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At the age of 16 I purchase a steel framed reproduction 1858 Colt navy pistol. I shot that pistol loose. I was at the range and having ignition troubles, because it was loose, so I unscrewed each nipple one turn. All was fine initially but then trouble reared it's head. I had a flash over and five out of six rounds went off. I had a ball hung on the wedge on the left, a ball stuck in the loading lever and part of a ball on the wedge on the right. I didn't know it happened until I tried to cock the pistol for the next shot and the cylinder wouldn't turn due to the ball wedged in the loading lever which was also still partly in the chamber.

I was able to make repairs to this pistol by turning the cylinder pivot pin further in 1/2 turn. This caused the cylinder pivot pin wedge hole to now be in the wrong place but a file fixed that. Two new screws for the loading lever as they where bent and all was good again.

I stated that five out of six rounds went off. Being at the range I would load six at at time. If i was carrying it, as I sometimes did camping, I would only load five chambers and leave the hammer on the sixth.

Subsequently when Ruger came out with the "Old Army" I had to have one. Again I put a lot of rounds through it. This pistol is made with notches between the chambers so the hammer can be placed in a notch and six loaded chambers can be carried safely.
the Ruger "old Army" pistols have the nicety of being made with all modern materials including coil springs instead of flat springs. Later on they also made them in stainless steel, advantageous when shooting black powder.

I left my Ruger loaded and unfired for two years one time as it was the only firearm I owned and I thought it might be handy to keep a loaded firearm around. I didn't need it fortunately.
When I did fire it I found the chambers where pitted. I didn't realize that black powder was hygroscopic in the unfired state. I guess it was moisture and oxygen from the nitrate that caused the pitting. Learned a lesson there.

A few years ago I purchased a from the husband of a coworker that had multiple strokes and could no longer use the pistol a reproduction .44 caliber Remington New Model Army. I have yet to fire it but it seems like a nice pistol. It has a nicer trigger than the Colt Navy pistol as it is wider and centered in the trigger guard where as the Colt is thin and offset.

Not a BP pistol but I also have a Thompson Center .50 caliber Hawken's rifle. I owned it for over 25 years before taking it hunting. (I started hunting late in life) and took my first deer with it. It was actually my first time out hunting (a friend took me under his wing and taught me the ropes). I fell asleep in my stand and woke to the sound of leaves crunching under the hooves of this deer. I shot the deer. At the time I didn't know if I could pull the trigger on a living creature. Yeah I could, it was only a target. I didn't get a good heart/lung shot. I was elevated and the shot went through it's right front shoulder and out its side. The deer went down right where I shot it. Tried to stand up once but didn't make it and went back down. The hard part was sitting in the stand and watching the life pump out of this deer, seeing the eyes change as it dies.

While waiting for the deer to die four more bucks came around, again, first time out hunting and I'm thinking I can kill another deer. I pulled out my speed loader and stuffed the bullet in the muzzle. Damn, I didn't put the powder in. I pulled my knife out and tried to pry the bullet out of the muzzle while these four bucks are cavorting around in front of me taunting me. Needless to say, I did not score another buck that day.

Back to Capt.Curl's question. Yes you definitely need to buy a BP pistol but make sure it is a steel framed pistol or it will shoot loose fairly quickly compared to a steel framed pistol.

Vlad

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