destrux
07-29-2015, 02:10 AM
Picked up one of these on sale recently at Cabela's for $175. I've been itching for one since getting into the Hell on Wheels series on AMC.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/29/af0dc526c0efa029043859b4f11d41b2.jpg
The grips were not fitted to the frame all that well, I had to take about 1/16" off the top to get the grip frame to line up with the screw holes without any force being applied. They fit perfect now though. I also cleaned about teaspoon full of brass shavings out of the inside of the action. Guess this one missed the parts washer. I also ran a 1.0mm drill bit through the flash holes (this is the size Pietta bores them to, I was simply deburring them) and found one flash hole was blocked with a burr.
The cylinder gap was decent though (0.08") and the timing and lock-up was good, and the barrel wedge was fitted properly. The exterior finish is very nice too. The bluing is very deep.
I've already started casting 130gr Lee conicals for it, which over a load of 17gr of Pyrodex P come out of the muzzle at 590fps average. I thought that was a little weak, but I'm unfamiliar with .36 caliber guns and what to expect. I did notice that quite a bit of powder was extruded into my grease cookie, so I plan to try lubed felt wads under the bullet instead to see if the velocity improves a bit.
It is a lot of fun to shoot though. The trigger is very nice, with only a 1 pound break, it makes it very easy to shoot accurately. I was shooting 2.5" groups at 25 yards. It would be excellent for small game hunting with just a bit more practice.
I've always been the type to clean my BP guns with soap and water or windex or Hoppes BP cleaner... but this time I'm going to try just cleaning it with oil (soy or olive) and lubricating the arbor and rear of the cylinder with my home made beeswax based lube that I also use for wads and grease cookies. Actually, for the past few weeks I've been shooting it and cleaning it this way and so far no sign of rust and no ignition issues from cleaning the cylinder bores with oil (I do mop them with q-tip to remove excess oil from the flash hole though). It has made cleaning a lot easier and faster. I've been using a pure soybean oil aerosol spray called "simply soy" that's sold as biodegradable WD40 alternative. I've actually been using it for the past few years at work; it's the best penetrating oil I've ever used for getting rusted fasteners out (and it smells like carnival food when it gets hot). After the initial cleaning I did warm the gun up with a propane torch (only warmed it) to sweat the moisture out of the metal and then sprayed it with the soy oil so it could take it into the pores of the steel. That's a fairly important step in this oil-only cleaning regimen from what I understand, to drive the water out of the metal and get oil deep into it.
I will post pictures tomorrow. I don't have any on this PC.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/29/af0dc526c0efa029043859b4f11d41b2.jpg
The grips were not fitted to the frame all that well, I had to take about 1/16" off the top to get the grip frame to line up with the screw holes without any force being applied. They fit perfect now though. I also cleaned about teaspoon full of brass shavings out of the inside of the action. Guess this one missed the parts washer. I also ran a 1.0mm drill bit through the flash holes (this is the size Pietta bores them to, I was simply deburring them) and found one flash hole was blocked with a burr.
The cylinder gap was decent though (0.08") and the timing and lock-up was good, and the barrel wedge was fitted properly. The exterior finish is very nice too. The bluing is very deep.
I've already started casting 130gr Lee conicals for it, which over a load of 17gr of Pyrodex P come out of the muzzle at 590fps average. I thought that was a little weak, but I'm unfamiliar with .36 caliber guns and what to expect. I did notice that quite a bit of powder was extruded into my grease cookie, so I plan to try lubed felt wads under the bullet instead to see if the velocity improves a bit.
It is a lot of fun to shoot though. The trigger is very nice, with only a 1 pound break, it makes it very easy to shoot accurately. I was shooting 2.5" groups at 25 yards. It would be excellent for small game hunting with just a bit more practice.
I've always been the type to clean my BP guns with soap and water or windex or Hoppes BP cleaner... but this time I'm going to try just cleaning it with oil (soy or olive) and lubricating the arbor and rear of the cylinder with my home made beeswax based lube that I also use for wads and grease cookies. Actually, for the past few weeks I've been shooting it and cleaning it this way and so far no sign of rust and no ignition issues from cleaning the cylinder bores with oil (I do mop them with q-tip to remove excess oil from the flash hole though). It has made cleaning a lot easier and faster. I've been using a pure soybean oil aerosol spray called "simply soy" that's sold as biodegradable WD40 alternative. I've actually been using it for the past few years at work; it's the best penetrating oil I've ever used for getting rusted fasteners out (and it smells like carnival food when it gets hot). After the initial cleaning I did warm the gun up with a propane torch (only warmed it) to sweat the moisture out of the metal and then sprayed it with the soy oil so it could take it into the pores of the steel. That's a fairly important step in this oil-only cleaning regimen from what I understand, to drive the water out of the metal and get oil deep into it.
I will post pictures tomorrow. I don't have any on this PC.