I finally got to the range yesterday... and finally got to shoot my Navy and Army!
First I loaded the Navy with the cylinder in a loading stand I bought; 20 gr. of FFFG HB. I was very pleased with the accuracy and the group printed a couple of inches high at 20 yards. I fired 3 more cylinders full playing around. Recoil was darn near nonexistant!
This Uberti is without a doubt my favorite of the two!
I also shot 2 clinders full out of the Army. With 25 gr. of powder and the .45 cal. ball there was more recoil then the .36 had, but I would still term it as very mild. This load hit almost to point of aim, but 3 or so inches left.
While not as accurate as the Navy, it was acceptable... barely.
I'm going to up the charge to 28 gr. and see what happens. When I've got all the accuracy I think she can muster I'll worry about windage... if it's worth my time!
The little bench cylinder loader made me see how someone could bend the rammer mounted on the pistol. I bought one for each revolver and it was good for me to use it the first time out. I plan on using them the majority of the time.
Measuring out powder charges is a pain! Even after having found an old Lee measure that scoups up 10 gr. at a time. And my in-line capper was useless! It was faster and easier to cap by hand. What kind of cappers do y'all use?
After the first cylinder out of each revolver I used my home made combustible cartridges to reload with. It was a LOT faster and easier then the aforementioned scoop method! I could not tell any difference in ignition time or accuracy between the powder loaded into the cylinder from a measure or a combustible cartridge. Hi-ebber, and day always be a hi-ebber,
after about 2 loadings the fouling made it somewhat difficult to get the paper into the cylinder. I'm going to increase the taper on my tube forming dowels and that should take care of that problem!
My Beeswax/crisco lube seemed to be melting by the time 3 or 4 rounds had been fired. I'm gonna mix some up with B'wax and tallow (deer and mutton - I have both now!) like we talked about.
All in all I had a great time! And I learned a LOT about shooting C&B revolvers. Of course there was that "cleaning up the revolvers" thing after I got home. But even that wasn't
real bad.
I'm right glad I decided to try it!