First shoot with BP Revolver - Advice needed

[Hakeswill]

Hi all,

Got to fire my Pietta Remington Comp Revolver for the first time today. I was shooting at 25 yards and only one shot went in the target out of the first lot I fired, I thought they might be going low and so I put a target underneath and I was right most shots went into the target below. It was shooting very straight though but just low.

One thing I noticed straight away with the .454 balls I have, they went very easily into the chambers, in one chamber after putting a lubed wad in the ball was coming back out the chamber after I pressed it in. So I definately need to get some larger caliber balls but would this cause the gun to shoot low?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[loiner1965]

how much powder were you using and anything over the powder like wads etc...
did you slug the barrel to determine bullet diameter.
what grouping did you get as if ok you could just adjust the sights

[Hakeswill]

how much powder were you using and anything over the powder like wads etc...
did you slug the barrel to determine bullet diameter.
what grouping did you get as if ok you could just adjust the sights

I was using 15 grains of 777 with lubed wonder wads. The guy in the shop just tried a .454 ball ontop of the chamber and it looked ok but they press in easy and it doesnt shave anything off really.

I wouldnt really call it a grouping lol they were a bit all over the place. I dont have sights adjustable for elevation.

Perhaps with tighter fitting balls I might get better consistency?

[loiner1965]

try .457 balls and see what happens.....my balls ooooooh eeeerrr missus are nice and tight to press in and they are .454 too....but my grouping is all over the place too lol.
some pistols are easier than others to shoot and it takes time and practice.
keep at it .
i am not going back to using a filler and bringing the ball closer to the forcing cone like i had it before.

[Hakeswill]

try .457 balls and see what happens.....my balls ooooooh eeeerrr missus are nice and tight to press in and they are .454 too....but my grouping is all over the place too lol.
some pistols are easier than others to shoot and it takes time and practice.
keep at it .
i am not going back to using a filler and bringing the ball closer to the forcing cone like i had it before.

lol yeah I will get some .457 balls before I go next weekend and give them a try, I might try with a larger load too, think my other nozzle is 25 grains.

[tim56]

Dont be diss heartened if you are shooting all over the place to start with. Most of us missed the target compleatly when first starting out. Try using both hands to grip the pistol untill you gain confidence. 15 grns is an acceptable starting point so try bigger balls and see how it goes two handed. If you shoot well two handed but badly with one its you, if you shoot badly using two hands its probably your load. Half the fun is trying different loads etc. Iv been using my rogers nearly 10 years and i still miss the black sometimes, with my short barreled ruger im all over the place. Keep practising, it does get better.

[Hakeswill]

Dont be diss heartened if you are shooting all over the place to start with. Most of us missed the target compleatly when first starting out. Try using both hands to grip the pistol untill you gain confidence. 15 grns is an acceptable starting point so try bigger balls and see how it goes two handed. If you shoot well two handed but badly with one its you, if you shoot badly using two hands its probably your load. Half the fun is trying different loads etc. Iv been using my rogers nearly 10 years and i still miss the black sometimes, with my short barreled ruger im all over the place. Keep practising, it does get better.

I was shooting two handed lol. I will give it a go with the bigger balls and experiment with the load and post a follow up after my next visit.

[Hakeswill]

Tried out the pistol again last night with some better results. The .457 balls fit much better into the chambers but they still looked to be shooting the same as the .454 (roughly). So again all my rounds were going into the bottom target not the top one I was aiming at. I decided to increase my powder load from the 15 grains, to what im not sure because the nozzle isnt marked but it was inbetween the 15 and 30 so maybe 20 or 25, this produced better results the rounds were going higher and I was getting more of a grouping around the middle of the two targets.

Since they were grouping around the middle i started aiming at the top of the target I was trying to hit, I found this difficult with there not being a clear point to aim at but I got some reasonable results, didnt get the black but came close. So next time I think I will mark the top of the target with something to give me an aiming point and see how it goes.