Yep, the Colt cap and balls typically hit rather high.
My Colt 2nd generation 1851 Navy hits dead-on at a point between 75 and 100 yards: a couple inches high at 75 yards, a couple inches low at 100.
Here in the remote Utah desert I've plinked with it out to a measured 300 yards. You have to hold the top of the hammer even with the rear of barrel, near the forcing cone, to lob those little balls onto a rock or bush at that range, but it will do it.
Of course, at that range, a good group is about the size of a sheet of plywood: not pinpoint accuracy but enough to rattle the nerves of someone shooting at you.
I could hit a standing man at 100 yards with the Colt, if I needed to.
Lately, I've been thinking of writing a magazine article concerning the use of cap and ball revolvers at long range, out to 300 yards.
In the 1920s, when the late gun writer Elmer Keith began writing articles about shooting handguns at long range, it caused quite a stir. Back then, most people thought of handguns as 50-yard propositions, at most.
Keith was hitting man-sized stumps at 300 and 400 yards, and once shot the <expletive deleted> out of an old outhouse at 600 yards or better. :eek:
I suspect that with a full load that is accurate, most cap and ball revolvers (excluding the .31 caliber and the smaller .36 Police or Pocket) could make life interesting for an opponent out to 200 yards, perhaps 300.
Keith said one thing years ago that always stuck with me: If you want to see how accurate a load is, shoot it at long range. Variances are multiplied at long range and will become apparent, whereas at 25 or 50 yards they may not be noticeable.
He's right. Conical bullets in my Colt Navy and Remington .44 are all over the landscape at 300 yards --- but a proper-sized lead ball is remarkably consistent as to where it lands.
As for that Rogers & Spencer hitting so high, I haven't a clue. Hitting 4 feet high at 25 yards simply isn't normal. I wonder if that barrel has been bent.
Keith said many cowpokes --- and many cowboys were remarkably ignorant when it came to their guns --- bent the barrels of their old Colts upward after using it for a club during a fight, or using it as a hammer or pry bar! The result was often a gun that shot extremely high.
If that R&S is a new gun, I'd ship it back. If not, perhaps you can have a machinist or gunsmith check the squareness of the barrel to the frame.
The faster a pistol projectile moves, the lower it will land on a 25-yard target. The slower the bullet moves, the higher it will land.
So, your bugaboo may be attributed to powder contaminated with moisture. The powder burns unevenly and not completely, producing a very low muzzle velocity.
If you have access to a chronograph, check some of your loads about 15 feet from the muzzle. You shouldn't see more than 30 to 40 feet per second variation from shot to shot. That is, one shot at 800, another at 820 and the third at 780 fps.
But if you start seeing 800, 690, 825 and son on ... scrutinize your powder.
If you live in a damp climate, don't store your powder in a flask. Flasks are not airtight and will allow moisture into the powder. Black powder is hygroscopic, meaning it will draw moisture from the air.
This happened to yours truly, once. In damp climates, store your powder in its original, airtight can and fill your flask before you go to the range. When you return, pour what's left in your flask back in the can.
