Remington 1858 Questions

[WaltWhite]

Hello high road. I just bought a Remington 1858 from an acquaintance of mine, think I got a pretty good deal. I'm not new to shooting or even black powder but I am new to this particular model and have a few questions. I found THR in my research and figured I might get some answers here.

I've had it for about a week and haven't really looked at it until today when the conversion cylinder I ordered came. First thing I noticed was the black powder cylinder slides in and out pretty easy. The conversion cylinder slips in easy enough but the pin that holds the cylinder in place (I think it's called the base pin) is a little tough getting to seat. Not hard, it slides in there okay and the cylinder turns fine/indexes right but with the black powder cylinder it slips right in no problem...with the conversion the pin isn't nearly as effortless to seat and it catches a little bit.

It's not so tight that it's binding but it's tight. I have Brownell's moly grease I use on auto pistol slides, should I give the base pin a coating of that and see if things mate up a bit easier? Or would another lubricant be preferred? If this doesn't clear it up should I take it to a smith and get them to maybe do some filing?

My second question involves the hammer. I noticed right out of the box the hammer had a slight outline or peening where it must have contacted caps (the revolver was used). When I popped in the conversion cylinder and dry fired some snap caps I looked at the hammer again and noticed another light peening mark this time where it's contacting the conversion cylinder's firing pins. This doesn't look bad at all at this point (it's probably .001 deep or less) but should I keep an eye on this to see if it gets worse? For what it's worth the hammer seems to slap down harder than the one on my 686 but that might just be the result of different designs.

As somewhat of an aside is there anything wrong with dry firing an 1858 conversion cylinder with snap caps? I know never to do this on a bare nipple but common sense seems to dictate snap caps in the cylinder is a different story.

My final question: Should I test fire this first with black powder and ball or can I just jump right in with the conversion cylinder?

 

[EljaySL]

You want to lube the heck out of that pin - it'll become really critical once it gets dirty, which it will - but you may as well use a natural black powder specific lube (which will also work if you're running smokeless cartridges). You can buy it (bore butter is a popular brand) or you can make some (50% beeswax, 50% olive oil) but get something on there.

re: the hammer - I wonder if the prior owner dry fired it. You might see if the nipples have mushroomed out at all. The conversion pins will mushroom out with wear, that's normal, but I'm not sure that I would do a TON of dry firing with it.

I personally would run it as a cap and ball revolver with a light load first and then build up. Even "cowboy" 45 cold loads have something like 30-35 grains of powder in them and a smokeless load would be attempting to match that. I've shot anywhere from 20-35 as a cap and ball so you could build up. But if it looks good and your friend shot it recently I don't think it's critical, more of a "just in case" approach.

 

[BSA1]

You do realize that can only use low power 45 Colt loads in the Conversion Cylinder. This not only diminishes the usefulness of the round but also are restricted to use of reloaded ammo that is low power.

 

[WaltWhite]

Hey there thanks guys for the feedback. I'm aware of the requirement to use low power loads. I'll be working up a 200 grain load going anywhere between 800 and 850 fps. For reference that's right in the same range as the original .45 ACP ball round used by the military for ~80 years. I reckon they got plenty of use from it.

Either way I'm just punching paper and prefer the easy cleanup and loading of smokeless. Not hunting polar bears or some such.

 

[EljaySL]

As long as I was already loading black powder and I was chronoing match loads for something else I developed a safe smokeless load... and then never made any of them after that because they're nowhere near as fun as even 777, let alone Goex. At a minimum I'd try a 777 load - you'll get most of the smoke and a more black powder kind of deep sound compared to smokeless. You will have to clean it when you get home but it's more like rinsing it off - not a big deal.

 

[WaltWhite]

I have some 777 I'll end up using for the cap and ball load. But I also have an 8 lb container of sealed powder my father gave me for free that I can use to work up some smokeless loads and with the price of 777 I think I'm going to stick to that for target shooting. I'll probably carry it with C&B in the woods.