Range Report 05MAY2023: 1851 Colt Navy and .45 Colt Kirst Conversion

Pietta 1851 Colt Navy.

The first black-powder firearm I purchased was a Pietta 1851 Navy, and it was plagued with problems literally from day one.  My first day on the range was almost my last excursion into black powder because of the myriad problems with this piece.  Among several other issues, I sucked at capping (it was a very cold day and with my shaky hands getting numb it was a pain), and cap jams were a constant—more than one every single cylinder.  I don’t recall exactly, but I think I only fired a total of five rounds in that entire first session.

I persevered, however, purchasing Slix Shot nipples to significantly reduce cap jams, and just practicing more, and things did improve.  Then I got my Remington New Model Army, and realized how vastly superior Remingtons are to Colts, and the 1851 pretty much went into storage—I haven’t used it in a long time.

Still, I had a mold for the Eras Gone Richmond Lab .36 bullet, and if I made the cartridges just right and was extremely careful I could get a lot (not all) of them to load in the Navy, and the Slix Shots really did make a difference, so I still used it occasionally.  But I wanted to make it better, and it seemed important to have a .36-caliber pistol in my collection (and to shoot with it), so I sent it to Gary Barnes to have it reworked.  Mr. Barnes had already done magnificent work on my Remington and my Colt Conversion, so I thought he would make this piece worth shooting, and I was absolutely right.

Mr. Barnes opened out the loading port, modified the head of the rammer to match the points of my bullets, performed a trigger/action job, adjusted the angle of the forcing cone, and reamed the chambers to a uniform .380” (more on this below).  He also stripped off the nasty plastic finish on the grip and refinished it with oil.

Today was the first chance I’ve had to take this pistol to the range to see how it would work, and the difference is like night to day.  First and foremost, I didn’t have even a single cap jam, not one, in 39 rounds fired.  That’s stunning, especially for a damned Colt.  Second, the cartridges all loaded as easily as loading brass cartridges in a modern revolver, and almost as fast (except that they had to be rammed, of course).  I actually ran out of ammunition before I ran out of time because I didn’t expect them to load so quickly.

Another thing that made loading faster was that I purchased some 3-D-printed star cappers.  I have not been able to get any cappers to work despite trying three different kinds, but I find the Navy particularly difficult to cap (much harder than my Remington), so I wanted to try this one last thing.  The fourth time was the charm—the star cappers worked marvelously and reduced load time significantly.  In fact, I timed it, and it actually takes less time to load the star capper, then use it to cap the chambers, than it does just to cap the chambers by hand.  And since I loaded the cappers at home, that time wasn’t part of my shooting time, making the difference even more significant.  They aren’t historical, and I will not normally use them for historical shooting, but I rarely do any serious historical anything with the Navy and today was all about science, not history, so I was happy to have them.

Star Cappers.

I used two different bullet designs for the Navy today, the .36 Richmond Lab bullets and the .36 Colt bullets, both cast with Eras Gone bullet molds.  The R.L. bullets are .390 in diameter, while the Colts are .380, and this made a significant difference today.  As noted above, Mr. Barnes reamed my cylinders to .380 (after consulting with me), and the Colts slid in too easily—almost as if you could load them with finger pressure (not really).  I had no chain fires (which can on very rare occasions happen at the mouth of the chamber if the ball is too small to properly seal the chamber), but I was concerned about it.  I fired three tables of fire with each type of cartridge, and the average string test for the heavier R.L. bullets for all tables of fire was 2.9 in./rd., while the average for the three tables of fire with the Colt cartridges was 4.7 in./rd.—a significantly worse result.  I do not believe the Colts are inherently less accurate, I just think that they need a tighter chamber for best accuracy.  Since the vast majority of .36 cartridges I make use the R.L. bullets this isn’t a problem, but it’s interesting and worth noting.  I actually prefer the R.L. cartridges anyway since they have better terminal ballistics and since their design makes making paper cartridges easier with them.

Richmond Lab combustible cartridges.

Colt cartridges.

All of these cartridges were made with nitrated shells and held 15 grains of Schuetzen 3F powder.  For more information about how I make combustible paper cartridges for cap and ball revolvers go to the link below.  It is primarily about .44 cartridges, but the method is not significantly different (although I find the smaller cartridges more of a pain to make), and it includes a link to a short video showing me making .36 Colt cartridges.
https://historicalshooting.blogspot.com/2020/10/making-civil-war-style-paper-cartridges.html

Anyone who is not yet using the String Test as a way to track shooting results needs to reexamine his life choices and start using this system since it is both historically authentic and far more meaningful and useful than just looking at group size.  To learn more about the String test and how (and why) to use it, go to:  https://historicalshooting.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-string-test-measure-for-historical.html

Pietta Colt 1860 Kirst Conversion in .45 Colt.

In addition to the Colt Navy I also took my 1860 Colt Conversion to the range today.  It shot quite well, but I ran into a very strange problem: some of the strikers are hitting the primers off center, and the cartridge doesn’t go off as a result.  Sometimes I was able to cycle the same cartridge around and to get it to go off (the primers afterward showed two strikes, one on the edge and one on the center), but I had several that just didn’t go off, which is why the number of rounds shown in the target pictures below isn’t consistent. I suspect I may have a problem with the timing of the cylinder.  Also, note that I forgot where I was in the order, so mistakenly labeled these target numbers 5 and 6, when they were actually the 7th and 8th tables of fire.

One thing about the results shown is that I was using a full sight picture with a 6:00 hold, and if only I had aimed off slightly (perhaps 2-3 inches below the bull) the results would have been even better (although I am very pleased with any score under 3 in./rd.).  This really is a very accurate revolver, and I think the load I’m using works well in it.  To learn more about how I load .45 Colt cartridges, see the link here:
https://historicalshooting.blogspot.com/2022/11/loading-ammunition-for-45-colt-1860.html

Location:  Lytle Creek.
Shooting Conditions:  67 deg., 48% humidity, bright and sunny, wind 2-5 m.p.h. from 7:00.
Range: 15 yards.
Shooting position:  Seated unsupported for the Navy, offhand for the Conversion.
Sight picture:  Full sight with a 6:00 hold.

Table One
1851 Navy with Richmond Labs cartridges.
String measurement: 19.0 in.
Number of Rounds: 6.
String Test:  3.2 in./rd.

Table Two
1851 Navy with Richmond Labs cartridges.
String measurement: 18.25 in.
Number of Rounds: 6.
String Test:  3.0 in./rd.

Tables of Fire 1 & 2.

Table Three
1851 Navy with Richmond Labs cartridges.
String measurement: 14.25 in.
Number of Rounds: 6.
String Test:  2.4 in./rd.

Table Four
1851 Navy with Colt cartridges.
String measurement: 26.5 in.
Number of Rounds: 6.
String Test:  4.4 in./rd.

Tables of Fire 3 & 4.

Table Five
1851 Navy with Colt cartridges.
String measurement: 26.25 in.
Number of Rounds: 6.
String Test:  4.4 in./rd.

Table Six
1851 Navy with Colt cartridges.
String measurement: 48.7 in.
Number of Rounds: 9.
String Test:  5.4 in./rd.

Tables of Fire 5 & 6.

Table Seven
1860 Colt Conversion in .45 Colt.
String measurement: 23.25 in.
Number of Rounds: 8.
String Test:  2.9 in./rd.

Table Eight
1860 Colt Conversion in .45 Colt.
String measurement: 26.5 in.
Number of Rounds: 9.
String Test:  2.9 in./rd.

Tables of Fire 7 & 8.