Civil War conicals in the 1860 Colt

[Abert Rim]

I had a chance to shoot a group each with the Eras Gone Johnston and Dow and the Eras Gone Kerr in my Uberti 1860 fluted-cylinder .44 this afternoon. I had hand-lubed them by rubbing an SPG clone into the lube grooves -- only one on the Johnston and Dow. The latter bullet was pretty fiddly to get into the cylinder mouth because of its longer nose, and I had to be careful to keep that nose below the mouth of each chamber. The stubby little Kerr was much easier to handle and seat. I fired the groups from 25 yards rest over my chronograph. The load consisted of 22 grains by weight of Triple 7 FFF, sparked by ancient CCI No. 11 caps given a pinch to stay on the nipples. Oddly, the Kerr, just two grains lighter than the Johnston and Dow at 226 grains, gave a higher average velocity of 826 fps than the J&D at 801 fps. But the Kerr also gave me a five-inch-plus group vs. the 2 3/4-inch group yielded by the J&D. Both groups were about 11-12 inches above the point of aim -- common in my experience with the Colt open tops.
I'll shoot more groups in the near future, but at this point, it is pretty clear my Uberti prefers the Johnston and Dow over both the Kerr and the round ball. And to keep things in perspective, the J&D is virtually duplicating the muzzle velocity and speed of John Browning's .45 ACP.
This was my first outing with this Uberti 1860. It is rather stiff -- perhaps the famous arbor issue -- and sucked a few caps.
Kudos to Jefferson Arsenal for selling me 30 each of the J&D and Kerr for this purpose, and of course to Mark Hubbs of Eras Gone for bringing molds for these historic bullets to the market.

[HWooldridge]

Thanks for the informative summary. I have an original 1860 Colt with its corresponding mold, which throws both a conical and a ball. I don’t shoot it anymore but it would easily stay on a Clorox bottle at 50 yds with the round ball; the conical wasn’t quite as accurate.