Brassers, Pipe Bomb with a grip?

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Past that it all seems very subjective frankly.

I agree Eljay!!! I've seen 2 brass frames that went bad and 2 out of the tens of thousands that are being used is hardly an objective study or a basis for an objective opinion.
 
I have a Pietta 1851 44 Brasser that I bought new from Cabelas years ago. I it so cheap that I didn't care about shooting some hotter loads through it. Remember all, that the "spare cylinders" and all the 1860 Pietta, AND the 1851 cylinders are all the same thing, except some have engraving. It's easy to get 35 grains of powder in there. I didn't stretch the brass frame on that gun but it has dimpled the back of the frame where the cylinder bears on it. If I were to keep on shooting hot loads I think that sooner or later the other caps will be detonated by the recoil shield, when the dimples get deep enough.
Because I have many BP guns I turned this one into an "Avenging Angel" and still am able to enjoy shooting and showing it immensely.:)
 
I kept my brassers down aroung twenty gr. of two F Goex, when I had .44's. I used a wonder wad to ensure good compression, with a card wad underneath it if it was going to remain loaded for any length of time,. This kept the moisture from the wads from getting to the powder. Nowadays I use bee's wax and Crisco ''grease cookies'', in my .36's.
 
A buddy of mine down in Healdsburg bought two of Cabelas round barreled .44 brass framed ''Navys'' just to test them to distruction, shooting many thirty grain charges of 2F Goex and .454 round ball. After about a year and over three hundred rounds through each gun, he got sore wrists, and got bored trying to shoot those sixguns to pieces, and sold them to me. I started shooting them with twenty grains instead, only selling the about a year or two ago to another buddy to finance a Ruger Old Army. They're STILL going. On the other hand as a young man I had a steel framed Colt SAA clone called a Dakota, in .357 I shot loose in about five years useing full house magnum loads for plinking, because a mentor told me the only way to be accurate is to always shoot the same load you intended to use hunting. I think now it's more about making my wrists last....
 
Well heck I'll keep shooting mine @ 24 grains then. As beautiful as it is we're talking about a $139 gun....and on top of that it shoots amazing. I had read some posts about the Colt repros being sighted for longer range so we set up a spinning .22 target and I drilled it at 75 yards 1 out of 6 shots. The others were all close too (snow made it easy to spot). Everyone I was with was impressed. None of our other handguns were even worth trying at that range.
 
No they are not pipe bombs but people who belive outlandish claims that they can take just as much or close to as much of a powder charge as a steel frame and handle heavy conical bullets as well or that they are good enough for anything a steel frame can do despite using light loads are going to either damage their brass frame gun or find themselves stuck with a tool that does not have enough power to do what is needed (hunting.)

Be an educated consumer and decide if you want to limit your choices to light loads only (target shooting and only if your particular cap&ball gun happens to shoot best with light loads they do vary, even among the same model) or do you need something that can handle more pressure.

Brass does look handsome and polishes up easily and very nicely and they are less expensive than the steel frame equivalent. I don't know why since brass these days is a much more expensive metal than steel. Maybe it's because steel is harder to work and wears tools faster.
 
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Yes he harvested an Impala with a brass framed buffalo equipped with a modern sight.

It will work but frankly I wouldn't trust that firearm to keep it's integrety with the loads required. It may not self destruct for a while, it may self destruct quickly, or it may never.

I would not want to chance it. As I said before I have seen a couple of these things cracked at the frame after being used for a period of time.

He also does not say his loads but I am guessing it's not very light since it went all the way through the animal.

Spend the little bit of extra money if you can to get a frame thats a whole lot stronger and you will wind up spending less money overall in the long run without the stress of dealing with problems that usaully accompany the lower quality product.
 
Okay gleaned from another one of his youtube videos (loading a black powder revolver) it seems he uses a 138 grain round ball, wads, with 30 grains of Sannadex pistol powder.

I am not sure that is the exact load he used to hunt the impala but it may be a good guess.

In the hog hunting video (Hunting Hogs with Baffalo Brassframe44cal, yes it's spelled like he posted it) he uses 125 grain solid roundball with 25 grains of sannadex pistol powder (I never heard of this stuff.) Details of penetration are not in this video.

Sannadex is apparently a pink colored dextrose base black powder substitute sold in South Africa that is not quite as dense as black so more volume is needed for equivalent black powder loads. It burns clean, is very hydroscopic, and makes great fertilizer. Sounds interesting. I gleaned this off another forum. I am not quite sure if it's still made.


I still would want a steel frame.
 
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