05 February 2012

Colt 1860 Army

"Colt, America's Right Arm"
 "God made man.  Sam Colt made man equal."


I'd been contemplating Blackpowder, Cap&Ball,  whatever you wanna call it, for quite some time.  Then one weekend we saw "Cowboys and Aliens" and the Jeff Bridges remake of "True Grit" back to back, so I just had to get this done.

I found a heck of a deal on an Italian replica "Cold 1860 Army" over at CheaperThanDirt.com and  ordered it and the "starter kit".  Turns out it was the brass-framed model.  While the 1860 was the last model Sam Colt designed before his death, Colt never manufactured brass framed revolvers.    Brass was much more available and workable for the southern states of The Confederacy during the US Civil War days, so many clones and knock-offs of the 1860 Colt saw service, in brass, with "Johnny Reb".

Next, I used some Cabela's club points to get some wool wads, and some "wonder seals", along with some Hornady .454" lead balls.   Black powder is subject to haz-mat so this would be something I should get locally.   A visit to Bass Pro Shops  resulted in some percussion caps and two types of powder:  Goex (the real thing) and Pyrodex-P (blackpowder substitute).  I don't really know the difference.   Both are "not smokeless" and are for use in blackpowder arms.




Finally, on a cloudy day in the woods, with scattered sprinkles, I finally went about loading up and firing.  (I did not DARE take this to a public range, much less an indoor range!   The other stuff is called "smokeless" for a reason).   All the while, the mantra "Keep your Powder DRY" played over and over in my head... while storm clouds teased OVER my head.

Powder-measure set to a conservative 22gr, I went about filling each chamber with GOEX and topping with a wadding.  Next came the balls (swaging off a ring of lead for each as I worked the compressing lever thingy), and finally topped off with a "wonder wad" of waxy mentholatum-scented cap.  These are modern versions of a "lamb-tallow and beeswax" blend which is smeared on the front of each chamber to keep sparks and stuff from igniting the non-firing chambers.  Finally, I put a cap on each nipple.  I took a single-handed "off-hand" stance about 15 yds from my target area, cocked and fired.  The smell was like no other arm.  Kind of putrid.  Not as much smoke as I'd expected, but enough to obscure the target from my view.   A couple more shots and I was ringing the previously-ventilated propane tank with regularity.

Next up came Pyrodex-P at 20yds, and again I was hitting the mark.  Then I punched it up to 30gr of Pyrodex, and at 35 yards easily held off a hoard of aluminim cans, with the  propane tank leading their charge!  I was surprised the sparks and "fragments of smoke" which emanated from the barrel.  While going thru the loading process, I found myself mentally humming a marshal snare drum lick over and over in my head.

Next, for ya'ha's I filled a few chambers to the brim with GOEX, and compressed it well with the wool wad alone, capped the nipples and fired these "blanks" at a tree.  Smoke filled the air, and even curled out of the fissures in the tree bark.

Counting "blanks" and  cap-only hammer-falls, I managed a rate-of-fire somewhere around 25 rounds per HOUR!  I suppose with practice, this could be greatly improved.  But, honestly, I am so glad someone invented self-contained center-fire cartridges, and ultimately smokeless powder with non-corrosive primers.

That evening came the cleanup.  Blackpowder involves water and soap, a concept foreign to those of us who grew up in the non-corrosive smokeless era.  The next morning I found dusty reddish flecks of rust in the chambers.    A quick hit with a bronze bore brush, then a mop with windex stopped all that.   Following everything up with a grease known as "SuperLube 2000" (which is a modern simulation of that lamb-tallow/beeswax blend), and everything was shiny again.   The next day, I removed the walnut grip and fed it quite a bit of linseed oil.   I plan to finish up with linseed/beeswax blend I've been using on all my wood stocks for many years now.

Use and maintenance of cap&ball black powder is a complete PITA (Pain In The Arse[nal?]).  Yeah, I may take it out from time to time, but for the most part, this revolver is far nicer to look at than it is to operate!