Shot my new Pietta 1851 Navy

[MOGorilla]

Well, I finally shot my new Navy.  It is a pretty gun and shoots good too.  My 1860 army typically shoots about 8-9 inches high at 10 yards.  The navy was shooting about 4 inches high with nice tight groups.  I did have one complaint.  The nipples were too large to take the CCI 11s.  I fought with them all afternoon.  I gave up remington 11s, as they are recently too long to fit in my snail capper or in-line capper.  I ruined a great snail capper 2 months ago thanks to them.  I am not patient enough to put them on with my fingers, but that is what I was doing yesterday.  I even had a dowel to push them on, to no avail.  The first hammer hit, seated the caps, the second fired the cap.  I switched out the nipples with my army and everything worked well.  I will have many days of happy shooting.   My thanks to Gatefeo, I always heard you had to shoot a couple of hundred rounds through a new gun to "season" up the rifling.  I have always done just that.  I bought J & W bore compound and cleaned the gun prior to shooting, I was right on target.   Learn something new here everyday.

 

[Gatofeo]

Yep, that JB Bore Compound or Iosso Bore Cleaner really slick up the bore of a new gun. I use it on all my new guns, blackpowder and smokeless.
It saves you a lot of ammunition, over the older practice of shooting lots of ammo to smooth the bore.
I've often wondered if a conical bullet, with its grease grooves, couldn't be filled with the above pastes and fired in a black powder revolver to smooth the bore too?
This would simply be a variation of the practice called "fire lapping."
But this would require far more compound than a tight patch worked back and forth and I'm rather stingy. Also, it may not work as well since the surface area of a patch is greater than any bullet.
Smoothing with a patch works, so I'm of the bent that if it isn't broke, don't fix it.
About once a year I use the same compounds to really clean the bores of my cap and ball revolvers. It's amazing how much lead it removes, lead you can't even see!
This unseen lead doesn't seem to affect accuracy but it gives me peace of mind. This is a job I do in the winter, when the snow is blowing horizontally and the wind is moaning like a Banshee.