Where does the BP fouling accumulate in your SA to bind the cylinder rotation?

[greenjoytj]

In my Ruger New Vaquero’s Black Powder fouling appears to accumulate in the chambers on the sloping ramp leading into the throats.

The build up of fouling at this location prevents some chambers from seating cartridges rim down onto the cylinder face.
A high standing case head scraping along the recoil shield locks my revolvers up.
This starts at approximately shot number 30 with one chamber requiring a hard push to seat the bullet. As more shots are fired other chambers start requiring hard seating to get the case rim down to the cylinder face.

Some fouling does accumulate on the front quarter of the cylinder base pin but that hasn’t stopped cylinder rotation.

Fouling accumulation on the cylinder front has never stopped my cylinder rotation.

I am using 45 Colt Hornady brass annealed and trimmed to 1.275”.
CCI 350 primers, 35 grains of 2 fg Old Eynsford BP
My cast bullet is from Lyman mold 452664, cast with 20:1 alloy.
Bullet is lubed with homemade Emmerts Improved.
The revolver is lubed with a Jojoba based oil specifically “Lube Gard Premium Universal Lubricant”.

The above mentioned load, lube and gun oil has been working well in my Miroku built Winchester M73 24” barrel.

Would trimming my brass slightly shorter (~5 thou shorter) than the “Trim To Length” help? This will make a little more space available in front of the bullet ogive to the ramp of the chambers forcing cone.

[Red River Rick]

IIRC, that Emmerts Lube was designed for "Smokeless" powder, hence the fouling problem.

Using SPG or an equivalent Black Powder Lube, will help soften the fouling and relieve some of your problems.
Others may chime in and have other remedies for your problem.

RRR

[Tar Heel]

Agree with Red River Rick. Try some SPG lube or White's BP1 lube. Shortening cases will allow even more fouling to build up.

A quick fix I sometimes employ on my C&B revolvers is to have a mixture of 10:1 Water to Ballistol in a spray bottle. When the gummies happen I spritz the gun and wipe her down with a clean cotton rag. That might work for you too during a match. It buys some more time before the crud gets too bad.

[Electrod47]

Getting 5 reloads before gumming up isn't half bad. The mix and spray mentioned by Tar Heel is my usual also.

[echo154]

I can't bring myself to shoot BP out of my Colt model P....yet. But I agree with the learned gents above. I made the mistake of using bullets lubed with commercial lube and regular gun oil/solventsin my 44-40 and BP.....very bad voodoo....fouling thick and cinder like......had to soak it in hot soapy water which called for stripping the frame. I met a guy at our range he was shooting an original 73 sharps carbine. He indicated he used a homemade lube ( beeswax, tallow and vaseline) but also liked SPG and some stuff in a tin that looked to be very old. It had sperm whale oil in it. I tried SPG as it was the most available then. I also change to a bullet style originally for BP. 200 grain HB, 20-1 with one giant GG. The fouling was easier to remove, cartridges were a little tight by the time I finished a box of fifty but I could still seat a cartridge flush with a slight push. He also said to use soap and hot water only and to use only oil designed for BP. What a difference!
I looked into Emmert's...it was designed by a smokeless Schuetzen shooter Buck Emmert the original mix was 50% pure natural beeswax, 40% Crisco and 10% canola oil. He used it for loading BP as well. The mix should be ok but I've never used it.

[17nut]

BP lube on bullets will (most often) take care of cylinder to barrel problems.
A lot of crud gets blown down on the barrel pin and that is where i find most problems, afther several cylinders shot. Use a very good fine grease on the pin and it will keep you out of problems as long as possible.

[bedbugbilly]

As above - use a BP lube and lube your cylinder pin well. For BP cartridges, I find that if I lube the boolit grooves well, it pretty much handles the fouling and keeps residue fouling soft - whether I an using a internal lubed load or an externally lubed heeled boolit load.

I have shot cap and ball revolvers since Adam and Eve and I have pretty much found that with them, the main issue is when the cylinder pin gets fouled up and it can even lock up a cylinder - that's why it is important to make sure the cylinder pin is well lubed with a good BP luber to keep the fouling soft. The 1851 Navy is my true love but I learned many years aog about the importance of keeping the cylinder pin well lubed. With my Uberti '51 and my homemade BP lube, I find that I can often get anywhere from 12 to 16 cylinders through it before I pull the barrel and cylinder, wipe it down, re-lube and then keep going - but that all depends on the humidity as that can affect the BP fouling as well. On a Colt/Colt clone C & B revolver, the cylinder pin has grooves turned in it so that is a big help as far as retaining the lube - unlike the cylinder pin on a Remington 1858, a 1873 Colt clone, Ruger NV where the cylinder pin is smooth.

I had a 5 1/2 Ruger 357 New Vaquero a number of years ago and I often shot BP through it. The one thing that I noticed with it - and this is our my experience - was that I would get fouling buildup on it, again, on the cylinder pin - primarily at the face of the cylinder as well as on the face fo the cylinder - both of which contributed to not being able to get as many cylinders full through it before I pulled the cylinder pin and cylinder, cleaned and re0lubed and continued on. IIRC, I lubed the cylinder pin bushing that slides into the cylinder as well as the pin.

The NV is a nice revolver - no doubt about it - but I ended up selling it as I like the Ubertis more. I have a Uberti 357 Bisley, a Uberti '51 Navy Richards & Mason Conversion, a Uberti 45 Colt Cattleman and all get fed both smokeless and BP. It may be just my experiences, but with all of them, I still find the biggest issue with BP fouling build up is the cylinder pin. The bore, chamber throats and cylinder faces on them all seem to take care of themselves.

Another thing to possibly consider is your cylinder throats. Undersize throats on a Ruger NV is not that uncommon. If you haven't checked them, you might want to. Even though your boolits/cartridge may seat in the chamber, if you are trying to push a boolit through a smaller hole, it makes sense to me that upon the cartridge firing, it would build up pressure as the boolit leaves the casing and goes out the cylinder throat - possibly causing a greater deposit of BP fouling at the point you describe that you have an issue with it? Just a thought and perhaps someone will tell me "I'm all wet". LOL

With some experimenting, you'll find out what works best in the revolver to keep the fouling down. There is one thing certain . . . with BP there is fouling and the trick is to find out what combination works best to keep it down. Good luck and enjoy!