Any one have any experience with black powder revolvers?

 

I have a couple of smoke sticks/poles. My personal favorite is an 1847 Colt Walker in 44 cal. A little bit large of a gun (size wise) but a whole lot of fun to shoot. I use to hunt deer with my rifle but haven't done that in a long time.

What kind of experience you looking for Pwillie?

SJ

 

Just someone who could enlighten me on were to purchase,and which or the better builders. Like who built your Colt Walker?

 

My I think there are others who make this gun but mine happens to be an 1847 remake made by Colt as part of their signature series. It has some fancy wood grips and engraving in the cylinder. I picked mine up at a gun show in Montana. It shoot well out to about 40yds but I am not that accurate to consistently hit anything at that distance.

I shoot a .451 lead round ball with 30-50 grains of FFFg black powder. The cylinder requires quite a bit of cleaning to keep it functioning. I purchased an adjustable powder measure that I measure the powder out of the flask with but I also have a 30, and a 50gr spout that just screws into the powder flask. There is a wax like grease used to keep the gun from "flashing" into the next cylinder. Sometimes if you use too much it burns to the cylinder and is a pain. I only use it when loading "hot" 50gr loads.

As far as builders go I am very pleased with this gun. I paid $350 but I have seen them for twice that. I have been told this pistiol has enough muzzle energy to deer hunt with it. I am not sure if that is true. My 54cal Hawkins rifle is made by TC is also very good. Things I looked at was how the hammer felt when pulling it back (strong spring) and for this particular gun I made sure the chamber loading lever had the new updated locking mechanism so it would not come loose under recoil and fall into the cylinder keeping it from moving.

Where to buy is a personal preference thing. I personally would never buy a gun "sight unseen" I like to pick it up and get a feel for it first. A good place to start might be Cableas or Gander mountain. A local gun shop might have one. There is a national black powder association in the US that has a website that could probably get you lots of good information on a specific type of gun.

Hope this helps

Swampy

 

I have just purchased a Ruger Old Army. Any one else have one of these?

 

Well the new army style are the ones with the frame that wraps all the way around the cylinder making it a sturdy frame. I would guess that since it is a Ruger the springs and mechanicals are fairly stiff but good quality. I think it is a fine gun.

If it's a newr make it can probably be used with Non-black power alternatives such as Pyrodex. They burn a little cleaner which you will find has its perks. I seem to remember something tricky about cocking the hammer. If my memory is correct The Ruger Old Army has something to do with the safety? Some pistols have a half **** safety. It was not a problem just that it worked different from other pistols on the market.

I have found that when cleaning my pistol a sink with water as hot as you can stand to touch and a good bottle of household degreaser like 409 or some dish soap works very well and is far cheaper than solvents. Plus the 409 and dish soap can be put down the sink drain where it is not reccomended with solvents.

Congratulations and I hope you enjoy shooting it. You will have to play around with amounts of powder to find the guns powder charge that works for it. Each one I have shot seems to be slightly different or off by as much as 5-8grains of powder. Once you find that charge your accuracy will increase.

SJ

 

Swampy,thanks for the info, I will try it and let you know how it works for me,Willie

 

I've had the opportunity to handle and shoot a couple of black powder pistols made by Pedersoli of Italy. One was an 1851 navy and the other was an 1858 new army remington type. Both were really nice looking pistols and the finish work was really good. They shot pretty good too. Black powder is messy but fun.

Personally I'm looking for a good high quality traditional muzzleloader. I had a matched set of Austin & Halleck Select Mountain rifles one in flintlock and one in percussion but sold them. A&H went out of business and i have no clue who makes a good reproduction muzzleloader now. I have a Savage Model 10MLSS-II but sometimes I like to step into the wayback machine if that makes any sense. Yeah the savage is very accurate and is easy to care for since you can use smokeless powder but it is more like a complicated loading high powered rifle than a old school muzzleloader. Something about the lines of those old rifles, the smoke and shooting round *****.

 

I have a strange one, a repro of a Civil war era LeMat revolver. 9 shot .44 cal, cylinder revolves around a second shorter barrel that is a 16 gauge shotgun, your backup shot.

It's not very well balanced, heavy, the shotgun doesn't always fire on the first click, but it's fun. Weird looking, too.

One black powder rifle I have that is amazing in its accuracy is a Whitworth rifle. Fires a 520 grain bullet, barrel is hexagonal shaped on the inside, accurate to 800-1000 yards, if you can get the repro bullets to fire in it. The repro is Italian made, except for the barrel, which is made by Parker-Hale in the UK. Highly recommended, it's a beautifully balanced rifle that sits on the shoulder very well.