Gatofeo
Member
The use of greased wads twixt ball and powder in a cap and ball sixgun is likely very old.
The late gun writer Elmer Keith (1898-1983) was raised around Helena, Montana.
In his 1956 book, "Sixguns" he devotes a chapter to shooting the cap and ball revolvers. Keith's first revolver was a Colt 1851 Navy, which he began carrying when he was 14 (in 1912).
He knew many Civil War veterans, noting that the Helena area seemed to have a high population of them, from both sides.
Keith recommended using a felt wad twixt ball and powder, lubricated with melted tallow and beeswax.
"If you do not have the wax, then deer, elk, beef or mutton tallow will do," Keith wrote.
Keith noted that old Civil War veterans showed him how to properly load a cap and ball revolver. Though he didn't specify it, I suspect this meant the use of greased wads under the ball as well.
It's important to remember that most Civil War soldiers used factory-made paper cartridges in their revolvers and these did not have a felt wad.
Let's hear what Keith has to say:
"During the heyday of the percussion revolver, paper cartridges were furnished ... Conical Colt bullets were used in these paper cartridges with a rebated heel, leaving room to glue the tip of the paper cylinder to the base of the bullet. The powder charge was poured in the other end of the rolled paper cylinder which was folded over a couple of times to seal it, the bullet was dipped in melted wax or tallow and the cartridge was complete.
"These conical pointed bullets gave more range and penetration than round balls, but never were as accurate in our (Keith's) guns, nor did they kill game as well as the round ball."
The use of paper cartridges greatly speeded reloading, a critical concern in combat. Most of the war's revolvers undoubtedly contained conical bullets, not the round ball, as evidenced by battlefield archaeology.
Round balls were not issued for revolvers. If you wanted them, you had to cast your own over a campfire. I've done this, and it's a pain in the patoot! It would have been easier to get a resupply of paper cartridges with the conical bullet.
Keith was often in awe of the pistol-handling capabilities of these veterans, many of them in their 80s when he knew them. He writes of witnessing one veteran riding a horse at full speed and emtpying a cap and ball revolver into a fencepost without a miss!
Some of these old soldiers knew their pistols. I suspect that they may have taken the trouble to cast balls for their first load in their revolver, saving the paper cartridges for a fast reload.
Keith said one old veteran told him that the conical bullets were faster to load, but the round ball hit a lot harder and took all the fight out of an opponent.
If they were using round balls, which were not issued, then they may have used a lubricated felt wad under it too.
I've also heard of soldiers dripping candle wax or beeswax over the seated projectile, and around the cap. This was done not for lubrication, but to ensure that moisture didn't enter the chambers and deaden the load.
A felt wad greased with tallow or beeswax would be an effective barrier against moisture entering from the front of the chamber.
Some years ago, I loaded my .36-caliber Navy with a full charge, greased wad, round ball and caps, then placed the cylinder outside for six months. Spring, a hot summer, and early fall came and went. Then I fired the cylinder. It fired fine, and I could tell no loss in power due to the lubricant soaking into the black powder, as many have claimed.
I know that cylinder must have reached air temperature (100 F or so) but the loads were unaffected. Nor was there any rust in the chambers where the powder sat.
I use a very old recipe --- found in a 1943 American Rifleman magazine, and it was old then --- for lubricating my felt wads.
The recipe is:
1 part paraffin (I use canning paraffin, found at grocery stores)
1 part mutton tallow (purchased from Dixie Gun Works)
1/2 part beeswax
All measures are by weight, not volume. I use a kitchen scale to measure 200/200/100 grams of ingredients, then place them in a quart Mason jar.
Place the Mason jar in three or four inches of boiling water for a double boiler effect (the safest way to melt greases and waxes).
When thoroughly melted, stir well with a clean stick or disposable chopstick.
Then I place 100 .36 or .44 felt wads in a clean tuna can and pour in about 2 Tablespoons of the melted, mixed lubricant. The tuna can may be placed in a small saucepan with an inch of boiling water, to keep the lubricant hot until the wads throughly soak up the lubricant.
Allow the lubricant in the jar, and the can, to cool at room temperature. Hastening cooling by placing it in the refrigerator may cause the ingredients to separate.
The wads should be well soaked with lubricant. When the can is cool, snap a plastic pet food lid over the top and it's ready to be taken to the range. When you run low on wads, simply reheat the can and add more wads and lubricant from the jar.
Store the lubricant and lubricated wads in a cool, dry place.
The addition of paraffin in this recipe is crucial. It stiffens the wad significantly and helps it scrape out fouling. Though canning paraffin is a petroleum product, it does not leave the hard, tarry fouling common to using other petroleum products with black powder.
This recipe is also excellent for lubricating bullets in muzzle loaders, and cartridge arms using black powder. I have also used it as a patch lubricant with success.
Anyway, back to the old cap and balls ...
There are many cap and ball revolvers with loads still in them. I've seen them myself, in museums. It would be interesting to see whether the remnants of a greased, felt wad remains between the lead ball and powder in some of them.
In retrospect, it would be difficult to positively state that the revolver was loaded with felt wads during the Civil War. We know it was done in the early 20th century.
Perhaps the question of whether old-time users of cap and ball sixguns loaded them with lubricated felt wads will never be definitively answered.
The late gun writer Elmer Keith (1898-1983) was raised around Helena, Montana.
In his 1956 book, "Sixguns" he devotes a chapter to shooting the cap and ball revolvers. Keith's first revolver was a Colt 1851 Navy, which he began carrying when he was 14 (in 1912).
He knew many Civil War veterans, noting that the Helena area seemed to have a high population of them, from both sides.
Keith recommended using a felt wad twixt ball and powder, lubricated with melted tallow and beeswax.
"If you do not have the wax, then deer, elk, beef or mutton tallow will do," Keith wrote.
Keith noted that old Civil War veterans showed him how to properly load a cap and ball revolver. Though he didn't specify it, I suspect this meant the use of greased wads under the ball as well.
It's important to remember that most Civil War soldiers used factory-made paper cartridges in their revolvers and these did not have a felt wad.
Let's hear what Keith has to say:
"During the heyday of the percussion revolver, paper cartridges were furnished ... Conical Colt bullets were used in these paper cartridges with a rebated heel, leaving room to glue the tip of the paper cylinder to the base of the bullet. The powder charge was poured in the other end of the rolled paper cylinder which was folded over a couple of times to seal it, the bullet was dipped in melted wax or tallow and the cartridge was complete.
"These conical pointed bullets gave more range and penetration than round balls, but never were as accurate in our (Keith's) guns, nor did they kill game as well as the round ball."
The use of paper cartridges greatly speeded reloading, a critical concern in combat. Most of the war's revolvers undoubtedly contained conical bullets, not the round ball, as evidenced by battlefield archaeology.
Round balls were not issued for revolvers. If you wanted them, you had to cast your own over a campfire. I've done this, and it's a pain in the patoot! It would have been easier to get a resupply of paper cartridges with the conical bullet.
Keith was often in awe of the pistol-handling capabilities of these veterans, many of them in their 80s when he knew them. He writes of witnessing one veteran riding a horse at full speed and emtpying a cap and ball revolver into a fencepost without a miss!
Some of these old soldiers knew their pistols. I suspect that they may have taken the trouble to cast balls for their first load in their revolver, saving the paper cartridges for a fast reload.
Keith said one old veteran told him that the conical bullets were faster to load, but the round ball hit a lot harder and took all the fight out of an opponent.
If they were using round balls, which were not issued, then they may have used a lubricated felt wad under it too.
I've also heard of soldiers dripping candle wax or beeswax over the seated projectile, and around the cap. This was done not for lubrication, but to ensure that moisture didn't enter the chambers and deaden the load.
A felt wad greased with tallow or beeswax would be an effective barrier against moisture entering from the front of the chamber.
Some years ago, I loaded my .36-caliber Navy with a full charge, greased wad, round ball and caps, then placed the cylinder outside for six months. Spring, a hot summer, and early fall came and went. Then I fired the cylinder. It fired fine, and I could tell no loss in power due to the lubricant soaking into the black powder, as many have claimed.
I know that cylinder must have reached air temperature (100 F or so) but the loads were unaffected. Nor was there any rust in the chambers where the powder sat.
I use a very old recipe --- found in a 1943 American Rifleman magazine, and it was old then --- for lubricating my felt wads.
The recipe is:
1 part paraffin (I use canning paraffin, found at grocery stores)
1 part mutton tallow (purchased from Dixie Gun Works)
1/2 part beeswax
All measures are by weight, not volume. I use a kitchen scale to measure 200/200/100 grams of ingredients, then place them in a quart Mason jar.
Place the Mason jar in three or four inches of boiling water for a double boiler effect (the safest way to melt greases and waxes).
When thoroughly melted, stir well with a clean stick or disposable chopstick.
Then I place 100 .36 or .44 felt wads in a clean tuna can and pour in about 2 Tablespoons of the melted, mixed lubricant. The tuna can may be placed in a small saucepan with an inch of boiling water, to keep the lubricant hot until the wads throughly soak up the lubricant.
Allow the lubricant in the jar, and the can, to cool at room temperature. Hastening cooling by placing it in the refrigerator may cause the ingredients to separate.
The wads should be well soaked with lubricant. When the can is cool, snap a plastic pet food lid over the top and it's ready to be taken to the range. When you run low on wads, simply reheat the can and add more wads and lubricant from the jar.
Store the lubricant and lubricated wads in a cool, dry place.
The addition of paraffin in this recipe is crucial. It stiffens the wad significantly and helps it scrape out fouling. Though canning paraffin is a petroleum product, it does not leave the hard, tarry fouling common to using other petroleum products with black powder.
This recipe is also excellent for lubricating bullets in muzzle loaders, and cartridge arms using black powder. I have also used it as a patch lubricant with success.
Anyway, back to the old cap and balls ...
There are many cap and ball revolvers with loads still in them. I've seen them myself, in museums. It would be interesting to see whether the remnants of a greased, felt wad remains between the lead ball and powder in some of them.
In retrospect, it would be difficult to positively state that the revolver was loaded with felt wads during the Civil War. We know it was done in the early 20th century.
Perhaps the question of whether old-time users of cap and ball sixguns loaded them with lubricated felt wads will never be definitively answered.
