Blanks - Anyone loaded these????

[All Hawks Kill]

My wife is looking at a horse back shooting competetion where you shoot balloons from horse back using blanks to pop the balloons.  She likes both my 1851 and 1860 and wants to try them, but I've never loaded them without a ball.  I know reenactors do this all the time, but I haven't been able to find any really good information.  So has anyone here ever loaded their C&B for blanks???

[Fingers McGee]

fffg Goex and cream of wheat.  Fill chamber with powder, compress it with rammer, fill chamber up with dry cream of wheat and compress it.  Alternate method is to use the green florist foam instead of cofw; but for C&Bs you have to punch out a disk of foam to load.  The florist foam works best with cartridges.  The BP cofw method is what I have used for years in gunfight reenactments.  The cof wheat dissipates/burns up within 15-20 feet of the muzzle.

Don't know what Cowboy Mounted Shooting clubs use.  You might want to contact a mounted shooting club in your area to see how they load their blanks.

[All Hawks Kill]

How do you keep the powder and cofw in the chamber?  Will a standard pistol wad work?

BTW Thanks for the info!

[coyotejoe]

I've made up C&B blanks with just FFFg Goex and a heavy wad of toilet tissue rammed down very tightly. Since there is no recoil the wad of tissue will hold OK and they are pretty loud.
 For SASS cowboy mounted shooting however the only blanks allowed are factory loaded .45 Colt. They do not allow handloads in that sport for reasons of safety and to assure no one takes unfair advantage. For that reason I don't believe C&B revolvers are allowed, only .45 Colt single actions. She can practice with anything she likes but she'll need a pair of .45 Colts for competition. Sorry, but it is not an inexpensive sport.

[All Hawks Kill]

Yes, I just read that they provide the ammo at these shoots.  Rats my wife isn't going to be happy.  I guess I'm going to be looking at a couple of conversion colts.......

[hillbill]

at the actual shoots they supply 45 long colt blanks, as far as i know you cant use a cap and ball revolver at a mounted shoot. im sure they would be fine to practice with.if yu are actually goin to compete yu will need a pair of 45 long colt revolvers.my mom and dad go to tons of these shoots every year and compete very well even tho they are in their 70's.actually yu will need a coil spring gun like a ruger as during practice and shoots yu will shoot tons of rounds.

[Fingers McGee]

How do you keep the powder and cofw in the chamber?  Will a standard pistol wad work?

BTW Thanks for the info!

The compressed powder and cofw stays in by itself.  Compressing it with the loading lever makes a pretty solid pill out of it.   Don't use a wad - it becomes a projectile when you pull the trigger.  The compressed cofw disintegrates on firing.

[All Hawks Kill]

Thanks, the info might come in handy if I do some reenactments.  For now we have found my wife needs a 45LC for the Mounted shooting.  She is looking at some of the R&M Conversion 1860s.

[coyotejoe]

I'd check into it a bit more before making a purchase. I believe you need six shot revolvers so they can be holstered with hammer down on an empty chamber. Most 1860 conversions use a five shot cylinder. The Uberti so called conversion revolvers use a larger frame and cylinder than the 1860 cap & ball so they have room for 6 shots but it makes a bigger and heavier revolver than a true 1860 conversion which was originally built only in .44 Colt. In fact, the .44 Colt cartridge was developed expressly for that conversion and no other gun ever chambered .44 Colt.
 I too love the sleek lines and balance of a true 1860 but for mounted shooting I think I'd go with Ruger Vaqueros.

[FourBee]

I believe coyotejoe is right about using 6 shooters.   This little guy from Fort Smith can tell you all about it.