gtrgy888
Member
This is a continuation of my first thoughts on optimizing and shooting a .36 1851 Uberti reproduction as a modern day trekking gun. In the current market, beggars can’t be choosers about cap brands and sizes. The only caps I found in stock were CCI #10’s and #11 magnums locally at a family owned sporting shop that struggles to get business. I bought these at a rate of one tin per week for 4 weeks until I went back to find none left. Powder has also been picked over. I could only find 777 at local retailers and ordered 4f Goex online with the hazmat fee (the last bottle of Goex for sale when I last checked). Anyway, this post will deal with some ideas about cap seating and gun tuning for maximum reliability.
My first range trip I used CCI #10’s seated by gentle thumb pressure. They were very tight, which I originally took to be a fault, but now consider to be ideal. 3/6 of them ignited per loaded cylinder, which soured my initial opinion of percussion shooting and seemed to verify the opinions of most modern shooters that these are unreliable weapons. Interestingly, no cap jams occurred, which I attributed to smoothing the hammer and frame edges.
Trip 2, I tested seating with a wooden dowel, which did not acceptably improve reliability. 4 or 5 out of 6 shots per cylinder detonated on the first strike, with 1 or 2 CLICKs per cylinder. I noticed on this trip, that second strikes were usually sufficient to ignite the missed caps. My wooden dowel also splintered under seating pressure.
On the 3rd trip, I tested seating using hammer pressure, which necessitated loading at the range by pointing in a safe direction and pressing hard with my thumb. This allowed for 3 full cylinders to be emptied without CLICKs, but began to strain and bruise my thumb tendon.
My current refined method uses the plastic lanyard hole in the grip of my screwdriver to torque on the hammer after gently seating. This allows a full grip with both hands to press with full strength. Using this method and CCI #10 caps, I have now fired 54 shots without a single CLICK. I’ve concluded that CCI #10’s are a very tight fit on Uberti cones and respond optimally to hard seating, which molds the caps around the cones leaving no gap and a watertight, uniform seal around each cone and makes them impossible to pull off with finger pressure alone (they require pliers if they fail to detonate, which only happened when I used lubed wads on top of powder for a month. I pulled the unpoppable cap off with pliers to see oil filled with powder dripping out the cone).
I also tested CCI #11 magnums, which were reliable when hammer seated, but required pinching to fit the cones and caused hammer bounce and cap jams to a much greater degree than the #10’s due to stronger detonation.
My current practice is to save the CCI #10’s for long term day to day carrying, since they cause almost no CLICK’s nor jams (95-99% reliability). I use the #11’s for target shooting, since I can live with malfunctions on the range much easier than in the field or to save my bacon. With the market in this condition, it’s a relief to train with a weapon that I can load at home using lead balls, powder, and caps. Next post will detail some destructive tests using the .36 1851 and what it might indicate about potential ballistic performance.
My first range trip I used CCI #10’s seated by gentle thumb pressure. They were very tight, which I originally took to be a fault, but now consider to be ideal. 3/6 of them ignited per loaded cylinder, which soured my initial opinion of percussion shooting and seemed to verify the opinions of most modern shooters that these are unreliable weapons. Interestingly, no cap jams occurred, which I attributed to smoothing the hammer and frame edges.
Trip 2, I tested seating with a wooden dowel, which did not acceptably improve reliability. 4 or 5 out of 6 shots per cylinder detonated on the first strike, with 1 or 2 CLICKs per cylinder. I noticed on this trip, that second strikes were usually sufficient to ignite the missed caps. My wooden dowel also splintered under seating pressure.
On the 3rd trip, I tested seating using hammer pressure, which necessitated loading at the range by pointing in a safe direction and pressing hard with my thumb. This allowed for 3 full cylinders to be emptied without CLICKs, but began to strain and bruise my thumb tendon.
My current refined method uses the plastic lanyard hole in the grip of my screwdriver to torque on the hammer after gently seating. This allows a full grip with both hands to press with full strength. Using this method and CCI #10 caps, I have now fired 54 shots without a single CLICK. I’ve concluded that CCI #10’s are a very tight fit on Uberti cones and respond optimally to hard seating, which molds the caps around the cones leaving no gap and a watertight, uniform seal around each cone and makes them impossible to pull off with finger pressure alone (they require pliers if they fail to detonate, which only happened when I used lubed wads on top of powder for a month. I pulled the unpoppable cap off with pliers to see oil filled with powder dripping out the cone).
I also tested CCI #11 magnums, which were reliable when hammer seated, but required pinching to fit the cones and caused hammer bounce and cap jams to a much greater degree than the #10’s due to stronger detonation.
My current practice is to save the CCI #10’s for long term day to day carrying, since they cause almost no CLICK’s nor jams (95-99% reliability). I use the #11’s for target shooting, since I can live with malfunctions on the range much easier than in the field or to save my bacon. With the market in this condition, it’s a relief to train with a weapon that I can load at home using lead balls, powder, and caps. Next post will detail some destructive tests using the .36 1851 and what it might indicate about potential ballistic performance.
