Only lead ball in a cap and ball?

[epijunkie67]

I recently purchased my first cap and ball revolver and was wondering about ammo. I have the round lead balls for ammo but wondered if they made shaped bullets for them? I know you can get hollow point bullets for the rifles in .45 and .50. Do they make something similar for the revolvers? If not, why? It seems like it would help the ballistics but maybe I'm missing something.

 

[model 649]

You can get conic section bullets for your revolver. I haven't seen anything fancy, though, like a hollow-point. You do need to use only lead whatever the shape, however. I used to get the Speer conic bullets and they worked well, but not that much better than round-ball for the added expense IMHO.
Josh

 

[Hellgate]

I have a hollowpoint 36cal LEE conical mold for my Navy that I used years ago when it was my all around personal defense, varmint, & plinking gun. If you want the mold I will sell it to you. It shoots accurately, is a single cavity mold, & no longer made. It might not fit a 1851 Navy but was easy to load into my '61 Navy. I do not have a '51 to check the fit out. However, the LEE double cavity 130gr conical molds are very economical and twice as fast to cast up a batch of bullets.

 

[mainmech48]

There are at least a couple of options, even if you don't cast your own. The first would be the pre-lubricated conicals from Buffalo Bullet Co. available from Cabela's and several other sources. They come in boxes of fifty in .36 and .44 calibers along with fifty felt overpowder wads.

Another would be the precast conicals available from Dixie Gun Works. These duplicate the original designs as used for Remingtons and Colts in commercially loaded combustable cartridges of the period. The use of either a lubricated wad under them or grease over it in the chamber is a good idea to reduce the risk of 'chainfires'.

I'm not aware of any currently made HP, either pre-cast of DIY, for C&B use. Frankly, expansion in soft media would be 'iffy' at realistic C&B velocities, even with pure lead projectiles. Deformation in the loading process would be hard to avoid, given proper chamber fit, and would add to the problem materially. Accuracy would suffer as well, IMO.

IME, the Buffalo product offers the most consistent accuracy with the least fuss. It's tough to keep the original designs concentric with the chamber and the nose profile on both the Remington and Colt designs doesn't fit the ram nearly as well, making it all-too-easy to get the bullet cocked or damaged.

FWIW, more than one of my replica .44s shoot much closer to POA with Buffalo conicals and 30 gr. Pyrodex pellets or 25-30 grs from a flask than they do with RBs.

 

[epijunkie67]

Thanks.

Thanks guys. I knew this was the place to ask!

 

[P95Carry]

I did experiment with bullets in my old Colt but - know what - I really felt that all I needed was just ball - pure lead ball. At normal pistol ranges this did just fine.

Once you get to long arm front stuffers then - different matter. I cast and use ''Minnie'' bullets for those and that is great improvement IMO on ball, for longer range shooting.