EH>Copyright, C. E. Harris, 1995, All Rights Reserved
EH>Cap & ball revolvers are great fun for hunting varmints or small
  >game and for informaal target shooting.  They accomplish most
  >sporting tasks as well as a modern cartridge gun.  About the only
  >things you give up are reloading speed and chasing brass.
Thanks for the re-post.
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EH>After the chambers have been reamed, a larger ball is required to
  >provide a proper tight fit in the modified chambers.  A round
  >ball used in a cap & ball revolver must be 0.005" larger in
  >diameter than the largest chamber to be accurate in heavy loads.
  >If only light target loads (less than 800 f.p.s.) will be used, a
  >ball only 0.003" larger than chamber diameter is adequate.  The
  >ring of lead cut from a ball in seating forms a short cylindrical
  >bearing surface which engraves in the rifling.  A minimal tangent
  >contact of the ball is not adequate except for the light loads.
I have found that my Uberti M1851 Navy shoots best with .380 
roundballs.  The .375s make it shoot like a smoothbore.  In .44s I use 
.457 roundballs and get better accuracy than .454s.
[snip]
EH>The undersized Italian nipples on reporoduction guns should
  >always be replaced with Uncle Mikes or Tresco Ampco nipples of
  >proper size to provide a snug fit with CCI or RWS No. 11 caps.
  >Undersized caps will blow off from the blast of firing adjacent
  >chambers and also increase the frequency of cap jams.
In the past year or so, CCI and Remington have reintroduced #10 caps, 
meant for revolvers. I haven't tried them myself, but my dad has 
reported good results on a Pietta-made Remington repro.
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Regards,
Dave
 * 1st 2.00 ~ Visit my home page:   http://www.erols.com/dsmjd
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