gtrgy888
Member
Thanks to Big Bore .44 for casting .31 conicals for my testing this last weekend! I was able to chronograph 15 grains of Old Eynsford 3f with .323 roundball loaded for 4 weeks and 10 grains of 777 loaded fresh with both roundball and conicals. My chronograph returned the following data based on 5 shot averages:15 grains OE with ~50 grain roundball (loaded 4 weeks)
M: 682.8 feet per second
~51 foot pounds energy
10 g 777 with roundball
M: 845.2 fps
FPE: ~79
10 g 777 with ~80 grain conical
M: 691 fps
FPE: ~84
The 1849 Uberti ran as reliably as can be expected for an open top .31, but required a lot of refinement since I rescued it from a small gunstore’s back room for $300 a year back.
One of the grip screws was rusted into the frame. Attempting to merely unscrew the right back screw resulted in immediately stripping it. The metal on these screws feels as soft as Play Doh. After getting the screw drilled out, a replacement screw was mailed, the gun was disassembled, and the parts were lightly sandpapered to remove burrs and round sharp edges.
The gun cycled reasonably well, but the arbor channel was too deep, to the point that seating the wedge bound up the cylinder and prevented rotation. 3-5 tiny balls of aluminum foil were wadded up and placed down the arbor channel, then the barrel was hammered down with a rubber handle until the balls of foil were compressed into a solid, unremovable plug and the wedge when fully seated now allows a hairline gap between cylinder and forcing cone.
The next problem was occasional overrotation of the cylinder (once every 10 or so cycles). Since the bolt dropped right before or directly into the bolt stop, timing was less of a concern than part geometry. The top edges of the bolt and edges of the bolt stops were sanded to give a microscopic bevel and remove tiny metal burrs that were causing the bolt to occasionally fail to engage. After some minor sanding, the overrotation ceased and the gun cycled perfectly both slow and fast.
In field, caps did have a tendency to get pulled back by the hammer. A turn of the wrist during cycling resolved that issue. Power was generally unacceptable, never exceeding 90 foot pounds energy, but should be understood in its historical context. When compared to other pocket pistols of the mid 1800’s, the Colt stacked up favorably to the very weak Volcanic and Smith and Wesson competitors of the time. When compared to modern .22 LR mini revolvers, the 1849 is in the same power class and likely to perform the same or slightly better given heavier bullet weights with more momentum.
My next trip to the prairie, I’ll be testing performance on wood and water jugs to roughly and qualitatively determine external ballistics. Given that a .36 with roundball will pop or throw a jug, and conical will poke holes, I hypothesize that both .31 projectiles will poke holes in large water jugs and will either lodge inside or bounce off a pine board.
In the meantime, the gun will be loaded with the ~80 grain conicals over 13.5 grains of 4f Goex powder until the next shoot.
