BenchLoaders?

[Franco2shoot]

Duncaninfrance had a great picture of his nipple cleaning holder, and in the picture there was his Hand made Benchloader... It got me looking for one out on the net, and I found loaders fron 14 bucks to 40+ bucks.. I also came across a BLOG where the author said they were more trouble than they are worth. So I have two or three questions:

Is there a loader that works well with Colt and Remington .44's (Cabela's has one) but how well does it work?

Will it speed up the loading process? I just received my spare Remington cylinder, so I have a pair for the Remmy, and only one for the Colt 1860.

Any recommendations on where to get the best loader for the bucks?

Finally, If I load up the cylinders, and put them in ziplock bags w/o a cap, how long will they keep? Just days,? weeks? months?


Thanks

KKKKFL

 

[Wwalstrom]

How long will they keep ...

There are stories out there claiming General Robert E. Lee's Colt revolver was loaded at the beginning of the war, and never fired until after the Civil War.

There are also stories of "Great Grandad's Colt that was loaded in 1880 didn't fail to fire in 1952".

My personal belief is that there is truth to the stories ... I'm sure guys on this site will chime in with their own personal experiences on the subject.

Personally, I've left one of mine loaded (but uncapped) for 3 or 4 weeks with no failure to fire. Seems I only have missfires on freshly loaded cylinders ... Hmmm, what's up with that?!?!?!

 

[sundance44s]

Sundance44s

I`m not sure if a cylinder loader would speed up the loading with a Colt revolver ..but i only have Remmies and i use the one from www.powderinc.com it`s 54 bucks and worth every penny of it ... i`ve also got the one that cost 16 bucks and one that cost 28 bucks ...wish i had just went ahead and paid the 54 bucks for a good one from the get go . It`s built to last and will seat a ball on as few as 5 gr of powder ..... the others won`t do that eaither .

 

[Franco2shoot]

gets what you pay for

Thanks for the link and the evaluation... I'm not one to scrimp on something that has safety ramifications.

I'll be using the loader to drop in a pyrodex pellet, a wad, and ball, with maybe a touch of bore butter just to keep the front end airtight. I kinda agree with your assessment on the Colt... removing the wedge is too cumbersome to do at the range. The Remington on the other hand swaps out cylinders easily,( I now have 3, an R&D .45LC, and two BP cylinders) especially since I have broken the code on the sticky cylinder pin..

I want to shoot mor BP, but the current loading process takes too long.

KKKKFL

 

[Cincinnati Slim]

Get yerself a cylinder loader !

Howdy,

Gotta give my thumbs-up to the cylinder loader sold by www.powderinc.com
and Mr.Dastardly's "Big Lube" site. Got one a couple a weeks ago and it is built like a little tank. Works great and really speeds-up the process. More importantly, it's much more consistent than using the revolver's loading lever.
My accuracy and ignition is much more consistent now.

It also saves a lot of wear and tear on your six-guns. One of the main causes of arbor looseness and strech on Colt clones is caused from the force of using the loading lever. You can make a LOT of force through that lever arrangement. Over time this can cause all sorts of problems. It's really not a big deal to knock the wedge out and pull off the barrel. Doing so actually clears a lot of fouling and crud in the process. A small plastic faced mallet works great. I have a little "dead blow" soft face mallet with a 9 inch handle I got at Sears for less than twenty bucks.

The only problem I see with Colts is the possibility of a lost wedge if you drop it in the field somewhere. It could be a b*tch to find in tall grass !

The little spring/screw combo often does not do the job and the wedge usually comes all the way out. I am considering a little loop of chain or cable ( old wound guitar string probably) anchored by the screw and going through the wedge to keep it from wandering off.

Extra cylinders and a loader is really the way to go, Colt or Remmie !

Happy Trails,

Cincinnati Slim

 

[Franco2shoot]

wedge woes

Thanks Slim,

I uncovered the secret of the sticky Remmy pin.. that was fouling cuz I was using gun oil... now using Canola+gunbutter mixture, and that seems to work Ok. I can wiggle the retainer pin until it breaks free in a minute of so.

On the Colt, it's a Pietta repro. and the wedge has a burr sticking up that catches on the frame... at present I use a small tap hammer, but its hard to make contact since I need to hold the spring down using a shaved off flat Golf Tee. It is shaved down thin enough that I can usually jamb it in under the spring, but now it gets in the way of tapping the wedge and the whole process is just plain tedious. Even when the wedge is backed out, it is still a hassle trying to get the barrel assembly to come loose. Someone said to use the loading lever against the cylinder to leverage the assembly off, but even placing the golf T across the cylinder face and using the lever doesn't seem to help a lot.. Its usually a wiggle and turn and pull process that gets it to finally come loose.. but this takes a while...

Maybe it will loosen up with time..

KKKKFL

 

[Cincinnati Slim]

Hone that wedge

Yes them wedges are a bit fiddly.

Worst part of the Colt design, Can't believe after 170 years or so somebody ain't come up with some kind of toggle, latch or thumbscrew modification to keep these things helds together.

I'd get a spare wedge or two from VTI Gunparts to be safe, get a spare trigger/bolt leaf spring while your at it.You'll need it sooner or later.

I took a knife sharpening stone and smoothed and honed my wedge to make it slide in and out easier. Then I did the same thing to my spares until all fit easily into the slot. The stone don't take off much metal, just makes it good and slick. Try that before resorting to more agggressive abrasives like files or sand paper. Those little multi-surface polish sander blocks they sell for women to do their nails with are really handy for smoothing and polishing all sorts of things. Come in all varieties of sizes and abrasiveness and are cheap.

You should be able to shove the wedge in with your thumb and only need a good rap of the mallet to secure it. When properly fit it should stick out of the right side of barrel far enough easily whack it once and get it loose. A lot of the new Piettas I have seen are shipped with wedges WAY TOO TIGHT. They often don't stick out from the right side of the frame AT ALL when seated. Makes getting them out impossible wihtout a brass punch. This ain't right, they should be shaved down enought to push farther into the slot and come out on the other side. The upside is most new Piettas bottom their cylinder arbor out in the recess under the barrel. This is great because you can't drive the wedge in too far, reduce the barrel-cylinder gap to zero and tie up the revolver (like a lot of Ubertis I've seen). The downside is whoever pounds the wedges in at the factory gets 'em WAY TOO TIGHT and boogers up or deforms the wedge's slot, arbor slot or the wedge itself.

Take you time and try not to get too frustrated !

Cheers,

Slim

 

[Shawnee]

Hey Sundance...

Does that loader have different jags avaialble to use with conicals so the buyllet tip is deformed less?

Thanks!

 

[sundance44s]

Sundance44s

The loader comes with a 36 cal jag and a 44cal jag ...but you can buy one and just screw it in to use .... it also comes with cylinder pin that screws in the base for colt or remmie or ruger .