tissue paper for wads.

[tuscarora]

kids got me a 1858 pietta for christmas..I am very pleased thus far with this revolver. Accuracy has been exceptional. I was easily shooting 3" groups at 25 and 30 yds right out of the box. I was however shooting left. Being right handed, I suspected it was due to my trigger pull and grip more than anything. With a bit of practice and placing my pinky finger under the grip and using only the tip of my trigger finger to pull the trigger my groups  tightened up a bit and were only around an inch left.  I have been using 30Gr of fffg goex behind a .454 RB.  a over the powder felt patch and a greased patch over the ball. Today  after shooting around a dozen rounds, all of which made a neat little cluster just left of the bull. I decided to try a small bit of tissue paper between the powder and ball rather than the felt patch.  For reasons beyond me, It shot dead center..I literally shot out a 1" orange sticker at 25 yds. Thinking maybe it was me, i cleaned it up a bit. loaded it with felt wads and it again shot just a touch left..........I'm slightly baffled why it shoots better using tissue paper.

[greyhunter]

Whatever, the tissue paper is def. cheaper. Possible it is sealing the charge better than a porous felt wad, and also compresses down to a firmer wad  when it is pushed by the rammer. Who knows, but I will surely try it out on mine!

[tuscarora]

...i just simply pulled off a small piece of tissue crumpled it into a very loose little ball and tucked it in...seems to work just fine. Iv'e heard others saying the over the powder wad is not necessary if you have a tight seal with your ball. Although i think in the pietta an over the powder wad helps to compress the powder better. I can only speculate but i'm assuming that is what is going on with the paper. Which might be conforming and compressing better.

[greyhunter]

The claim for the over powder wad or use of grease over the ball, is to prevent a chain fire. The grease is good because it lubes the bore a bit. As for the chain fire, I have thankfully never experienced it. I believe such an accident would occur, not from the front of the cylinder(its a tight lead seal) but rather from a cap adjacent to the fired cylinder falling off and lighting that cylnder along with the one the hammer hits.  I can't stress enough the use of a proper fitting ball, I once had a .36 cal misfire and the pressure from the cap pushed the loose(my bad) ball into the forcing cone. I don't know why I didn't cock and fire another round, but my guardian angel was looking out for dummys that day and I took the pistol apart and found the ball in the barrel. Make sure your caps are tight and your head is screwed on right as with all firearms.

[Roaddog]

As long as ya got it to shoot at point os ame ya did good. That is some darn good shootn by the way.

[rollingb]

That is some darn good shootn by the way. :rt th  

[tuscarora]

greyhunter.......i'm sure glad your guardian angel was looking out for you as well....that could have been ugly. !!

I was able to do a bit more experimenting yesterday and yep it shoots dead on. about a 2" group on average at 25 yds..30 gr fffg goex... a bit of tissue paper over the powder a .454 ball which gives me a nice uniform ring shaved off...and top it all off with either lubed wonder wads or crisco to seal it all up.