Morning at the range

[truckdriver]

Well, I had a interesting morning. A buddy and my self hit the range before the rain. We have been having some what of a competition the last few weeks and experimenting with different charges, wads and fillers. We tried about 100 different things, light loads to super hot loads. Well my opinion super hot. With my 58' target i have seen the best accuracy (between 25 and 50 yards) with 25 grains 3F GOEX about 10 grains roughly of filler and a .454 140 grain ball... Now in my 58' brass 25 grains is a little much it seems, I have it around 18 with filler and a .451 ball. The .454 seem somewhat to tight.

Seeing my buddy just bought a chronograph we thought we would test a few things out.. #1 while very very cool to shoot 45 grains 3f goex in the target 58' is way hot. I think the recoil was right up there with my .357. But it read out at 1082 FPS. 35 grains was 969 FPS.

I also noticed that the American Pioneer 3F wasn't as hot. The 45 Grains of AP still barked but only came in at 971 FPS.

Now mind you I have been around guns and shooting all my life, but black powder is still fairly new to me. It was probably stupid going that hot with these loads. But now we know. And this was also the 1st time either one of us used a chrony so i'm sure we need to learn on that. And also my buddies 1850 didnt fair so well with a hot load he did. Went up to 48 grains (he uses only swiss) and it cracked his cylinder...

I don't know if anyone cares lol I just thought I would share. All in all it was a fun morning between my two 58's i brought I went threw a bag of 100 balls each.

I love shooting my rifles and other hand guns (i have my C&R lic) but for some reason I am really into this.

 

[denster]

I'm curious. Did you and your buddy have your cylinders bored out to be able to accept that much powder?

 

[Bluehawk]

I was thinking the same thing...how do you get 45 grains of powder in a 1858 Remington chamber??

 

[truckdriver]

I honestly don't know about the cylinders guys I bought my 58 from the same place my buddy bought his, it was a estate sale. I wonder how can i tell. If it has in fact been bored out. Im temped to get a new cylinder i think... Wouldn't that make the wall really weak?

And now my dumb ass shooting that kind of load didn't help im sure.

 

[truckdriver]

Hey, I just went in and double checked. By the measure i have (goes to 50 grns) set at 45 grns I have about a 1/4 inch from the powder to the top of the chamber. With the ball seated in its almost perfectly flush with the mouth of the chamber and the cylinder spins freely.

Wish I knew how to get pics up to show you guys. And the chamber holes dont look bored out. The look just like my brass framed 58. No tooling marks really and blued.

 

[denster]

Are you sure you are not misreading the measure. An 1858 cylinder will hold 40gr by volume of powder and it will be full to the top.

 

[truckdriver]

I very well could be, I tried the crappy one that came with a Pietta starter kit i had way back when. And also my CVA measure, this is the one i use when i normally shoot with. Set at 45 its a little more than the one that came in my pietta kit set at 45.