The “Coal Burners”

Throughout most of our lifetimes, we who are into firearms, have become accustomed  to clean-burning, easy to reload pistols.  With practice and extra magazines & speed-loaders, many of us can keep a weapon steadily going almost without thought.

Up until the final years of the Civil War, most of our firearms were of black powder, "cap & ball" nature.  With the coming of the self-contained cartridges, things got a lot more convenient, with cleaner burning powder, and a reload was merely ejecting the empty cases, and dropping in 6 FRESH ones.  The old "percussion guns" became nearly extinct, except for the diehard shooters and collectors.

But there HAS been a resurgence over the last few decades of nostalgia, and a yearning to "re-enact" our "pioneer history", among the shooting fraternity.  Original civil war era revolvers are rare and VERY expensive....and , you take a risk shooting a 150-year old gun that cannot be replaced.

As you know, I tend to favor things from "way back when" because MOST things WERE built better than they are now-----but guns are not one of them.  The "Reproduction" guns, like this "1847 Walker Colt" from Uberti, enjoys the qualities of cold-forging from 4140 Molybedum steel, and frame case hardening, that didn't exist a century ago.

Italian gunmakers like Uberti, Pietta and a few others, make really fine reproductions of the originals, that are not only more "shootable" with their modern-day steel forging.....but they are usually priced LESS than the modern CARTRIDGE pistols we see today.  Top to bottom here, are the 1847 Walker we just looked at in 44 caliber, an 1851 Colt Confederate Navy in 36 Caliber, and an 1858 Remington Army in 44.

Ok......don't start.......this IS a "Confederate" Navy pistol.....brass frame and all, and it DOES need to look the part!  I'm NOT turning this into a political issue, but it was a "Big Brother" issue THEN.....just as it is TODAY.

Back then, you really had to be a good shot, because after your "six" were gone, the "reload" took awhile..........of course, both sides were at the same disadvantage.  The percussion pistol shown HERE is not Italian, it is the massive Ruger "Old Army", a stainless steel reproduction gun of incredible strength, as you'd expect from Ruger, and it shoots a forty-FIVE caliber lead round ball.

OK........we're out there on the frontier.....we're in the middle of a fight and we're EMPTY........(we'll do the "reload" with the big Walker Colt).

We WILL need "a few things"....powder, flask, round-balls, wads, primers,

.....grease.....(or "Bore Butter")---as we use today------------------

Although it'll handle more, my big "Walker" shoots most accurately at around 40 grains of Pyrodex-P pistol powder, (which burns cleaner than original FFFG black powder).  Here I have my powder-measure pre-adjusted to 40 grains, and then I just pour powder from the flask until it levels out at the top of the measure.

You pour the powder directly into the cylinder chamber (MISERABLE chore if the wind is blowing or it's raining), so most of us TODAY are "fair weather shooters" on a "black powder day!

A "wad", pre-cut to the caliber of your gun (in this case a 44), is gently pushed as flush as possible into the chamber where you just poured the powder.

The purpose of that wad is to compress that powder as flat and even as possible when you seat that round-ball down in there.  (It allows for a more even "burn" during ignition and thus better accuracy).

Every black powder revolver has a "seating lever" built onto the frame under the barrel, that swivels and allows you to seat the ball snugly atop the wad, and flatly onto the powder.

THEN.....after you repeat the "powder/wad/ball" routine 6 times and the cylinder is fully-loaded...................

You need to squeeze some "bore butter" and fill the rest off that chamber atop the seated ball.  This is to prevent an accidental "chain-fire" as the flash of burning powder spreads across the other open chambers during ignition.

NOTE:   Keep in mind that by now, you're already surrounded by Indians who have more arrows in their quivers than YOU have round balls in your pouch!......but you STILL aren't done!

You might be "loaded & greased" but it still won't fire without an ignition source.  These are percussion caps............

.....which, when struck by the hammer, ignited the powder, as our "modern-day" primers do today, although not always as reliably, because all of our "components" are not pre-sealed from the outside elements, as cartridge cases are.

Meanwhile, as arrows continue to whiz by our heads..........we've got to seat these percussion caps one at a time over the chamber "nipples" before we can FINALLY get off 6 carefully-aimed shots!  NOTE:  I didn't seat that cap all the way down for the photo, because I needed to be able to slip it back off after the picture.

As you gain proficiency with practice, you can load 6 cylinders in 4 or 5 minutes or so.....but that's a LONG TIME in the middle of a fight!  A lot of the "old-timers" used to carry "pre-loaded & primed" spare cylinders, which can be changed in 15 or 20 seconds.

So it's easy to see why the "self-contained" cartridge was such a welcome invention in the years that followed.

But.....back to our "coal-burners" as we call them.........

Most black powder revolvers come apart easily for cleaning.  You merely tap the clevis pin from the left side of the barrel (with a plastic mallet so you don't nick the blued finish)...pull the pin to the right through the frame, and simply pull the barrel off.

Pull the hammer back about halfway, rotate the cylinder slightly and it comes right off the cylinder shaft.

A "nipple wrench" is one of those many things you need, that you do NOT need on a "regular" gun.  Each "nipple" must be screwed OUT for cleaning.

Pulling and cleaning the percussion cap nipples, is an absolute MUST, given the "dirty-ness" of black powder (even the modern Pyrodex.

And along those lines....THIS was a major breakthrough.....# 13 bore cleaner from Thompson Center, specially formulated for black powder.  In days gone by, you had to boil hot water & soap to scrub the burnt, sooty crap out of a black powder gun.  This was a very welcomed product.  It takes the better part of an afternoon to clean one of these guns as it is!

On the opposite side of the "nipple", is a very small hole that MUST be clean and clear before you re-install it so as NOT to prevent the primer flash from reaching the powder when you fire it.  To HELP you here, you just unscrew this brass cap from the top of the nipple wrench.......

and THERE is your thin little steel nipple-reamer.  Dab a little solvent into the "percussion cap side" of the nipple, and just ream it out "clean" and let it sit to "air dry."

After you clean the chambers......get out your little tube of anti-seize.

Trust me....you'll thank me for this later, the next time you have to take it apart for cleaning............using a toothpick, apply a THIN coat of anti-seize on the threads, being careful NOT to get any of it near the 'flash-hole."

A I said earlier, even Pyrodex can be 'sooty" and if those nipple threads are TOO dry, you can sometimes almost "round-out" a nipple wrench breaking them loose.  Incidently--------you do NOT need to "gorilla-torque" them when screwing them back in.  Just "snug" is fine.

With all 6 nipples re-installed and "snugged" give it a quick "eyeball check" before putting the gun back together "just to make sure" that you can see a bit of daylight through all 6.   If not, just pass that reamer through the installed nipple.  It'll be ok.

A little oil (just a thin film), on the shaft with a Q-tip, so as to keep your natural skin oils from your fingers off of it.........

Half-cock the hammer, slide the cylinder back into place.  Upper-right shows the 2 stubby alignment pins.  Lower-left shows the corresponding alignment holes on the bottom of the barrel assembly, and the lower-right shows where that large clevis pin will slide & lock through when you slide the barrel back on.

Barrel is slid back into place, into those little "alignment" pins, now you just take your plastic mallet, and tap the clevis pin back in through that "shaft slot"..........

.....and when it clears the left side, the little spring-loaded locking tab will pop back up, and all you have to do now is wipe your gun down.

THIS is something I've been using for a few years now, and I HIGHLY recommend it.  It's called "G96", and is good for the moving surfaces as well as the blued finish.  It doesn't smell bad either (oddly enough, for a GUN product!)

Look closely at the photo on the left and you'll see that these guns have "RIFLED-BARRELS", just like the modern guns, and while they don't have the modern smokeless powder compression of some of the modern cartridge guns, they are still quite powerful.  That "old style Walker Colt" for example, with a 60-grain powder charge, actually has more stopping power than that "modern day" 357 Magnum underneath of it!

They're fun and nostalgic to shoot...........like re-creating history........

(but they ARE a chore to CLEAN!)--------and because lack powder burns so "sooty"......many of us who "indulge" in the old days, fondly refer to them as "coal-burners."   Shoot one & clean one, and you'll see why!