1874Sharps
04-15-2010, 08:36 PM
Gentlemen,
I thought I would write up my recent experiences with a Model 1863 Starr cap and ball revolver and the boolits cast up from an original mold from Starr for this revolver.
The stars must all have recently aligned, as I found an original Starr Model 1863 boolit mold in good condition and simultaneously the extra coin to buy it. It is an interesting little mold with a blind hole cavity that casts a boolit that looks a bit like a rimfire cartridge. The boolit, when cast from pure lead, comes out as 0.458" at the ring on the base, 0.438" just above the base and is 0.735" tall. If the boolit is stuck into the muzzle of the barrel it goes all the way to the rim easily and can even be shaken from side to side a little, so it must "slug up" a long way when fired to grab the rifling and shoot accurately.
The Starr revolver was the third most popular pistol of the Civil War, with the Colt and Remington at the top. In my opinion it was the best design for several reasons. One, it had a hinged front on its frame that allowed a soldier to easily swap out a spent cyclinder and replace it with a loaded cylinder by unscrewing the knurled pin on the top rear side of the frame and tilting the barrel down. Two, it had no base pin, but rather had a pivot at the front and a ring type bearing surface at the rear near the ratchet, so that fouling could not bind the cylinder. Three, the rear of the cylinder has generous clearance between the nipples and the recoil shield so that the spent caps drop away and do not bind the action.
The range test gave some unexpected results. The revolver was charged with 24 grains of FFFG, topped with a leather wad saturated with lube, followed by the boolit. I have found these home made leather wads work quite well in my repro 1860 Colt in the place of more expensive Wonder Wads. I had such confidence that they would work well in the Starr that I did not bring any loose lube to place over the boolit as is done when not using wads. That turned out to be a mistake. The barrel quickly fouled and accuracy went out the window.
The next day I tried it again and used the same charge of 24 grains of FFFG (this load brings the level of powder in the chamber to just the right height so that the boolit slightly compresses it) and no wad. Instead I used BP lube over the end of the boolit. Accuracy proved to be good, but not quite as good compared to a patched 0,457" round ball (see last photo). Before getting this mold I found that a nitrated paper cartridge (using thin watchmaker's paper) with a 26 grain charge of FFFG glued to the round ball with lube over the end of the ball gave superb accuracy. Besides, biting off the twisted end of the paper cartridge and spitting it out and pouring the powder charge into the chamber during cowboy action shooting matches just looks plain cool.
Now here is the question I pose: Does anybody have any suggestions as to how to make the Starr boolits shoot even better?
I thought I would write up my recent experiences with a Model 1863 Starr cap and ball revolver and the boolits cast up from an original mold from Starr for this revolver.
The stars must all have recently aligned, as I found an original Starr Model 1863 boolit mold in good condition and simultaneously the extra coin to buy it. It is an interesting little mold with a blind hole cavity that casts a boolit that looks a bit like a rimfire cartridge. The boolit, when cast from pure lead, comes out as 0.458" at the ring on the base, 0.438" just above the base and is 0.735" tall. If the boolit is stuck into the muzzle of the barrel it goes all the way to the rim easily and can even be shaken from side to side a little, so it must "slug up" a long way when fired to grab the rifling and shoot accurately.
The Starr revolver was the third most popular pistol of the Civil War, with the Colt and Remington at the top. In my opinion it was the best design for several reasons. One, it had a hinged front on its frame that allowed a soldier to easily swap out a spent cyclinder and replace it with a loaded cylinder by unscrewing the knurled pin on the top rear side of the frame and tilting the barrel down. Two, it had no base pin, but rather had a pivot at the front and a ring type bearing surface at the rear near the ratchet, so that fouling could not bind the cylinder. Three, the rear of the cylinder has generous clearance between the nipples and the recoil shield so that the spent caps drop away and do not bind the action.
The range test gave some unexpected results. The revolver was charged with 24 grains of FFFG, topped with a leather wad saturated with lube, followed by the boolit. I have found these home made leather wads work quite well in my repro 1860 Colt in the place of more expensive Wonder Wads. I had such confidence that they would work well in the Starr that I did not bring any loose lube to place over the boolit as is done when not using wads. That turned out to be a mistake. The barrel quickly fouled and accuracy went out the window.
The next day I tried it again and used the same charge of 24 grains of FFFG (this load brings the level of powder in the chamber to just the right height so that the boolit slightly compresses it) and no wad. Instead I used BP lube over the end of the boolit. Accuracy proved to be good, but not quite as good compared to a patched 0,457" round ball (see last photo). Before getting this mold I found that a nitrated paper cartridge (using thin watchmaker's paper) with a 26 grain charge of FFFG glued to the round ball with lube over the end of the ball gave superb accuracy. Besides, biting off the twisted end of the paper cartridge and spitting it out and pouring the powder charge into the chamber during cowboy action shooting matches just looks plain cool.
Now here is the question I pose: Does anybody have any suggestions as to how to make the Starr boolits shoot even better?