What grease to use to prevent flashover?

[tesco.com]

My lad has just bought his first BP revolver but he's not sure what kind of grease to seal the chambers with and I've no idea!
Can anyone give me an idea what he needs to use please?

[tacfoley]

My lad has just bought his first BP revolver but he's not sure what kind of grease to seal the chambers with and I've no idea!
Can anyone give me an idea what he needs to use please?

If you MUST use grease - and many these days do not - please DON'T use any automotive grease like the stuff you put in bearings. It will make a nigh-on immoveable hard crud on every surface of the gun.
Some use water-pump grease, same deal, it's hydrocarbon based, and therefore very messy to clean up post shoot. Over in the real world, Crisco shortening is THE stuff- makes the air around you smell like a chip van, though. I have no idea what the UK equivalent is, I suspect something like TREX [?]

Anyhwo, here's MY tip, and I've been shooting BP since 1968, so you can bet that if it can be done, I've probably done it. Go into Boots and buy a plastic container of E45 hand cream, and use that.

There are a few reasons why this is a good idea -

1. It is totally water-soluble, and therefore, when you wash off the gun you wash away all the goop with it.

2. It it totally non-allergic [it's a skin cream, right?] - some greases are definitely NOT.

3. It works.

Others may differ- there are, of course, as many answers to this as fleas on a dog.

Keep your automotive grease for the cylinder arbour.

tac

[anfukf]

Trex would be the UK equivalent,I mix that with beeswax for black powder bullets,but crisco is available from Tesco, online if not at a local store.

[tesco.com]

Thanks gents, that's just what I needed to know. I've got a tub of automotive grease in the garage which was in danger of being used, but not any more!
Thanks again
Steve

[enfield2band]

Flashover does not come from the front of the cylinder it happens at the back when hot gases flash from one cap hole to the next. Good fitting caps will reduce the risk of this happening. For example-If you have No11 caps and your nipples are intended for No10 they will be loose on the nipple and there is a possibility that hot gases from one chamber can flashover to the next.
I have witnessed a chain reaction of flashover where all six chambers fired simultaneously. Like an idiot I watched it instead of diving for cover.(Well, it was fun to watch). Thankfully the gun did not burst but it bent the cylinder pin and frame.
If the balls fit the gun adequately there should be a thin metal ring of lead left when the ball is squeezed into the cylinder, so in effect. the ball is not completely round, and the point where the lead has been shaved off is the gas seal.
If you want proof of this grease all six chambers and only cap one chamber and then fire the gun. The grease on the chambers either side of the one you have just fired will be devoid of most of the grease, the pressure that escapes from between the cylinder and the barrel blows it out.

Some indoor ranges I know of have banned using grease because of the mess it makes on the floor. It does not matter on an outdoor range, and if you feel safer using grease it will not do any harm and should not affect the accuracy of your gun.

Atb

[tesco.com]

Thanks for that enfield2band, good to know.
How do we find out what the correct size cap is?! looking at the instructions that came with the pistol (Uberti Remington 1858 new army), they only cover ball size and powder weight..

[enfield2band]

Thanks for that enfield2band, good to know.
How do we find out what the correct size cap is?! looking at the instructions that came with the pistol (Uberti Remington 1858 new army), they only cover ball size and powder weight..

If it is a new pistol I would expect it to be No.11 caps. This size is the most commonly used.

I have an older Uberti Police with the fluted cylinder and it takes No.10 caps.

The only sure way is to try one on the gun. If it is a snug fit is will be the right size.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[tacfoley]

Use wads

Hmmmmmmmmm. I 'spose I'll put my oar in again. TBH, this is a subject that really needs to be made a sticky, as quite a few of us have posted on this very subject in the last month, and it tends to get ignored.

Re Voodoo and Post #18. Balls falling out of the chamber once they've been forcibly RAMMED in by the loading lever? Never seen it with a correct fitting, lead-shaving ball. Obviously, if they just fall in, then they are going to just fall out again. Most .44s take a .451" to .454" ball, and ALL Ruger Old Armys take a .457".

ANY good quality MINERAL-based grease or even pharmaceutical skin-cream like E45 will be good to use to seal the chambers over. Whereas the grease tends to be gloopy and messy, and not so easy to remove on cleaning, the use of E45 - an emulsion - means that it simply washes away with all the crud. Using hydro-carbon-based grease is not such a good plan, as the heat of ignition and the BP residue combine to make a near-immoveable build-up of fouling that can be a b*gger to remove.

Flashover, BTW, happens when badly-fitting caps are placed on worn-out nipples, allowing the flash to 'flash-over' from one cap to the adjacent nipple, and this set of a series of shots, commonly called a chain-fire. I've been shooting BP handguns since the late 1960's and have yet to witness one, although everybody, except me, it seems, knows somebody to whom it has happened, or somebody who knows somebody else to whom it has happened. If anybody can PROVE to me how a flame can wrap itself around the ball that is almost immoveably and hermetically-sealed into its tight-fitting chamber as is humanly possible, then I'l accept that it happens because you haven't put enough gloop on the front of the ball. Whinemeal, I'll continue to shoot thousands of shots a year in blissful ignorance, without a chainfire.

And yes, I WILL have my say about wads, and then say no more about them, except to note that they are a recent phenomenum and are not mentioned by Colt or Remington at any time when they were making BP revolvers.

Wads are good to help fill out the space in the chamber when using light loads and to bring the ball as near the mouth of the chamber as the shooter feels is necessary. Seating the ball flush with the mouth of the chamber is good practice, and can be achieved by using a combination of correct/best load that works for you, wads and/or an inert filler like semolina or cous-cous. Me, I don't bother, just like the original shooters of the things didn't bother. You can buy wads - called Ox-Yoke Wonder-wads[tm] - at horrendous cost here in UK, or make your own from thick upholsterer's felt and a suitable wad punch, as mentioned. Soak the sheet of felt overnight in Crisco or whatever you have here like it [Trex?] and let it set. Cut out and use.

And BTW, if you decide to use grease instead of my heartily-recommended E45 [Boots sell it], that grease will also do for the cylinder axis pin to keep the cylinder rotating in spite of the BP crud.

tac

[Simon G]

tacfoely is probably the closest to my practice.

Grease? I don't use it. The only advantage to using grease is to keep B/P fouling soft for easier cleaning, I don't leave my revolvers that long before cleaning them, so no need. It does not prevent flashover at the front of the chambers. A tight fitting ball does. Decent nipples and correctly fitting caps prevent the "true" cause for flashover and a chain fire.

Wads. If using very light loads of real B/P or Pyrodex, the B/P substitute, then it really needs a slight compression to ignite properly. Wads are really essential if using Triple 7. Triple 7 is not a B/P substitute, but is a nitro based propellant that you can use safely in B/P guns. The loading data issued by Hodgdon is the only SAFE load combination with Triple 7. The ignition of this powder can be problematic if not the exact recipe is used as it can produce dangerous pressure spikes. The height of the powder tower with Triple 7 is critical.

As for seating the ball as close to the chamber mouth as close as possible is, in my experimentation, purely a personal choice. If it boosts your confidence, then do it, because that will no doubt transfer itself to your score card! But, as long as a revolver has a cylinder gap for the ball to cross, how close the ball is to the forcing cone matters not a jot... A .357 revolver with a .38spl full wadcutter has a "massive" gap between bullet and chamber mouth, but this was the most accurate combination pre 1997 days...

[lasbrisas]

I use grease that comes from a certain airlines engineering maintenance department, my understanding for using it is to stop fouling and to lube the ball as it goes down the barrel. I just followed what all the other club members do and some of them have been shooting it for 40 years.

[tacfoley]

I use grease that comes from a certain airlines engineering maintenance department, my understanding for using it is to lube the ball as it goes down the barrel. I just followed what all the other club members do and some of them have been shooting it for 40 years.

If you ask any of your experts in the airlines engineering maintenance department, they will tell you something that has been well-known since Man first starting sending little lead balls down tubes - lead is self-lubricating, and little balls of the stuff require nothing to help them on their way down a highly-polished steel barrel.

The purpose of slopping grease over the end of the chamber is either to give some degree of comfort for those who STILL believe that a flame can ooze past a sealed in chamber ball, or to keep the fouling soft.

Take your pick.

On the other hand, if you don't believe ME, post your comment on www.muzzleloadingforum. com, where any five shooters taken at random have over 200 years of BP experience, and see what THEY have to say. Although I've been a poster there myself for the last twelve years, I promise not to stick my $0.02 in.

tac

[airgunnut]

I don't bother with grease or wads I just use cheap porridge oats, once Bp has been put in all the clylinders fill with porridge oats then press ball in, the oats will compress but if you have remove the ball by hand (no misquotes please) the oats will have compressed to something that is like concrete to remove a shooter with over 50 years of shooting experience told me about the oats