Jim Taylor
Memories of Black Powder
Saturday, June 02, 2018, 09:33

Back in the 80's I picked up an Italian-made copy of the Remington 1858 .44 cap & ball revolver. My Dad had bought a shipment of originals when I was a kid and I was always fascinated with them. The Italian copy was quite a bit different than the ones Remington made in the 1800's. The original Remington's had gain-twist rifling and barrels were .454" diameter, though they were called ".44 caliber". Advertised velocities ran as high as 1250 fps. The Italian copy had standard twist rifling and the bore was .445".

Shooting it, the muzzle report was a nice big "BOOM" but I could never get over 800 fps with the heaviest powder charge. Most loads were in the high 700 fps range. It was quite unsatisfying. So eventually I started working on it. The first thing was decent sights. I removed the little bitty front sight and silver-soldered a Smith & Wesson target front sight on the barrel. Then I opened up the little notch in the frame, make a nice square rear notch. Finishing on the range I got it pretty well centered.

The next thing I did was ream the chambers so I could seat a .460" round ball in the chambers. Then, using a long taper reamer, I reamed a long tapering throat in the barrel. It was nearly 3 inches in length. Upon firing the gun with a .460" ball, the first thing I noticed was more felt recoil and a "CRACK" instead of a "BOOM". Shrinking that ball .015" really upped the pressure, resulting in more velocity. Over the chronograph I was getting close to 1100 fps.

Experimenting with various grades of black powder I found that a full charge of 4Fg would blow the hammer back to full cock. Doing that is sort of hard on the cylinder hand and all the lockwork. 4Fg powder is not recommended. I normally stayed with 3Fg. I also tried other types of loads and found with some I could get over 1200 fps for the elongated round ball. Accuracy at 50 yards was decent if I did my part. Good enough that I had no issues hunting rabbits and other game.

One Javelina season I took the Remington out on opening day. I hiked back into the hills where I knew Javelina lived and eventually found a herd. They were in a wash below me. I crawled up to the edge of the wash and there, about 40 yards away, was a Javelina rubbing its butt on a rock. It was quartering away from me to the left, so I put the sights behind its right shoulder and touched it off. Through the smoke cloud I could see the little pig was down. When I got to it I found the ball had entered behind the right shoulder, ranged forward and exited through the left side of the neck. Lights out!

I shot the gun for a couple years, then traded it off. Cap & ball guns are fun for awhile. Then you realize why cartridge guns were invented. The old blackpowder cap & ball guns will do the job though.