WB
Anyone else besides JT, maybe Jim shoot C&B revolvers?
Wednesday, March 03, 2021, 10:11

When we were kids our parents would not let us use "real" .22 ammo in our handguns un-supervised. Somehow we talked them into letting us run around with "ratshot" in them. Of course we sneaked our real ammo and went on our merry way shooting Snakes, Turtles, Frogs, and the very unlucky Cottontail or Squirrel. A few years later when we were 14, for Christmas my friend and I formulated a plan. We both acquired Italian copies of the 1858 Remington BP revolvers. Somehow reality escaped the unawares parents and the formidable weapons found home. I'll never forget Christmas morning after showing my folks how you loaded the things (they had no clue) I put on a shooting display for my parents. You basically load the cartridge directly into the mouth of the cylinder. It gave me a good foundation, later transitioning to loading metallic cartridges. Mom just about fainted, from the sight of the plumes of fire and smoke, asking my father "what did you do?!". Dad was pretty cool about it with a required warning. Interestingly on a C&B you "load all six", and lower the hammer to rest safely between chambers on special pins or notches on the cylinder.

We normally loaded our 58's with 30 gr. FFFg and a 138 gr. .451 RB.

We were really duded up from then on. Riding our trail bikes or horses all over, sixguns hanging from our drop rigs. We figured we really looked the part. We did have fun and didn't hurt anyone. Mine shot a foot high and 6" right at 20 yds., but I knew that and sighted accordingly. No hearing protection back then I found BP quite loud! Not the Remington but a later Colt Dragoon I had three chambers fire at the same time. One on each side of the one intended. A flash over using FFFg and no grease. Learned that lesson, it was an eye opener. 120 gr. powder and three balls, BOOM!

The big Dragoon held over 25% more powder. It's about as big and heavy as a Contender hunting rig. Made famous of late by True Grit. They were intended to be carried on the saddle, not your belt.

Gary ventured out with the Ruger Army customs and I missed out. In my testing bullet pull in recoil became an issue much past the 220 gr. conicals and issue charges. Something we are still toying with. If you got one of the customs you are special indeed. I killed a small hog with my Ruger .45 C&B. But the custom 270 gr. pure lead conical bullets, propelled by hot 777 powder to 900 fps, barely had the beans to get into the inner body cavity where the organs were. Barely! They killed buffalo with round balls?!

A very elegant piece favored by both sides of the Civil war and made up to 1873. The Army used .44 (.451) and Navy a .36 (actually a .375) version. Power wise it equaled the solid frame Remington.

I ordered a 1860 Colt copy I found reasonable but they are shooting up in prices and are mostly sold out! I didn't know there were that many guys that even knew how to load them! It's nice getting to order a gun and it come right to your mailbox, no FFL. At least in my state. I have others that I really like, the 1861 fluted Navy, 1862 Police, little 1849 Pocket. In this "downtime" maybe you'd find it interesting to venture out. I'm finding really great deals on some long ML right now too. Before they are discovered.