The Gun Thread

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this guy makes me feel like a slacker......
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Saw this about the shootout at the OK Corral and wanted to share about 1 witnesses testimony of Wyatt Earp there.
 
shittim said:
Saw this about the shootout at the OK Corral and wanted to share about 1 witnesses testimony of Wyatt Earp there.
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Uhhh, should I ever be so unfortunate as to be in a gunfight, you bet I'm gonna move! Being in a fight seems to presuppose he's already seen me. Now he can see how fast these old bones can get motating! ... Practice shooting while running for cover! Course I shoot black powder, so I'm probably outgunned as well.
 
Perhaps not, cap and ball is respectable, and you create a smoke screen!
Wild Bill kept with the 1851 Navy well into the cartridge age.
 
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I'm thinking cap and ball is a great way to introduce a person to shooting. Load single to prevent chain fire.
 
shittim said:
I'm thinking cap and ball is a great way to introduce a person to shooting. Load single to prevent chain fire.
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Black powder is a great way to teach kids to shoot and, as you said to introduce adults to shooting. You can load down so not much recoil/muzzle rise and not a lot of noise. They don't learn to flinch right off like that. Then work up to full loads. Those aren't typically bad anyhow with BP, unless shooting some hunting loads. I have .44 C&B revolver and .54 rifle. They'll do the job, just better be on target quick if against a double stacked semi-auto!
 
Elmer Keith related what he had heard from 2 civil war veterans, both cavalry, one from each side, they both related the 36 caliber round ball "took the fight out of the man", they didn't say that about the 44 or the conical, and the Union Army NEVER let a contract for the cap and ball cartridge with round balls, only conicals.
 
shittim said:
Elmer Keith related what he had heard from 2 civil war veterans, both cavalry, one from each side, they both related the 36 caliber round ball "took the fight out of the man", they didn't say that about the 44 or the conical, and the Union Army NEVER let a contract for the cap and ball cartridge with round balls, only conicals.
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The .36 was a Navy pistol; smaller, lighter, better balanced, easier to handle and aim accurately. But if a Navy officer needed a pistol it would likely be on the deck of a ship at close quarters. Army officers needed the extra stoping power and distance, so the .44 was created as a scaled up copy of the .36. It could still be accurate and maneuverable with practice. I think Col. Mosby required his men to be able to hit a fence post from horseback at full gallop (which is rougher than a full run) with either 5 of 6 or 4 of 5 shots (memory is a bit foggy there) with the .44. Still, most who could carried a .36 as backup.

I believe the South was the first to scale up the pistol, then the Union followed suit. Southern pistols were generally brass framed because of steel shortages. With heavy loads they tended (and still do in replicas) to deform over time. Still fun to shoot with reduced loads, and with BP I can shoot all day for what the modern firearms guy next to me can burn up in 3 minutes!

I bought the .44 because that's what the pawn shop had when I decided "That looks like fun! I'll try that ... ." Guns just get ya like that.
 
In Elmer Keith's volume Sixguns, he relates his experience from both of the cavalry officers who were from both sides, the 1851 Navy and guns patterned on it were most likely used by both sides and regardless of rank, many line soldiers carried revolvers as well for back up.
Cap and ball is indeed fun, the cleaning may be a chore. I have heard of removing the wood and immersing the dirty revolver in mineral spirits, perhaps in a G.I. ammo can, this would allow the spirits to penetrate and soften the crud and also eliminate the oxygen that would cause corrosion, take it out, blow it out with compressed air, put the wood on and go shooting.
I have some foam gun cleaner, I like to spray the internals and leave that coating of gun cleaner protection on it, then go shooting, I believe this would be a great help in cleaning afterwards.
Brake cleaner is the same stuff as Birchwood Casey's Gun Scrubber, don't use the "environmentally safe" stuff, use the original stuff with ALL the nasty chemicals that make it work, scripture says we are getting a new heaven and earth anyway.
 
shittim said:
In Elmer Keith's volume Sixguns, he relates his experience from both of the cavalry officers who were from both sides, the 1851 Navy and guns patterned on it were most likely used by both sides and regardless of rank, many line soldiers carried revolvers as well for back up.
Cap and ball is indeed fun, the cleaning may be a chore. I have heard of removing the wood and immersing the dirty revolver in mineral spirits, perhaps in a G.I. ammo can, this would allow the spirits to penetrate and soften the crud and also eliminate the oxygen that would cause corrosion, take it out, blow it out with compressed air, put the wood on and go shooting.
I have some foam gun cleaner, I like to spray the internals and leave that coating of gun cleaner protection on it, then go shooting, I believe this would be a great help in cleaning afterwards.
Brake cleaner is the same stuff as Birchwood Casey's Gun Scrubber, don't use the "environmentally safe" stuff, use the original stuff with ALL the nasty chemicals that make it work, scripture says we are getting a new heaven and earth anyway.
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Oh yeah, even Privates used them! All Mosby's cavalrymen/raiders had at least 2 instead of swords. He believed they were far more effective than a sword, and it is hard to argue with success!

Cleaning BP guns with petroleum based products is not recommended. Can really gum up the works. I just use soap and cold water (hot water can cause "flash rust" to form). Then I heat up the oven to its lowest temp and melt my lube mixture, put the parts in it and let soak. Drain and reassemble and go shooting! Residual water is displaced by the lube and steams up the oven.

I don't just remove the grips, I break it down to the last screw. I use furniture oil on the wooden grips.

Conicals of that period had a hollow base that expanded and sealed without the need for patches, making reloading faster. They might take the fight out of a man at close quarters (I'm sure they did), but the lighter .36 conical would have shed velocity pretty fast. But they were inherently more accurate, as the only thing with a worse ballistic coefficient than a round ball would be a cube!
 
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