Stupid question about wads...

[Johnno]

Hi all,

Its been ages since the last time I logged in - lots of dramas which I won't go into here but I'm now out of Sweden and living in France with my next/future wife and the original 1858 I had is now (sadly) long gone...

You can't keep a good man down they say so the first thing I did once I got here to France was to purchase myself a Pietta Remington 1858 NMA and the stuff I need to shoot it and still having some of my little plastic ''cartridges'' for holding measured powder loads - I brought them from Sweden with me - the first thing I did was to load up the gun using the same powder charge that I was using there in Sweden...

Its about 2 grams or 30/31 grains of black per charge...

The gunshop here that I bought from recommended .451 roundball instead of the .454 that I was using in Sweden so I first of all loaded powder into all 6 chambers - looking at it I figured there was no way my usual 10mm wide wads would fit so I decided okay, lets just do ball straight on top of the powder - the people in the shop must know what they are on about so lets seat those .451 roundballs in all 6 cylinders and do it that way...

What I DIDN'T like was the fact that I didn't get a nice complete lead ring with any of the balls as I seated them and then I started thinking ''chain fire'' with my nice shiny new Pietta Remington would not be nice...

I don't have the special tool for removing roundball once loaded so the ONLY thing I could think of - to make sure I could enjoy my first shoot with the gun without a risk of chainfire was to do something fairly weird...

Even using the ramming lever quite strongly I could see there was not enough room on top of the ball in each chamber to seat the full thickness 10mm wad down on top of the ball so I cut the wads I have into half thickness (5mm) wads and greased them and then sealed off each cylinder with a wad - with the side facing the roundball being lubed (but not the exposed side).

Apologies in advance for my long winded post - BUT, is there any reason why I shouldn't shoot my first 6 this way ? (i.e. NO wad between powder and ball but the wads on TOP of the balls instead)...

I'm sure this will qualify as one of my most weird posts ever but I thought I should ask...

Thanks to all in advance,

John.

[Hawg]

You can always use a little vegetable based lube on top of the balls. The .451's may also creep forward under recoil. I prefer using .454 balls.

[Steamburn]

But....can you get .454 balls in France?

[Johnno]

Yes Steamburn,

That is the crazy thing - .454 is easily available - when I bought the Pietta 1858 online here they recommended .451 to go with it and since I have never owned or used a modern replica 1858 before I assumed they knew what they were doing...

I now have the gun loaded with .451 but in reality I think it needs .454 like I used to use in Sweden with my original (made in 1864) Remington I had when I was there...

I have definitely gotten the ball down as far as I can in each chamber - sitting on about 30 or 31 grains of black powder - and rather than just grease on top what I have done (for that first shoot when I can do it anyway) is to seal all six chambers with six greased wads over the ball (10mm thick wads that I have cut in half to make 5mm wads) and as someone else mentioned I will probably need to watch after each shot just to make sure that one of the balls in an unfired cylinder doesn't move forwards in that cylinder due to recoil each time and THEN maybe I can get organized for proper loading...

I'm guessing it will need .454 or maybe even .457 for me to get a REAL full ring of lead around each chamber mouth when ramming the roundball home so probably I'll need more than one shoot here before I know exactly what I am doing...

Who knows - I might end up shooting .457 even lol

John.

[Hawg]

Who knows - I might end up shooting .457 even lol

John.

.457 might be a little too big for a Pietta. The loading levers are Remingtons weak link. The .454's are all you need.

[Johnno]

Thanks Hawg

I've got some of them here that I brought from Sweden with me... I don't have a ball puller unfortunately but I will see what I can improvise to unload and then start all over again I think...

John.

[Hawg]

Thanks Hawg

I've got some of them here that I brought from Sweden with me... I don't have a ball puller unfortunately but I will see what I can improvise to unload and then start all over again I think...

John.

Screw a wood screw into the ball and pull it with a pair of vice grips.

[Johnno]

Thanks Hawg,

I really needed that advice and I NEEDED to swap out those .451 balls (which came out WAY too easily) and instead load up with .454 - and I DID get a nice ''ring'' of lead each time too - and was able to put 2 of the lubed wads (originally 10mm ones but ones I had cut in half - hence two of them lol) behind the ball and everything fitting just about perfect

John.

[mazo kid]

Redundant now that you have the chambers unloaded, but.... you could have taken the cylinder out of the frame, removed the nipples, emptied the powder and tapped the balls out with a punch. Don't ask me why I know that.