felt wad lube and revolver caps

[Ironhand]

Just picked up a 36 cal revolver. Great fun to shoot but I am having trouble finding wads for it. Not a problem since I have gasket punches and my wife had some scrap felt.

My question is what do you all use for lube on homemade revolver wads and how do you apply it? Since the wad goes on top of the powder I am concerned about fouling the load.

Second question. How do you get the #10 caps seated consistently? I have tried seating them with a wood dowel and I still get caps that need a second hit.
#11 caps will not work. They fall off.

[Hank in WV]

I can't help with the first question. You don't say whether the pistol was bought used or not. If it is, you can try looking to see if the nipples are mushroomed somewhat from dry firing. If so, you can chuck them up in a drill lightly and dress the down a little with a file.

[greyhunter]

I have shot my revolver w/o a felt wad, just seat the ball on top of the powder and grease  on top of the ball. I have used Crisco veg shortening.  Saw no problems. Of late I use pre lubed wads or punched out felt wads lubed with wonder lube. You don't saturate the wad. Kinda like using spit  lube on a rifle patch. Use enough to do the job and don't slobber it all up. You may try pinching # 11 caps, to hold them on the nipples, but that is an aggravation and if they fall off after the shot they can jam between cyl and frame. You can dress them up as prev mentioned or contact the mfg for the right nipples. Make sure the ball fits tight! A cap that fires and doesn't set off the cyl charge can push a loose ball into the barrel and the next shot ruins your day. Some people use corn meal filler to get ball closer to the cone, Haven't tried that one yet. Shoot safe! Regards, GH.

[Shadow Hawk]

i have two revolvers and the nipples on both have been replaced for the same reson as you discribe. mine was from ovver use.
i would not pintch #11 caps to fit for if they come off before you fire they can cause a chain fire. that can rule your day. try getting the correct size nipples. as for lubing i always used wonder prelubed wads so i can't help with that part. hope ive helped at least a little.

[Bigsmoke]

One way to lube the wads is to melt some lube in a micorwave or a double boiler and drop in a handful of wads.  Fish them out and pat dry with paper towels.
Another is to use a liquid lube and put it in a spray bottle and spritz the felt before you punch the wads.
Or, you can use the wads dry as well.
I think it was Log Cabin that used to sell wads that had been waxed.  Different colors for different calibers.  .44's were red, .36's were blue and .32's were yellow, if I remember correctly.  That was nearly 40 years ago.

[Bison Horn]

http://www.rmcoxyoke.com/ has the lubed and dry wads. They have a discount when you ck out and sometimes free shipping with $25 order. Used to use the crisco by itself, years ago that's all I kew to use but it tends to be messy but if you want to break in new gear it's the quick way to make everything look used. BH

[prairie dog]

I used to have a Remington Army revolver that was very accurate with a light load of 3f and corn meal filler.  In those days there wasn't a great deal of information available but I never heard of using a wad between the powder and ball in a revolver.  It's a new concept to me.

Why the wad?  Is it to fill the space in the cylinder or is there some other advantage I don't know about?

[Bigsmoke]

Why the wad? Is it to fill the space in the cylinder or is there some other advantage I don't know about?

The wad is another way to do the same thing as greasing over the ball.  It seals the chamber and offers a bit of lube to keep the fouling softer in the barrel.  Personally, I prefer it to the grease because it doesn't get the gun as messy when you shoot it and on a hot day, it doesn't melt out of the chambers and run down the holster.

[Shadow Hawk]

Imho the lubed wad does both jobs.
it adds space and the lube helps soften the crude.
i also add the crisco ontop of the ball to help soften.
 in hot weather you can make up a stiffer lube fron oil and bees wax that will not "run down into your holster.

[Stormrider51]

Here's something else to check.  Is the mainspring on that revolver weak?  While a mushroomed nipple can cause a second-strike situation, so can a weak mainspring.  People will often attempt to lighten the cocking effort by reducing the mainspring tension.  This is usually done in one of three ways:

(a.) by grinding metal off the spring
(b.) placing a soft shim, usually leather, between the spring and frame
(c.) by placing a something like a screwdriver between spring and frame and cocking the gun to increase the bend in the spring

No matter how it is done, reducing a mainspring is almost always an invitation to misfires.  It's also possible that the spring wasn't tempered correctly in the first place and has lost some of its power but that's more rare.  Given the large mass and inertia of the single-action hammer, a full-power mainspring should snap the hammer forward with enough force to fire a percussion cap even if the cap isn't quite fully seated on the nipple.  If you know someone else with a cap and ball revolver compare the amount of effort required to cock theirs to the effort to cock yours.  If you can't get your hands on someone else's gun then remove the backstrap and grips of your revolver and check the mainspring for evidence of the three things I listed above.

GoodLuck,
John

[Gordon H.Kemp]

I"ve tried several combinations of chamber loading . Overall I find a slightly lubed felt wad over the powder seems to work best for me . It does help seal the front of the chamber to prevent "chainfires" and the small amount of lube seems to keep the crud level less and it remains softer without caking .  After much reading and experimenting I found a few of the proceedures were overkill. :roll eyes  I"ve done away with a few of  the operations of loading so it allows more time to shoot instead of trying to utillize all the possible (safty) forms.
       Once I find the load that seems to give the best and most consistant accy. and power, I seldom change it .  :rt th As long as the rammers stroke is long enough to apply some preasure to the wad and powder its fine .  This system has worked well and safely for me.

[Stormrider51]

Back when I first heard about sealing the front of the chambers to prevent a chainfire, I wondered how this could happen.  I had a 1851 Navy .36 and when I rammed the balls into the chambers a ring of lead would be shaved off each one so it seemed unlikely that flame could get around what amounted to a solid lead plug.  At one point I also had one of the CVA cannons and therefore some fuse.  The fuse gave me an idea.  I loaded all six chambers of the Navy and then removed the cylinder from the gun.  The percussion caps I used at the time required at firm push to seat them on the nipples so I used them as I normally would.  I intended to pour powder into the mouth of each chamber, onto the bare seated balls, and then ignite it from a safe distance by using a piece of cannon fuse.  Along about then it occurred to me that if I was wrong and did manage to create a chainfire that the cylinder wasn't likely to sit there pointing up but might flip over and spew balls in random directions.  I used a hole cutter to make a slightly over-cylinder-sized hole in a piece of scrap 2X8.  Now I was ready.  I filled each loaded chamber mouth with powder, set the cylinder into the hole in the board, stuck a foot-long piece of cannon fuse into one chamber mouth, lit it, and ran for cover.  There was a "poof" and a mushroom cloud of smoke but no main charges fired.  After waiting a couple of minutes as insurance, I went back and repeated the test.  More smoke but still no discharges.  I concluded that when a ball of large enough size to cause a ring of lead to be shaved off on loading was used, there was no need to further seal the chamber mouth.  I did continue to apply a homemade mixture of Crisco and beeswax over the balls to act as a lube but never bothered with cereal fillers or over-powder wads.  Loading a cap n' ball is slow enough without adding extra unnecessary steps.

It would be interesting to see if a chainfire could be created by using caps that require pinching to remain in place.  It would seem to me that in order to be valid the testing would have to be done using the fully assembled revolver locked into a machine rest and triggered from a safe distance.  Other variables that could be introduced include nipples with oversize holes due to erosion and a weak hammer spring that could allow the hammer to be blown back slightly on firing.  It seems logical that either of those could increase the likelihood of a chainfire.  Of course, this test would also mean having a revolver that the owner doesn't mind risking damage to!  Maybe I can come across one that has been severely abused by a previous owner....

John