#Grains in 1851 Pietta Navy

[bennadatto]

Good afternoon all! I have a quick question about my new 1851 Navy.

It is made by Pietta and is of course a .36. In my manual, it lists ball size and #grains of bp that is recommended for each caliber. The manual says that I should use 9-12 grains of bp in my revolver. Does this sound way too small to anyone else!? It even says that a .44 should only get max 15 grains.

I thought the .36 could handle up to 22 grains of bp. I don't want to underpower and end up with a ball jammed in the barrell. I also don't feel like blowing my hand off with an overpowered charge! What do you experienced BP guys recommend?

As a side note, I have read most say that warm soapy water is the best way to clean a bp pistol. What do you do minimize the chance of rust if you clean your gun this way?

Thanks in advance for your wise council!

 

[Tommygunn]

As long as you use 3F blackpowder, it is generally believed that you cannot "overload" a BP revolver. As long as you can fit the ball in you won't risk blowing the gun up.
That doesn't mean that the more powder, the more accurate the gun is. You may have to expereiment to figure out the optimum charge for that.
As long as you seat the ball down on top of the powder, with no space in between, you're good to go. Cream of wheat or other inert material can be used as a filler.
In regards to your question, loads more along the line of 20 grains are what I have used with .36 caliber guns.
A lot of manuals they send with guns these days suggest bizarrely light loads of BP. I don't know why that is -- maybe the revolver distributors have been ducking lawyers recently ... I don't know.
I have used hot soapy water to clean guns. Make sure they're dried out, and get some aerosal spray preservative like Rust Prevent and spray down the parts, and nooks, crannies, cylinder chambers, the like.

 

[Pulp]

As long as you use black powder or most of the subs you cannot overload your Navy. Triple7FFFg may be a bit to hot for a full cylinder load, so I'd recommend you avoid it. Some say if it's a brass frame to back off a bit as the frame will stretch after a diet of heavy loads. I haven't seen that with my Pietta brass framed .44. But I've probably shot less than 500 rounds through it.

As far as clean up, yes warm soapy water will work fine. While your cleaning, put some water on the stove and bring it to a boil. When you're through cleaning, pour this water slowly over the parts to really heat them up. This will help dry out any extra water. Then I wipe every thing down with Bore Butter while it's still warm. This melts the BB and gives good rust protection. Other good products are Ballistol and SweetShooter. Some may argue against SweetShooter as it's petroleum based, but I've had good luck with it.

 

[Meatco]

I don't have a .36 cal, but my 1858 Remington cloned44 shoots well with a 30 grain load of Pyrodex.

I have no clue as to why Pietta says to use such mild loads.

If you had bought your Pietta from Cabela’s, their printed instructions for cap & ball revolvers, tell you the max load is 35 grains of BP for the .44 cal, and 22 grains for the .36 cal.

Cabela’s printed loads, while much hotter than the Pietta, are fairly mild shooters.

Good luck with your smoker,

Richard

 

[JayC]

I have heard that dividing the caliber by 2 (after dropping the decimal point) gives a good starting load. So .36 would be 18, .44 would be 22, etc.

 

[XTerminator]

I use 20gr 3F in my .36 Remington Navy and it is a good target load.

 

[Oldnamvet]

I have a Pietta manual about 20 years old and for .36 they recommend 10 - 15 grains of FFFg and for the .44 they recommend 20 - 30 grains of FFFg.

 

[Mausermike]

My Lyman BP handbook lists 27gr Goex FFFg as a max load for .375 round ball in a 7.5" barrel. (about 10,000LUP if I recall correctly)

My Pietta shoots nicely at 20gr.

 

[bennadatto]

20 grains it is! Thanks everyone for your input. I can't wait to go shooting this weekend!!!

 

[Rachen]

20 grains is pretty adequate. Dixie recommends 18 grains if you are using combustible paper cartridges, and back in the old days, soldiers and cowboys would typically use 18 with naked loads (no paper), and 16 with cartridges.

Welcome to THR and enjoy your new Navy Colt.

WARNING: BP shooting is VERY addictive, but if you find yourself spending more and more time at the range, it is a good thing, as long as it doesn't take away time from your career, or candlelight dinners with your girl

 

[DutchmanDick]

"WARNING: BP shooting is VERY addictive, but if you find yourself spending more and more time at the range, it is a good thing, as long as it doesn't take away time from your career, or candlelight dinners with your girl"
__________________

Just make sure you get a girl who enjoys shooting as much as you do!!!

 

[bigjohnson]

Reference cleaning your BP revolver:

Remove the barrel and cylinder. Remove the loading lever and wedge from the barrel. Using a fiber or bronze bore brush, clean the barrel in a pan of warm, soapy water. Clean the cylinder the same way. You may want to unscrew the nipples from the cylinder so that you can carefully scrub around the areas where the nipples screw into the cylinder. An old tooth brush works great for this.

When you've got all (and I do mean ALL) the powder residue off the barrel, cylinder, and nipples, rinse them well in clear water, put them on a cookie sheet or pizza pan, and pop them into a warm oven (250 degrees or so) and let them sit there until dry.... usually about ten to fifteen ten minutes. While these parts are "baking", wipe down the frame and other parts of your revolver, removing all the remaining powder and primer residue.

When the parts in the oven are dry, let them cool, wipe down with WD-40 or your favorite gun oil, and reassemble.

The whole process should take you maybe 30 minutes. Easy as pie.

 

[Shotgun Willy]

Quote:

When you've got all (and I do mean ALL) the powder residue off the barrel, cylinder, and nipples, rinse them well in clear water, put them on a cookie sheet or pizza pan, and pop them into a warm oven (250 degrees or so) and let them sit there until dry.... usually about ten to fifteen ten minutes. While these parts are "baking", wipe down the frame and other parts of your revolver, removing all the remaining powder and primer residue.


I used to do it that way, and it works pretty good. I don't get it quite so hot though, and I noticed a little rust had formed in one of the chambers, in that brief time it was wet. Now, before sticking it in the oven, I give it a light rinse with isopropyl alcohol. What water isn't rinsed off is combined with the alcohol, and evaporates very quickly.
When I pull it out of the oven, while still warm, I melt Bore Butter, or homemade lube into the nooks and crannies. Followed by BB on the outside once it's cool.