After I had properly paid my respects to the fallen this Memorial Day this morning, it was time to proceed to the range and make some smoke this afternoon...
It was a driz-mal afternoon here in Maine -- drizzly, with dismal gray skies -- matching my somber mood as I paused by OUR FLAG while leaving the house to again remember all of those who had fallen in battle protecting the rights and freedom we hold so dear.
After paying my respects, I took a couple of Civil War replica Colt's over to the range, the venerable 1860 Army and one of the backup/concealed-carry tools of the trade, the 1862 Pocket Police. Both are replicas, recently purchased, and were made by Uberti:
Given the special meaning of the day, I figured this shirt and kepi would make a good backdrop -- for a Yankee, that is:
The 1860 shot the best, as I've spent the most time tuning and slicking the action of that one. I also followed the tips of "Duelist1954" (web name for Mike Beliveau who writes for Guns Of The Old West) and I'd polished off the sharp edges from the face of the hammer... 10 cylinders were fired -- for 60 rounds total -- and all 10 cylinders went off without any cap jams binding the action. Oh sure, one or two caps got caught and had to be mangled by forcibly turning the cylinder; but after I remembered to slight raise the muzzle up and quickly "flip" the gun to the right as I cocked back the hammer to toss away the spent cap, I had no more issues with caps. That was great! She shot pretty well from 15 yards too, offhand, of course:
I did have one "odd" issue that wasn't a "jam" -- but after a cap failed to set off the charge, I advanced the cylinder to fire off the other loads and came back around, thinking a cap wasn't seated fully the first time... Well, that wasn't it... Which is good to know, as I'd recently changed all cones or nipples over to the Ampco "Treso" (tree-soh) nipples made of bronze; I really credit those new nipples, along with Mike B's tips about polishing the hammer, for help delivering the great reliability today. Anyhow, this orange disk was sitting on the face of the nipple -- but with no metal from the cap itself?! Whatever material it is, it prevented the cap from firing and blocked the flame channel. This came on a cylinder in the midst of the shooting so I know for sure it came from one of the CCI #11 caps. I just might send it out to CCI, along with this picture, to see if they can figure out what it is... I've been shooting cap 'n balls for 35 years -- usually with CCI caps, which are my go-to brand -- and I've never seen anything like this before... It feels like it's rubber or some type of glue -- but it didn't "pop" as expected...
The l'il 1862 Police was smoother than she was the first time out, but it's evident I need to do some more slight stoning of the action on that one. I had corrected the too-long hand that tried to over-rotate the cylinder, but I'll have to polish the non-notch surfaces of the hammer, as I can feel that drag on the trigger as she's cocked and the ratchets may need some slight polishing too, those are especially felt when manually revolving the cylinder when on half-cock. I do have a set of Treso nipples on order for this one too, and that, plus a little more polishing of the hammer face, will likely improve this one's cap handling
So all in all, the years 1860 and 1862 -- as well as 1997 -- were all good to me today in 2017.
1997 you ask??? Well, that was the year I'd bought the old jug of Pyrodex "P" powder that I grabbed today to shoot up, and it performed as well as it ever has for me. I guess I'd buried that one in the back of the powder cabinet after I'd switched over to using 777 and real black powder, but I'm glad it will shoot so I can use it up -- as that's more fun than pouring it out on the lawn!
Hope your Memorial Days were good ones too -- now go make some smoke!
Old No7
