Does anyone use a cap and ball black powder revolver to hunt with?
I am thinking of getting one in .44, either an 1858 or an 1860.
What would be the limit as far as game it will take. Would a .44 have enough power to take a feral hog?
Jim

The only thing I ever shot with my 1851 Navy was a Skunk and a HUGE Racoon. Maybe look at the different models to see which one has a longer cylinder. Colt Walker? Then you can put more powder in. An interesting thing at Clements site is a 50 cal 5 shot conversion on the Ruger Old Army.
Back in the 80's they used to make a 50 cal cap and ball revolver, but I never got one. Wish I would have now.

Pepperbelly,

Here in MD they're pretty careful about prescribing "enough gun" for hunting. You're allowed to hunt deer here with a BP .44 caliber that'll hold something like 30gr or more of powder? I'd have to check, but the short story is that the powder capacity excludes everything short of the Walker Colt, for deer anyway. Feral hogs would be similar, I'd think.

Steve

pepperbelly (strange name) I use my Ruger Old Army cap and ball for deer and it does very well. It will hold 41 grs. of Swiss FFFG and a round ball. I use Mathews BPCR lube over the ball, no wad as it does nothing but take up powder space and Remington caps. Velocity with Swiss is very high and it is extremely accurate. The last large doe I shot with it was standing on my side of my fence. I shot her and she leaped the fence and collapsed on the other side with both shoulders broken. The ball went all the way through.
I would buy either the Ruger or the 1858 Remington. Stay away from the Colt repros because they will not hold enough powder and are very inaccurate. Most shoot very high and need a higher front sight too.
My friend uses a Remington long barrel buffalo hunter and killed a lot of deer with it.

bfrshooter, my nickname is my old cb radio handle from the '70s. When I needed a computer nickname it was the first thing that came to mind.
It's actually the short form of Choo Choo Cha Cha Pepperbelly Charley. You younger guys need to remember that the '70s were different. I remember most of it up to about '76, then things get hazy.
Thanks for the replies. I was thinking of the 1858 Remington repro from Uberti.
Jim

Another vote for the Ruger.Picked mine up used,but appeared to have never been fired,for $200.Shoot 40 grains 2F Goex with lubed round ball.Excellent accuracy.Have yet to try it on a deer,but plan to this coming fall.
brfshooter-have you chrony'd the Swiss 3F? I may have to get some and try it.Dave

Dave, yes I did but can't find the results and will have to do it again. I remember the velocity was much higher then Goex and the accuracy is much, much better. I can hit the steel targets at 100 yd's easily.
I was using Pyrocrap for a while and shot under 2 deer with the stuff at 20 to 30 yd's. I went down to my range and shot at steel (10" plate) the same distance the deer were. I hit in the dirt under the steel. I know I had the sights right. Several days later I went back down and now I was right in the center again. I blame the difference in temperature and scrapped the Pyrocrap. No problems at all with Swiss.
The new Goex should be good too but I have not tried it. This thing is really fun to hunt with and I have the same confidence in it I have with all of my revolvers.
The most important thing I have found is the lube in front of the ball. I use Mathews BPCR lube that I used to use for silhouette. Had some left so I tried it in the C&B. It works great and I can shoot all day without a loss in accuracy.
The formula is 1/2# of beeswax, 4 fluid oz. of pure neatsfoot oil and a bar of Neutrogena facial soap. Melt the beeswax and add the oil. Keep the heat low. Cut the soap into long thin peels and add it. I pour it into a jar and holding the jar with a potholder, I stir the mix with a stick until cool. Makes it smooth and keeps the mix even.
You DO NOT WANT A SOFT LUBE like Crisco or any of the commercial cap and ball lubes because it will blow out of the next chamber from cylinder blast. You want most of the lube to stay put so it will soften the fouling in the bore. When it blows away, the bore will not get enough to work. There are a lot of good BPCR lubes like beeswax, lanolin and Lube Gard mixes that will also work. In a word, Crisco sucks.

Dave, use FFFG not 2F. Stuff is way too slow.
Lube Gard is automatic transmission valve and assembly lube from NAPA auto parts. It is seed oil based and works great with black powder. Use it instead of neatsfoot oil. Adding lanolin makes it sticky and lets the lube absorb more moisture when in the bore. Stay away from anything with mineral oils in it.

brfshootrer,
My typo-I do use 3F Goex.And thanks for the rest of the tips.Now,if I could only find some time to try them out.Dave

One more vote for the Ruger Old Army. Mine was of the stainless flavor. I used round balls for small game. Tried conicals with limited success. Where it really got interesting was when I found out .452-.4525 bullets for the .45 ACP fit the cylinder throats! They were the most accurate projectiles I tried. The somewhat reduced velocity also caused the hollow points to work similar to controlled-expansion bullets. They worked great for deer & hogs. BTW, I also used FFFg. Tried FFFFg, but it was a bit too hot!

DaveP, I just ran my Ruger over the chronograph. The .457 ball weighs 142 grs. My average velocity was 1101.7, SD is 4 and extreme spread was 10.5. I shot 6 off of sandbags at 25 yd's and had 5 in one slightly ragged hole with the first shot from a clean barrel 1/2" right of the group. It was warm out today and I started to get larger groups at 50 yd's so I am going to try some other lubes. Keep you posted.

I figured out why the groups were getting worse. The Bushnell red dot I had on it shot the prizm loose on the end of the inner tube. I shot it today and the pattern kept going farther to the left and I noticed the dot was creeping farther to the right. Took it off to fix, but I can't unscrew the front. Going to try a strap wrench.
Doesn't pay to send it back because it was only $44 and by the time I pay postage and the fee to repair, the savings aren't worth the trouble. Looks like I will stick with scopes from now on. This is the fifth red dot to fail including Tasco's and Millet's. The cheap Korean glue they put the glass in with sucks. I don't know why they don't screw this lens in, or crimp the tube over it.