The Sicilian
member
Hello everybody,
First off, thank you for all of the helpful advice and kind words, I really learned a lot of useful information from you guys.
What can I say...it was awesome! I went to Elk Neck State Forest's outdoor range and brought my 8 year old boy with me and we had a blast! literally! You can shoot from dawn until dusk for only ten bucks!The facilities are a little modest but perfectly fine in my opinion. The atmosphere is well worth it! How can you beat shooting in a beautiful forest?
I started off with the pyrodex 30gr. pellets, a wonder wad and number ten caps made by CCI. I was really surprised by the Pyrodex pellets, they worked great and I wonder why so many people are down on them here? They're quick and the smell is no big deal, they all went off without any problems at all. So much for gmatov's inaccurate information about Pyrodex pellets being hard to ignite! Maybe it was true when they were first introduced but they seemed to have licked that problem, and good.
I made twelve of my own paper cartridges with Goex black powder, 30gr loads with .451 lead balls. The cartridges worked very well and I liked the black powder very much. I also measured out about a dozen shots using BP. I used a 25gr load and a 30gr load to see if there was any difference in accuracy. Honestly, I think I need more experience before I am able to give any reliable information in this area, considering my aim was only fair. I haven't shot a pistol in about 14 years so I couldn't put the ball on the red dot. (I also used .454 lead balls.)
I started out shooting from 15 yards and my accuracy was pretty good. I came within a quarter inch of putting a ball through the bullseye. All in all I did fairly well and was happy with my performance. I was shooting off-hand with one hand and I really enjoyed the kick the weapon gave me, very satisfiying! The sound was very loud, thunderous even, yet more "fat" sounding than high pitched, though it still had a considerable "crack" to it. Oh yeah, a quarter inch away from touching the "red" on the bullseye, not a 1/4 inch inside the red towards the bullseye.
I had the range to myself for a little while then an older man and his grandson arrived, they were shooting a Glock 9mm. I offered them a chance to shoot a real pistol but they declined, I think the pistol frightened them! The older man must have been around 77-80 years old and his grandson was around 25 or 26 years old. The older man out shot the younger man hands down! The old timer was very impressive and put more than a few shots inside the red dot.
I also met a 22 year old Iragi veteran who served two years in Irag. He was a really nice young man and filled me in on a few interesting things about the war. They may call him back for a third tour of duty, can you believe that bullsh*t! I guess we're really hard up for troops. He was shooting an AR-15 and his father was shooting an SKS, both of them were really good people. Everyone I met at the range was very polite and very helpful.
Once I got comfortable with my revolver I moved the target back to 25 yards. That was a whole other animal, let me tell you! I missed the target on my first attempt but hit it everytime after that...shew! I was a little worried there for a minute. I was still shooting offhand with my left hand and I was hitting the target, but nothing to really talk about. I was just happy to find the target!
I really wasn't too concerned with trying to find all my guns unique characteristics, I was just trying to get used to the feel of it. At the end of the day I was starting to get a good feel for how my 1858 shot. I set up an aluminum can at 45 feet and hit it without too much difficulty. I doubt I could have hit it at 75 feet, Hell! I'm sure I couldn't have hit it at 75ft. unless lucky, 25 yards is a lot farther then I thought!
Towards the end another guy showed up with a custom .45 and gave me some very good shooting advice. Because of his advice I was hitting that aluminum can almost at will. The best part was when he let my 8 year old boy shot his .45 (It was converted to shoot .22 ammo). My son did great! He almost hit the bullseye the second shot out! I was very proud of him and he was very responsible. All of the safety instructions I gave him he followed to the tee. I let him shoot his little Daisy .177 pistol while I was shooting my 1858 and he did very well.
I only had three problems all day long. I loaded my revolver and pulled the trigger...nothing happened...hang fire? I waited about 60 seconds and repeated...nothing again...waited, tried a third chamber...nothing! I then counted to 60 and removed my cylinder to see what was causing the problem. By the way, every time I pulled the trigger those three times a fiery little flame shot out about 15 feet or so. Anyway, when I checked the cylinder I immediately found out the cause of my problems...I forgot to load the lead balls!!!
The second problem resulted from using the paper cartridges. One of my nipple plugs got stopped up because of the way the cartridge ignited. I think instead of it igniting from the back it must have ignited from the sides...the resulting ignition must have blew the back of the paper cartridge into the nipple plug hole. So I got out my trusty nipple pick which came with my nipple wrench and proceeded to try and clear the blockage...and I wound up snapping my nipple pick off of the brass piece that screws onto the top of my niple wrench...DAMN! Why I didn't try and clear the blockage with a cap first is beyond me. Chalk it up to inexperience.
The nipple pick will be easy to reattach to the brass threaded cap and I had a stand alone spare nipple pick with me just in case something like this would wind up happening. I ran out of wonder wads quickly and switched to crisco and some of my own homemade wonder wads, they both worked great! Seems like the Remmy's cylinder pin gets stuck after about twelve rounds being shot. I had to use a rubber/nylon hammer to gently knock it out in order to reload. Anyone else experience this with their 1858? What is the best way to counteract this problem?
The only thing I regret is not having a pair of small binoculars to see where my shots were landing, that way I could have adjusted my aiming more accurately. Instead, I had to shoot six or walk out to the target every shot to see where my balls where hitting. The binoculars would have been invaluable to finding how the gun was shooting accuracy wise and would have made it a lot easier for me to adjust my aim. The second thing I regret is not bringing any orange clean with pummace in order to clean my hands every so often. Besides that I had a great time and will probably be shooting Black powder revolvers for life now!
The Sicilian.
First off, thank you for all of the helpful advice and kind words, I really learned a lot of useful information from you guys.
What can I say...it was awesome! I went to Elk Neck State Forest's outdoor range and brought my 8 year old boy with me and we had a blast! literally! You can shoot from dawn until dusk for only ten bucks!The facilities are a little modest but perfectly fine in my opinion. The atmosphere is well worth it! How can you beat shooting in a beautiful forest?
I started off with the pyrodex 30gr. pellets, a wonder wad and number ten caps made by CCI. I was really surprised by the Pyrodex pellets, they worked great and I wonder why so many people are down on them here? They're quick and the smell is no big deal, they all went off without any problems at all. So much for gmatov's inaccurate information about Pyrodex pellets being hard to ignite! Maybe it was true when they were first introduced but they seemed to have licked that problem, and good.
I made twelve of my own paper cartridges with Goex black powder, 30gr loads with .451 lead balls. The cartridges worked very well and I liked the black powder very much. I also measured out about a dozen shots using BP. I used a 25gr load and a 30gr load to see if there was any difference in accuracy. Honestly, I think I need more experience before I am able to give any reliable information in this area, considering my aim was only fair. I haven't shot a pistol in about 14 years so I couldn't put the ball on the red dot. (I also used .454 lead balls.)
I started out shooting from 15 yards and my accuracy was pretty good. I came within a quarter inch of putting a ball through the bullseye. All in all I did fairly well and was happy with my performance. I was shooting off-hand with one hand and I really enjoyed the kick the weapon gave me, very satisfiying! The sound was very loud, thunderous even, yet more "fat" sounding than high pitched, though it still had a considerable "crack" to it. Oh yeah, a quarter inch away from touching the "red" on the bullseye, not a 1/4 inch inside the red towards the bullseye.
I had the range to myself for a little while then an older man and his grandson arrived, they were shooting a Glock 9mm. I offered them a chance to shoot a real pistol but they declined, I think the pistol frightened them! The older man must have been around 77-80 years old and his grandson was around 25 or 26 years old. The older man out shot the younger man hands down! The old timer was very impressive and put more than a few shots inside the red dot.
I also met a 22 year old Iragi veteran who served two years in Irag. He was a really nice young man and filled me in on a few interesting things about the war. They may call him back for a third tour of duty, can you believe that bullsh*t! I guess we're really hard up for troops. He was shooting an AR-15 and his father was shooting an SKS, both of them were really good people. Everyone I met at the range was very polite and very helpful.
Once I got comfortable with my revolver I moved the target back to 25 yards. That was a whole other animal, let me tell you! I missed the target on my first attempt but hit it everytime after that...shew! I was a little worried there for a minute. I was still shooting offhand with my left hand and I was hitting the target, but nothing to really talk about. I was just happy to find the target!
I really wasn't too concerned with trying to find all my guns unique characteristics, I was just trying to get used to the feel of it. At the end of the day I was starting to get a good feel for how my 1858 shot. I set up an aluminum can at 45 feet and hit it without too much difficulty. I doubt I could have hit it at 75 feet, Hell! I'm sure I couldn't have hit it at 75ft. unless lucky, 25 yards is a lot farther then I thought!
Towards the end another guy showed up with a custom .45 and gave me some very good shooting advice. Because of his advice I was hitting that aluminum can almost at will. The best part was when he let my 8 year old boy shot his .45 (It was converted to shoot .22 ammo). My son did great! He almost hit the bullseye the second shot out! I was very proud of him and he was very responsible. All of the safety instructions I gave him he followed to the tee. I let him shoot his little Daisy .177 pistol while I was shooting my 1858 and he did very well.
I only had three problems all day long. I loaded my revolver and pulled the trigger...nothing happened...hang fire? I waited about 60 seconds and repeated...nothing again...waited, tried a third chamber...nothing! I then counted to 60 and removed my cylinder to see what was causing the problem. By the way, every time I pulled the trigger those three times a fiery little flame shot out about 15 feet or so. Anyway, when I checked the cylinder I immediately found out the cause of my problems...I forgot to load the lead balls!!!
The second problem resulted from using the paper cartridges. One of my nipple plugs got stopped up because of the way the cartridge ignited. I think instead of it igniting from the back it must have ignited from the sides...the resulting ignition must have blew the back of the paper cartridge into the nipple plug hole. So I got out my trusty nipple pick which came with my nipple wrench and proceeded to try and clear the blockage...and I wound up snapping my nipple pick off of the brass piece that screws onto the top of my niple wrench...DAMN! Why I didn't try and clear the blockage with a cap first is beyond me. Chalk it up to inexperience.
The nipple pick will be easy to reattach to the brass threaded cap and I had a stand alone spare nipple pick with me just in case something like this would wind up happening. I ran out of wonder wads quickly and switched to crisco and some of my own homemade wonder wads, they both worked great! Seems like the Remmy's cylinder pin gets stuck after about twelve rounds being shot. I had to use a rubber/nylon hammer to gently knock it out in order to reload. Anyone else experience this with their 1858? What is the best way to counteract this problem?
The only thing I regret is not having a pair of small binoculars to see where my shots were landing, that way I could have adjusted my aiming more accurately. Instead, I had to shoot six or walk out to the target every shot to see where my balls where hitting. The binoculars would have been invaluable to finding how the gun was shooting accuracy wise and would have made it a lot easier for me to adjust my aim. The second thing I regret is not bringing any orange clean with pummace in order to clean my hands every so often. Besides that I had a great time and will probably be shooting Black powder revolvers for life now!
The Sicilian.
