New to the whole cap and ball thing.

[Luchtaine]

Okay new to this, I got an 1851 navy by navy arms I found cheap little tarnished on the outside but in good shape mechanically. So anyway, I've been doing reading and have come across the use of filler cornmeal and all that, is this really necessary? Between the crisco and cornmeal should I bring flour too so i can make muffins with it? sorry I couldn't help it but in all seriousness do I need the filler?

 

[arcticap]

No. Filler, wads, over powder cards and grease over the balls are optional.

 

[BHP FAN]

no. in all seriousness, you don't. no one used it in 1851, but a lot of cartridge shooters have gotten into the game, and are used to seeing bullets near the end of the chambers.on the plus side, fillers [corn meal, Cream of Wheat, or Wonder Wads] polish your bore clean of a lot of the BP residue, and a lot of folks claim better accuracy because of less bullet ''jump'' from the cylinder's chamber to the barrel's rifling.I wonder if it really even matters, because of the forcing cone...but it can't hurt anything, and may help with accuracy, and aids in cleaning, so unless you are reloading in a hurry, why not?

 

[Luchtaine]

Alright cool thanks. I was starting to feel like I needed a muffin tin seriously. Maybe I could get a show on food network cooking with black powder haha. I might grab some for winding down if it helps clean things up though sounds good in that regard.

 

[BHP FAN]

Wonder Wads on top of card wads on top of the powder is my prefered way to go. the Woner Wads clean and lubricate, and the card wads keep any lube present in the Wonder Wads from migrating to your powder. Wonder Wads are expensive though, so sometimes I use homemade grease cookies, made of bee's wax and a touch of Crisco, and punched out with a homemade tool made from a .45-70 case. That's the neat thing about BP it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.

 

[Luchtaine]

Yeah, I can see how it gets real complicated real fast. I'm trying to keep the cost down right now though. Some I'm going the bare bones route and a bit of extra scrubbing I guess

 

[BHP FAN]

Goex, caps, balls and crisco [unsalted!] are all you really need.

 

[Busyhands94]

for a good lube you can mix paraffin (one part) and Crisco (two parts) and you just melt them together! i don't use wads much, i made some lubed wads from felt a few weeks ago though. i use them to prevent misfires, but i also use tight fitting balls and grease too. and well fitting caps! haven't had a misfire or a chainfire, and i shoot a lot. the closest thing to a misfire i have had was the time i forgot to put powder in there and had a ball in my chamber with no powder. however i just unscrewed the nipple and chucked about 15 grains of powder in there, put the nipple back in, and touched it off. since then no problems whatsoever!

 

[damoc]

my opinion is never use crisco either use lard or lard and beeswax for your bullet lube .

The reason being unless you strip and clean out your mechanism after each
shooting session youll eventually end up with all sorts of glue gumming up the mechanism and it does not wash out with soap and water any longer.

lard always remains easy to clean out even after months.

 

[Busyhands94]

i personally like to disassemble my revolver after a shooting session, i like it to be immaculate, but i will definitely try lard. i have some in the cupboard.

 

[Zombiphobia]

cap and ball shooting is made awesome by the following basic ingredients:

Pistol, Musket/Rifle and/or shotgun- Combine as few or many of any variety or time period to fit your taste.

Powder- Many choices available; experiment brands, types, and volume.

Primers/Flints- You will eventually begin buying bulk packages to save trips to the store.

Lead ball/ballets/Bullets and half-ball conicals- These are the required instruments, in your choice of various sizes/calibers(a .15 larger than chamber diameter for safer seal in revolvers), weights, and hardness levels to put holes thru targets such as paper, pie plates, plastic jugs/ aluminum cans, wild game etc...

Pour powder into chambers/bore in measured amounts. Be sure to not exceed safe volumes of powder in your particular firearm, this is a saftey concern. Top with lead projectile(plural in shotguns). Be sure projectile is firmly seated against powder charge or catastrophic loss of fingers and eyeballs may prevent you from trying this again. This should be sagfe and fun, not lethal to the shooter or by-standers.

Prime with either percussion cap or sparking powder depending on your gun(cap-lock Vs Flint lock), cock, aim, squeeze trigger. Repeat as many times as desired or until cleaning is required to ensure smooth function of gun.


If I've forgotten anything major, I'm sure others will fill in.

 

[Jaymo]

Lard also makes better biscuits.
I'm thinking about clarifying some bacon grease and using it. After all, bacon makes everything better.

 

[Zombiphobia]

you can also use cap and ball guns to obtain bacon

 

[Kaeto]

I'd like to use my Navy .44 repro with the attachable shoulder stock to try to get some venison. But I don't know if it would be a large enough caliber by the game laws.