new load for the new army

[guncheese]

i have not shot my pietta 1858 for a number of years
it had a broken hand spring and it really looked like hell.
i could never shoot the thing worth a darn either

well a couple months ago i ordered up 2 new hands and a screw set for it
i had it all torn down and i went to shiney town on the brass frame and really got her looking good (the cylinder looks like **** but when i get to bluing some other parts ill redo it)
a week ago i fitted the new hand and installed the screws and cleaned up the trigger group a bit as it really did have a horrid trigger.

so today i got to looking around to see if i could find a load that would help me rule out the gun as the issue with accuracy
so here is what i came up with
89139

i had read that if you can get the ball as close to the end of the chamber as you can it will help with keeping things on the straight and narrow
with this load i have just about .100" room left (i packed it pretty hard, maybe if i didnt it would have been lots closer)
is this a promising load?
i was thinking of inventing some flash paper and making some paper cartridge loads

im real inexperienced in the bp area so the help of the wise is needed :cool:

thanks
guncheese

[Fly]

Well my Remy .44cal shoots best with .30grains.Yea the ball is back some, but it shoots on target
better than any hand gun I own.If you beleave the stuff you read, then I would put a felt wad over
the powder.More powder does not always shoot as accrate.Been shooting these guy,s for 30 years,
& I don,t claim to know everything.But that's what I do.


Fly

[Jon]

I use 25gr of FFF with a lubed felt wad and a .454 ball seated firmly on top of the wad. It seems pretty accurate to me. I'd use some bore butter or something similar instead of the pan lube. I hear it tends to get tough to clean when using petroleum based lubes.

Make sure your ball is seated below the cylinder so that it can rotate into position.

Let us know how your recipe works

[guncheese]

i backed off the cream of wheat down to 13 gr
and went to a lube circle cut with a 45colt case still with the cardboard wad under it
im taking it with me tomorrow morn in the shoulder rig to the range, and ill run the cylinder i loaded up through it

[dikman]

25 gns. of fffg, 1/4" wax pill and .451 ball (Uberti, not Pietta). I had a very experienced shooter at the club try it, and his first shot at 25 yards was in the black, so I know there's nothing wrong with the gun or load. Just me!!

I've been told that these things are amongst the hardest to shoot (single-handed target shooting) and after something like 250 balls I'm finally managing to get some on the target - although still not in the black!

We finally narrowed the problem down to how I was holding it (due to the girly size grips).

So don't feel bad, they need a lot of practice. As for my lack of accuracy -am I worried? Heck no, it's just so satisfying every time it goes BOOM!

[guncheese]

okay lets qualify this
i had carpal tunnel surgery on my left wrist beginning of November
and i had the right wrist done last week
so i was shooting with a brace and a sore right hand with stitches (and no way to grip properly)
and it was dark (just after sunrise full solid over cast)
89407

so here is the group (seems i lost one to the left)
89408
so yes it actually groups!!!

im happy considering all that was working against me
need to work on that trigger a bit more (it aint no 1911!)
and yeah only 6 shots but it cleaned up with a patch 4 times down the bore and a wipe down
more next range trip, wont be friday it will be close to 0 here maybe Monday