Johngoboom

Does anybody know if these guns are any good?

I was thinking it would be a lot of fun to deer hunt with a .44 cal Navy.

Is that enough gun for a white tail? I have ZERO experience with BP revolvers.

JOHNNY WACKO

I have several,and only 1 is a good shooter. I tried everything to get them to shoot a group but failed...

gunman42782

The all steel Remington copies are good guns. They are all made by Pieta in Italy. The Colt guns, by their very nature, are not accurate, or should I say, they are very hard to hit with, as the rear sights are nothing more than a notch in the hammer! They also seem to get out of time. I have had three of the Remington New Army guns, and they were all good guns.

tx gun runner

1858 Remington 44 cal is the most accurate of the revolver and Uberti is top in the med price guns . A 138 gr round ball flying at 900 fps with 300 ft lbs is a poor choice for hunting deer in my book . Below is a avg target of a 1858 Remy loaded correctly . If you get one I will give you my magic load for it .

b.roberts

I have one of the 1858 clones imported by navy arms. What is your magic load? I normally just pour 20-25gr of fffg, then seat a wad, and then a round ball. I have tried 30-35 gr of fffg, minus the wad, with crisco smeared over the cylinder throats. The fouling was horrendous with that last load. Two cylinders full and the gun was tied up, cylinder wouldn't rotate.

deputy125

just about the majority out there are pietta and uberti..............

always been told if ya really want to hunt with one, go with the ruger old army as it can take a heavier powder charge by design and has the adj sights.

tx gun runner

22 grs of real BP about 18 grs of instant cream of wheat to bring ball to the top of cylinder , 50% bees wax and 50% alox and add a little crisco to the mix . It should look and spread like Peanut butter [ no wads ]. Now you can shoot all day without cleaning the bore . You will only need to wipe the outside of gun every so often . At the end of the day , one wet patch and then one dry one the bore will be clean . I won lots of medals with this load .

Johngoboom

Deputy they have this one is Cabelas...44 Cal, Adjustable Sights, and a 12" barrel.

Opinions on the ethics of using this for white tails. Please.

Bountyhunter

IMO opinion it's a little under powered for deer sized anomals, but I'm sure others will disagree. And maybe rightly so. But if you get one, don't one that long. a 7" barrel is easier to carry and looks way better.

Johngoboom

Well, I could always cut it with a hacksaw.

Bountyhunter

Yes you could.

Johngoboom

Maybe this style would make more sense. Plus it's .50 cal. I was just thinking it would be fun to hunt with a pistol during BP season here.

tx gun runner

The brass frames are junk . I've seen 2 broken and 1 of them was that 12" model . These pistol are not hunting guns for deer . GET A RIFLE

Johngoboom

TN, I have a rifle...In fact I have two black powder rifles.

But you can't tell me that a .50 Cal trapper model loaded with 60-70 grains of FF would not put a hurting on a deer at 40 yards or less. I'm not talking about any serious yardage. I can see where the .44 might not be enough gun though.

tx gun runner

You can put 100 grs of 3f in it . The barrel will not burn up that much powder in a pistol . 2f is a rifle powder and too slow for a pistol . It has a lot less power then a 45 acp and most states will not let you hunt deer with it anyway ...

Johngoboom

Well it would be OK with state rules. From the Michigan DNR website:

I guess the only way to figure out the true energy a .50 cal black powder pistol would generate would be shoot it across a chrony.

How much does BP slow down when you shorten the barrel? FFF wouldn't burn fast enough in a 10" or so barrel to generate around 1000 FPS?

b.roberts

Lots of deer have been taken with cap and ball revolvers. Lots of people too. Most bp pistols would be underpowered by today's standards. However, some of them can be loaded to surpass .45colt bp rounds. Those would take a deer as well as any modern pistol. One of the custom guys, maybe clements or bowen, was making 5 shot oversized .50 cylinders for the Ruger old army. That ought to easily take a deer.

tx gun runner

Ruger army with real black powder

143 gr RB
40gr 3f / 900 fps / 263 ft lbs
41gr 4f / 1036fps / 340 ft lbs

185 slug
34gr 3f / 813 fps / 271 ft lbs
35gr 4f / 900 fps / 335 ft lbs

A 45 1911 will fly a 185gr over 1000 fps which 100 fps faster then the BP gun . So the BP gun has less power that a 45 ACP .

Adding a longer cylinder for more powder will not help . The more powder you use the longer the barrel needs to be to burn it up .

b.roberts

http://www.gunblast.com/Cumpston_ClementsFugett.htm

Probably not what you were looking for price wise, but a 250gr bullet at 1150fps is an impressive cap and ball revolver. That sucker would easily take a deer. Hell, that would take an elk too.

tx gun runner

Great paste ........That's a 50 cal and cost over $1500 on your gun , with 846 ft lbs which is over double the 350 ft lbs of 44 BP revolver and both guns are a long way from a 44 mag of over 1200 ft lbs and the 357 mag has almost 700 ft lbs , which is double the BP 44 . Most poacher use a 22LR to put deer down .