?

[kbbailey]

I have been able to restrain from the .45colt conversion cyl....don't know how long I can hold out.

[kbbailey]

Whaa.......... I never heard of such??? Yor hat??? How ya going to keep your head from getting cold

Spring is right around the corner...right??

[BConklin]

Fever? I'd say you're just getting warmed up. :rolleyes:

I don't see any mention of a .36 caliber :D

[kbbailey]

Why are you sizing .454 balls to .452 since they will size when you compress them into the chambers?

'cause my lead was too hard. I thought i would snap the loading lever on my '58 trying to shave the lead ring and seat the ball so..... I ran the balls through my .452 sizer.....carefully dropped 'em in place(sized ring adjacent to cyl wall).....then was able to send them into the cyl with the loading arm. I admit..not much fun to load. Maybe not too brilliant...but, it worked. Besides, I had a terrible urge to shoot and no (ahem, uhh) projectiles.

[Noz]

Lord help you if you pick up a Colt type.

Then your are looking at Pattersons, Dragoons Walkers, Navys, Armys, 1961, 1862s and that doesn't even touch on the pocket pistols. And most of the above come with conversion cylinders.


I force myself to deal only with Armys.

[sltm1]

kbbailey, got a pic of that sizer? I ran into that same problem and still have the rb's sitting around. Thanks.

[napp]

I've read and reread the original post. I still don't see the problem. :confused:

[messerist]

Yep, you've crossed over to the "Dark Side.":evil:

[72coupe]

Sizing your balls to 452 sounds painfull.

[kbbailey]

[QUOTE]kbbailey, got a pic of that sizer? I ran into that same problem and still have the rb's sitting around. Thanks[/QUOTE

Sorry, no pics....It's just a Lee sizing die for .452(.45colt) It not a good fix, as you must roll the balls around in the cyl until the sized ring mates up with the cyl bore....it's a pain.
The best thing you can do is get some really soft lead for round balls. (Remelt the hard ones and mold some modern cast bullets with them.)

[BHP FAN]

Sounds to me like you have your head on straight!

[Magwa45]

Good for you! I have an old repro 1858 Remmie from Navy Arms, probably 1970 vintage. It is my favorite shooter. We have always called it "Old Smokey." I gotta get back into casting lead round balls. What a kick!

[Hellgate]

What? Only THREE? I just sold 3 but still have 6 left.

[BHP FAN]

the ones on the right are Remmies, I added the stainless .44, .38 conversion, .45 engraved and two percussion .36 Remingtons and a .31 pocket since then...
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt218/bhpfan/pistols.jpg

[45-70 Ranger]

My friend, this is normal. The smell of the powder. The flash. The boom. The dirt kicking up. The smell of lead as it heats.....All normal. The "fever" got me in 1963 and it still remains in my blood. As we speak, I'm looking forward to going home at the end of shift to shoot my '58...Still working out with the new conicals I cast and want to find the right powdere combo for that slug.

No, you're just fine. The fever will pass.....but.....any minute it will flair up and get you all fired up to shoot:what::what: Go with it. Don't fight it, you'll only give in to the power of BP and you'll be better for it in the end:D

Wade, confirmed C&B Junkie for over 4 decades and I'm a better man because of it!:cool:

[BHP FAN]

Welcome, to the dark side [insert evil laugh here]!

[kbbailey]

I shot up all my 777. Now trying to use up some really old Pyrodex P. I have had numerous misfires since I started shooting the Pyrodex. (1 or 2/cyl) I have changed caps...still have misfires in both guns.(The old Pyrodex has clods in it.)
I guess I had better get some fresh 777 or 3f Goex.

Has anyone else had trouble touching off old powder??

[ironhead7544]

Yes on trouble igniting old Pyrodex. A black powder gunsmith I know says it goes bad in a year from the time its put in the bottle. If opened it goes bad in a month. To start with, the ignition temp is twice that of black powder. Dont know about the 777.

[45-70 Ranger]

Yup, went to load some .45-70's with a can of that stuff and it looked like kitty litter! :cuss: All clumped up and all! Got out the 777 and loaded that instead. My BP is REAL LOW, so I was using the subs to keep what little BP I have for that "real moment with the good stuff" hits me!:D

The Pyrodex is still in the cardboard cans from wayyyyy back. I don't use that stuff too much as you can tell!:eek:

Will restock my BP as soon as I can get out and find more in my area....which is about a 60 mile trip:cuss:

Wade

[BHP FAN]

Triple Seven is the ONLY sub I will use. Everyone here has heard my rants about Pyrodrek, so I won't bore you any further except to say I have discoverd that it makes excellent fertilizer. Before that, I thought the stuff was useless.

[kbbailey]

Yea, I blazed away with a '58 in each hand when shooting the 777.
I eventually was happy to just get a cylinder emptied after all the snaps and hang-fires with the Pyrodex P.

[BHP FAN]

That, right there, is why I no longer go near the stuff.

[kbbailey]

I am not sure that I am getting my 25 gr pyrodex charge compressed with my '58 loading arm.
I understand compression of 777 is not necessary.??

[BHP FAN]

Light compression only. you definately want to avoid any hint of airspace with a BP firearm...''Seat the projectile firmly against the powder. Make certain that there is no airspace between the powder and the projectile. *See WARNING below...''
www.hodgdon.com/tripleseven.html

[kbbailey]

How many gr of 777 are you burning in your '58??

[BHP FAN]

Twenty, cork [fiber gasket] wad, Wonder Wad or grease cookie, .454 pure lead round ball.Remington # 10, or CCI # 11 cap.The cork or fiber wad makes the load lube proof, and stores loaded with no ill effects indefinitely.

[kbbailey]

Aftermarket nipples?? or standard?

thanks for schooling me btw.

[BHP FAN]

My .36 Piettas have TRESO's, my stainless .44 has the stock stainless.
''thanks for schooling me btw...''
Por nada, amigo. I just love this stuff.
__________________

[kbbailey]

I attempted making the grease cookie, and punching them out w/ a .45c brass/nail tool......let's say the first attempt was a flop. Didn't have all the right ingredients.

[BHP FAN]

Gatofeo has a good recipie on here somewhere, but I arrived at mine years ago by trial and error. it's all in the bee's wax ratio...more is mo' better.

[kbbailey]

I was impressed with my ho'made bear grease/borebutter felt wads. I shot 6 cylinders w/o cleaning. Could have shot more.

Last question for the night:<11pm here>
Do you prefer felt wads or lube (grease)cookies??

[BHP FAN]

oh...there's a tough one.I can honestly say I prefer either to slathering the front of the cylinder in [saltless!] Crisco!

[kbbailey]

Yea, years ago I put a '51 kit together and shot it for a summer. I always looked like I had changed the oil on a truck fleet when I got done shooting.
I finally lost intrest after shooting (losing)the front sight out.

[BHP FAN]

If you still have it, a shotgun bead works pretty good.

[PapaG]

I'm disappointed. I thought you were talking about 58 caliber....one of my favorites...TC Big Boar, very old (60s Hy Hunter Zouave--with the "Remington" visible but XXXed out), and my Hawken I made in the late sixties.
I think that the bigger the bore, the more inherently accurate the gun.

[BHP FAN]

.58 underhammer, w/scope #3 down
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt218/bhpfan/rifle_rack.jpg

[BHP FAN]

When useing a reduced load like twenty gr. in a .44, it's a good idea to use a loading tool off the frame, just to control compression, and to avoid haveing an air space in the load...

[kbbailey]

Ah...no problem PapaG,

We 'bout covered the '58 Remingtons....pull up a log here by our fire, and we'll start on the .58cal.

[Hellgate]

I love the 58cals. So far I have not found any projectiles. All passed through the two deer & one elk. All I have are hunting loads for my 'Toon, Zouave, Buffalo Hunter, & St. Louis Hawken. Tried to upload a photo of a cow elk I shot with the 'Toon but it would not attach.

[PapaG]

First deer ever, way back in about '68 was with a Zouave shooting an "illegal" minie (Illinois required round balls then). Forty yards from a treestand, light snow on the ground. A four foot diameter bloody donut (with center hole) sprayed on the snow behind the deer. Dropped at the shot. I scratched around in the snow and leaves but couldn't find the slug. I'd bet it was over an inch in diameter.
Couple of deer later I had one that didn't go through (a round ball this time) and it was undere the hide on the off side, measured about an inch and had stretched the skin out enough for a eight inch diameter pool of blood under the skin.
I used to even shoot in bench rest matches with the zouave by putting a lyman aperture front and redfield rear on homemade bases. Round ball (570 dia), patched with ticking and sixty grains of FFFg. Fifty yard five bull target, often 49 with three or four Xs.

[kbbailey]

Hellgate,
Keep workin' on your elk pics please.
Some day, before I have to take up the rockin' chair.....and the doctors and lawyers own it all....I'm gonna pack up my saddle, rifle, and pony and find an elk hunt somewhere out West.
It'll have to wait for now as Elk season lands during harvest for me.

[kbbailey]

I had a doe wander right up to me once while I was lying on the ground, thinking about resting my eyes. She was a big doe and I had a tag in my pocket...
...From about 25yds I hit her in the center of the brisket, I recovered the .530 ball from under the hide of her hind leg. Nearly shot her through lengthwise.
Then, of course, there's the big buck that I shot 7 times....but that's another story.

[Hellgate]

Here's where I uploaded the pics on this same website, different thread.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=563886&highlight=musketoon