So you want a cap and ball revolver?
Here are some points to realize and ponder.

SIGHTS --- If you want one because of its historical context, then you'll get a revolver with crude sights (unless you buy one of the Remingtons with adjustable sights, which is historically incorrect). But don't despair, even with the rudimentary sights a cap and ball revolver can do some fine shooting.

CALIBER --- I have both .36 and .44 caliber revolvers and suggest that, for the beginner, he buy a .44-caliber. Hornady and Speer sell balls of .451 .454 and .457 inch, and they are readily available.
However, the two manufacturers only make a .375 inch ball for the .36 caliber. I prefer a .380-inch ball for better sealing in the chamber and improved accuracy. If you want .380 inch balls, you’ll have to cast them yourself or special-order them from a black powder supplier.
If you buy a .44, you won’t have the problem of special-ordering balls or making your own. However, if tomorrow Hornady or Speer introduce a .380 inch ball, then I’d recommend the .36-caliber because it uses less powder yet is plenty accurate and powerful for targets, tin cans and small game such as rabbits and grouse.

BUY A STEEL FRAME --- Brass frames may look pretty (I think they look gaudy and childish, personally) but they don't hold up as well as the steel frames. Also, I've seen few brass-framed revolvers that were truly well-made. Most are clunkers. Yes, there are clunker steel-framed guns out there but not nearly as many as brass-framed ones. Spend the extra few bucks and get a steel-framed gun.

PURPOSE --- Plan to use it for hunting? Frankly, most cap and ball revolvers are not suitable for hunting anything larger than coyotes.
The Ruger Old Army has taken deer, when a conical bullet is used, but you have to get awfully close.
The Walker and Dragoon revolvers have the power but lack the necessary accurate sights. A notch in the nose and a brass bead for a front sight are non-adjustable and not conducive to the fine accuracy required for hunting.
I don't recommend any cap and ball revolver for hunting anything larger than a coyote, and even then only at close range.
For target work, it used to be said that the .44 was king. But the .36 caliber can hold its own with the .44 caliber out to 50 yards. The trouble is, to my knowledge no one has ever made a .36 cap and ball revolver with modern, adjustable sights. I wish they would, I'd stand in line to buy one. The best that can be done is to buy a Remington .36 and add adjustable sights.
Or, if you'd rather not go through all that trouble, buy a Remington .44 with adjustable sights for use on the range, or buy the world's most modern cap and ball revolver, the Ruger Old Army .44-caliber with adjustable sights.

HOW ACCURATE? --- Just how accurate is a properly loaded cap and ball revolver? They’ll amaze you. At 25 yards, from a benchrest, it’s not uncommon for a fixed-sight revolver to put six lead balls into half a playing card. Some will do better. My Uberti-made Remington 1858 will often put six balls into a 1-1/2 inch or 2-inch circle from a benchrest. Most cap and ball revolvers will shoot tighter than a modern semi-auto pistol, and give a target-grade .38 Special a close run for its money out to 25 yards.

EASE OF MAINTENANCE --- A stainless steel revolver is best for easy maintenance. The Remington has fewer parts than the Colt, but not quite as easily reassembled in my experience. You have to grasp the mainspring with pliers to wrestle it in. No big deal, just a minor aggravation. The Colt disassembles more easily than the Remington design but has more parts to lose or misplace.

CLEANING --- Cap and ball revolvers require cleaning far more quickly than a smokeless powder revolver. Black powder and Pyrodex are corrosive, as may be other approved propellants. In any case, all of the approved propellants create far more fouling than smokeless powder and will gum the action much sooner.
In a damp climate like New Orleans or Seattle, you may find rust on it the day after firing, because of the salts or perchlorates in the propellant.
Much of the time, you can get by with just cleaning the cylinder inside and out (remove the nipples and clean them as well), cleaning the bore and wiping fouling off from the frame, hammer and loading lever.
However, eventually you’ll need to clean the guts of that revolver as fouling builds. To do this, you’ll need to completely disassemble the revolver down to its last screw and tiny part, clean each part thoroughly, oil or grease as required and reassemble.
Many smokeless powder shooters have ruined their cap and ball revolvers by neglecting to clean them, or clean them thoroughly. If you’re lazy or procrastinate when it comes to cleaning smokeless powder guns, then a cap and ball revolver is not for you.
Owning a cap and ball revolver requires a little extra care --- almost immediately --- but with the proper cleaning equipment and knowledge it’s not an onerous task. Most of the time, a cap and ball revolver can be quick-cleaned in 20 or 30 minutes, or detail-cleaned in an hour or 90 minutes.
Some shooters just can’t handle this. If you’re one of them, cap and ball revolvers are not for you.

I prefer hot, soapy water for cleaning my revolvers. At the range, in my fishing tackle box of goodies I keep a small spray bottle with a mix of water, a few drops of Dawn dishwashing detergent (the dish kind, not the automatic washer kind) and a little rubbing alcohol. This cuts the grease and fouling nicely, on a patch.
At home, I use a plastic tub of hot, soapy water with a bar of Ivory soap. Ivory’s great because it floats and you can always find it to work up a lather on your brush.
Collect a variety of brushes, from tiny to toothpaste-sized. The smaller brushes are often found in gourmet cooking stores. They make short work of fouling in the frame.
After cleaning with soapy water, rinse with hot water from the tap. Shake off excess water. Run a dry patch in the oil and chambers to remove all traces of water.
Place the parts in a shallow baking pan. Set the oven to 150 or less, put the panful of parts in, and leave the oven door cracked open to allow moisture to escape. After 20 or 30 minutes, retrieve the parts and coat liberally with olive oil or Crisco while still warm. Don’t be afraid to reapply later. Steel will soak up a lot of lubricant but that’s good. Allow the parts to soak up lubricant overnight or a few days then reassemble.
Don’t forget to run lubricant down the bore and in the chambers, to discourage rust.
Pack the innards workings with a little Crisco or my favorite, CVA Grease Patch. This will keep help the action shrug off fouling that accumulates from shooting. Put some grease on the rear of the cylinder too, where the hand bears against the ratchets. Coat the sides of the hammer, and the hammer channel in the frame, lightly with grease.
If you rely solely on oil on these parts, it will soon be dried by the hot blast of firing and parts will drag. Grease lasts longer than oil in this application. Use only natural greases, not any that are petroleum-based!

LUBRICANT --- Avoid petroleum-based lubricants such as chassis grease, WD-40, motor oil, STP, etc. Petroleum products tend to create a hard, tarry fouling that clogs the rifling and moving parts. Instead, use natural greases and oils such as lard, tallow, vegetable oil (safflower, peanut, canola, etc.), Crisco, etc. My preference is a mixture of mutton tallow (sold by Dixie Gun Works), beeswax and canning paraffin. Sharp-eyed readers will recognize that canning paraffin IS a petroleum product. It is, but it apparently lacks the offending ingredient of other petroleum products. See LOADING PROCEDURE below.

EASE OF LOADING --- In my experience, the Colt is more forgiving during the loading procedure. If you can't quite get a ball down past the mouth of the chamber, because of an accidental overcharge, you can remove the ball by firing the Colt without its barrel assembly.
Remove the barrel assembly by tapping the wedge from right to left all the way.
B. Place caps on all loaded chambers to prevent flashover and deftly rotate the cylinder by hand and cock the hammer to bring the offending cylinder under the cocked hammer.
Obviously, you must be very careful when doing this. Keep your hand and fingers away from the front of the cylinder.
C. Fire the ball out of the cylinder to clear the chamber.
I've done this a number of times.
If you can't seat the ball in a Remington, you have to remove the cylinder, remove the nipple, then use a toothpick or brass pick (never a spark-producing metal) to pick out some of the powder. With some of the powder out, replace the nipple, return the cylinder into the frame, reseat the ball deeper and recap it.
The Remington has more clearance between the frame and cylinder than the earlier Colts, so you can more easily load conical bullets. The Colt 1860 .44 and 1861 .36 have even more room for conicals.

LOADING PROCEDURE --- The procedure is identical for all makes of cap and ball revolvers.
A. Snap two caps on each nipple, before loading, to blow all dust, oil or crud from the chambers.
B. Use black powder if you can get it. My experiences have shown it beats Pyrodex for accuracy.
C. Use a well-greased wad between the ball and powder, and seat it firmly on the powder before seating the ball. The rammer should come to its full stop, or nearly so, when seating the wad.
I lubricate my felt wads with a mix of 1 part canning paraffin, 1 part mutton tallow and 1 part beeswax. With a kitchen scale measure 200/200/100 grams of the ingredients and melt them in a quart Mason jar, placed in 3 or 4 inches of boiling water. Mix the ingredients well with a clean stick or disposable chopstick and allow cooling at room temperature.
Now, get a clean tuna can. Add two or three Tablespoons of hardened lubricant to it, heat it at a low temperature, and when the lubricant is melted add 100 wads. Stir the wads with the chopstick to ensure they all soak up the lubricant. Allow to cool at room temperature and snap a pet food can over the can.
The paraffin is crucial to this recipe. It significantly stiffens the wads, helping them to scrape out the fouling.
D. Use a well-oversized ball. For the .36 this means .380-inch, for the .44 it means .454 or .457 inch balls. Forget what the manuals recommend (.375 and .451 inch) and use the larger balls, they're more accurate. Why? When you ram the balls into the chamber, the larger ones create a wider bearing surface for the rifling to grip. This aids accuracy.
E. Seat the ball firmly on the seated wad. There must be NO air space between the powder, wad or ball.
F. Use a lead ball. In my experience, conical bullets are not nearly as accurate as a lead ball. Plus, they are often more expensive unless you cast your own from scrap lead.
G. Use proper-fitting caps. Some nipples require No. 10 caps, others require No. 11 caps. Initially, buy both to determine which fits all the way down on your nipples. Before seating, pinch the cap into an oval shape so it clings to the nipple better. That unusable tin of caps may be used before loading, to clear the nipples by firing a cap on each nipple (see A above).

STRENGTH --- This is largely a moot point when you're talking about the use of black powder and Pyrodex.
However, Hodgon 777 generates higher pressures than black powder when measured volume-to-volume against black powder. For this reason, if you use Hodgdon 777, reduce the load recommended for black powder by 15 percent.
If you plan to use nothing but 777 powder, then the Remington would be better. It is definitely stronger than the Colt. But as I've said, if you’re using black powder or Pyrodex, then the matter of strength is moot. Incidentally, Hodgdon does NOT recommend 777 in any brass-framed revolver. It’s stout stuff!

QUIRKS --- There are certain peculiarities of the Colt and Remington.
The Colt has a large cylinder pin, with circular grooves in it, to collect fouling and hold grease. The Remington has a small diameter cylinder pin without grooves. Generally, the Colt fires more shots than the Remington before the cylinder begins to drag from fouling built up on the pin.
The Remington is much easier to sight on a target. Its square groove in the top of the frame, and square front sight, line up well.
Both of my Remingtons came with unusually tall front sights, which had to be filed down a lick at a time at the range until the sights hit to point of aim.
The Colt employs a wedge to keep the barrel assembly attached to the frame. This must hold them together tightly. If the wedge is not tight in the frame, accuracy suffers.
The Remington is a solid-frame and no such adjustment is required.
In time, particularly with heavy loads, the Colt's wedge will be battered narrower and no longer hold the barrel assembly as tightly as it once did. A new wedge is required, or you can put the wedge on an anvil and carefully widen it again by a few taps with a heavy hammer. A lot of checking is required with this method. Don't overdo it.
The Remington is pretty much trouble-free but it doesn’t balance or point as well as the Colt.

BALANCE & POINTABILITY --- The Colt revolvers win hands down. Even today, the Colt 1851 or 1861 Navies are considered the best-balanced revolvers ever produced. You can easily develop a point-shooting instinct with them that is amazing. The Remington feels massive in the hands and doesn't point nearly as well.

ACCURACY --- For a long time, the Remington was credited with being far more accurate than the Colt. In more recent years, shooters have begun to understand that the wedge in the Colt must be in tight for it to be accurate. A well-made Colt pattern can be just as accurate as the Remington. I shoot both and have proven this to myself many times.

SAFETY FIRST! --- Wear hearing protection and impact resistant glasses whenever shooting. While shooting, keep all black powder and caps behind you, away from the sparks your revolver produces.
Do NOT stand to the side or let someone stand beside you when firing. Gases, lead shavings, hot lubricant and other debris are ejected to the side when firing.
Also, I cannot stress enough that these revolvers are not toys. They were used with deadly effect for about 45 years (1836 to the early 1880s) and are still deadly.
The late gun writer Elmer Keith, who was taught how to use cap and ball sixguns by Civil War veterans, wrote, “For its size and weight, nothing is so deadly as a pure lead ball driven at 1,000 feet per second.â€
The ghosts of millions would sigh and agree.
Give a cap and ball sixgun the same respect you would any modern firearm. They are not playthings.

CARRY A GRAIN OF SALT --- Some of what is related at the range, and on the internet, is exaggeration, fabrication, unsubstantiated or downright dangerous. Some of the things I've listed here are opinion. Others may disagree with me, and they’re entitled, but I base the above on my own experience.
Sooner or later, some jackleg will tell you, "Ya know, if ya put a pinch of smokeless powder in the chamber first, it'll shoot cleaner." Beware of this person; he's a moron. Cap and ball revolvers are NOT designed for smokeless powder. Period.

SUMMARY --- what you buy largely boils down to personal preference. I like the Remington for its ease of target shooting, and the Colt for its handling qualities. I shoot both.
If you really get bitten by the bug, as I have, you’ll end up owning more than one.

Shooting a cap and ball revolver is work, but it’s fun to see how the old timers fared with these pistols. Keep the components in a fishing tackle box and buy a box larger than you think you’ll need, because sure enough you’ll buy more accessories.
Store the powder and caps in a cool, dry place such as a spare room, but not near each other. Avoid storage areas with high humidity or heat fluctuations (garage, shed, vehicle, etc.). If you have children or childish adults in the house, keep the powder and caps locked in separate containers.

Enjoy your cap and ball revolver. It’s taken me 35 years to learn what I’ve related to you. I wish I’d had a primer like this when I started back in 1970.

Copyright 2005 by Gatofeo. Posted by the author.

Great post, thank you. I have had my eye on a Colt 2nd or 3rd Model Dragoon for a while now. I suspect one will follow me home in the next few months.

Dave

i should"nt have read this post!
Gatofeo, this is just the kind of irresponsible
posting of useful info which influences weaker members like me to buy more guns. Please stop and think of my bank manager before posting anything like this again!
seriously, that was interesting stuff. I bought my first black powder gun(single barrel shotgun) about a year ago, and it"s great fun.
I have had a hankering for a revolver for a while now, and this has really got me thinking!
good shooting

If you want a big, powerful .44 revolver then the Colt Dragoons fit the bill. The Walker is okay but it has its problems. The Dragoons were introduced as improvements over the Walker, a fact that many forget.
I'd like to find a 3rd model dragoon with adjustable sights and shoulder stock. I used to see them years ago, but haven't seen any produced in some time.
Someday I'd like to get a Dragoon, just for fun. It's quite a handful but an interesting piece of history you can hold in your hands.

Let's make it simple.

Ruger stainless is a "modern" design in a cap/ball revolver. Stainless solves a lot of problems.

Still, you need to take it completely apart, over a laundry tub full of soapy water, if you're serious about shooting.

Walkers are nice. Navys are nice. But they're all a Gawd awful lot of work and scrubbing to shoot.

That's an excellent primer!

I have a San Marco Walker replica that I've had since 1980. It's a blast to shoot! (For real!)

It always has leaded badly, with balls or conical bullets, black powder or Pyrodex, with any lubricant on top of the balls. I've never tried greased wads or "cookies," though. Makes sense that if there's lube behind the ball, the powder gases will force it into the space between the ball and bore surface. In front, leaking gas just blows the grease away down the bore in front of the bullet. That's the way the magazine articles and loading manuals of the '70s said to load 'em, though, dump the powder in the chambers, seat the balls and cover 'em with grease.

I think I'll have to back off the charge a bit to provide room for a wad.

Ricochet, The wads work very well and are so much neater than smearing grease over the loaded chambers. Try 'em, you'll like 'em!

Maven

I'll have to do that.

Well, I haven't yet tried the wads. But I have learned that the shooting goes a lot better if I grease my balls with pure lanolin.

I bought a big tub of USP anhydrous lanolin from a dealer with an eBay store, and that's what I used today over the balls and conical bullets as I shot about 4 dozen rounds without cleaning. It didn't lead a bit. First lube I've tried over the balls that actually works. I've had leading so bad in the throat of this thing that it looked like the inside of a battery post cleaner, with whiskers of lead bristling from the bore walls. I've had it lead till I couldn't see the rifling grooves. But with lanolin, not a bit of lead! I'm impressed.

Ricochet, I don't use wads either, I use cornmeal over the powder, then I seat the ball. Works great, no mess, and cheaper than wads.

I've been using a full 60 grain volumetric charge of RS Pyrodex, which doesn't leave room for either a wad or cornmeal and is a pretty severe test of any lube. I ran out of round balls (don't have a mould for those) and have used the original heeled conical bullets from the brass reproduction mould cased with the revolver, which is a hassle to use due to the blazing hot handles, but which bullets are ideal, and Lee's 452-165-RF bullets, which come with a tiny heel like a short gas check base that works well for seating in the chambers. I have a can of a homemade bullet lube that started off as about a third of a can of Johnson's Paste Wax, with a bottle of Lee Liquid Alox, most of a ring of toilet seal wax, a big glob of lanolin and a bunch of beeswax added to it that I use as a dip lube for ~2000 FPS smokeless rifle bullets. Also happens to work well as an over-ball lube in the Walker, if I dip it out of the can with a plastic knife, and smear it over the balls. Works best if I load the bullets dry, then pack the lube on top. I get almost no leading despite the severe load I'm using, and it cleans up easily.

60gr. of powder, oh my God.

Think of it as fireworks.

I disagree with lots of the "points" in the book above. They are just not so. As an example, Condon's, the reputable gun dealer in Northern Va. has a rack full of '51 COLT Navy originals with sights. Guess what? A significant number of those percussion revolvers were purchased that way. Why? because they were accurate. Martial revolvers were sighted differently from many civilian pistols, like '51 COLTS. You want to learn about shooting these guns, Join the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association of the North-South Skirmish Association, or a Cowboy shooting association. As an example I was safety officer for one of many more than 40, 4-man teams last week in Winchester, Va. with N-SSA. We shot in the pouring rain, most shooters only had their slouch hat for cover and there were probably less than a dozen guns fouled by rain at the end of each event. 40 teams X 4 shooters= 160 X 6(cylinder holes to load) = 960 shots. A rough dozen of fouled cylinders, maybe 20 holes, after loading in the pouring rain? and then shooting a breakeable target event? And the Remington shooters typically took the cylinders out to load. I note the cowboy shooters are getting pretty darn good with percussion guns too. Don't anyone be *issed! Forums are for the exchange of views, Right!

I have a navy arms .44.
commonly called the confederate navy model

The VERY fisrt thing I did with it was buy a spare cylinder that to my great joy was machined a bit too long to properly fit the revolver.

this allowed me to trim the cylinder to length and specifically NOT champfer the chamber mouths.

the sharp edge allows a properly sized ball to be shaved rather than swaged into the chamber.

Tight fitting wedge? ... not exactly.
The wedges are usually crudely machined compared to the rest of the revolver, and often need considerable stoning
to make them properly fit... that's right make them SMALLER

the wedge should be able to push out and Remove BY HAND PRESSURE, because back in the civil war the NORMAL mode of reloading these revolvers under combat conditions was to pop the wedge, pull the barrel/rammer off swap to a spare (preloaded cylinder) and quickly reinstall the barrel.

Accuracy wasn't as important as volume of fire
and an empty revolver is useless against someone with a musket and bayonette

It is entirely possible to fire TWELVE aimed shots in about 20 seconds with just a bit of practice and a properly fitted Colt-style revolver.

this can be done nearly as fast as an average shooter can reload the swing out cylinder of a modern revolver while using a speed loader, slightly faster than a similar modern revolver can be reloaded with a "speed strip" and MUCH faster than the most skilled operator can load a swing out cylinder with loose rounds....

Comparing replacing cylinders on a Colt-style revolver to reloading a single action army?
I can have all twelve shots downrange and be cocking the hammer on the first round of the third cylinder before any man alive can get the first live round into an SAA if they take the time to eject all six empties after having run dry on their first cylinder full... and I don't consider myself particularly skilled...

This is mostly a result of the simple fact that Colt SAA style cartridge revolvers are particularly akward to reload.

It isn't only the remington guys who reload by swapping cylinders.

a nice visual demonstration of this can be seen being done by Jeff Daniels in the movie Gettysburg just before the famous bayonette charge.

The usual practice was to pull the barrel off with the non shooting hand and stick the revolver partially into the
coat pocket (the flap is folded in to facilitate this) on the shooting hand side when the hammer is pulled back with the thumb the cylinder falls off into the pocket.

Simultaneously the left hand is pulling a pre-changed cylinder from a belt pouch (or from the non shooting hand side coat pocket) and as the hands come together the cylinder is fed onto the frame, and through hammer manipulation the "bolt" can be engaged to hold the cylinder on while the barrel is fitted. and by simply cocking the hammer the weapon is once again ready for action.

Excellent information for newbies like myself. Question (and please believe me that this is a serious question no matter how it sounds) In a cap and ball revolver (here goes) do you lubricate your balls before using them??

No, that's done after they're seated. Besides, what exactly would you lubricate [on the round ball]? Once seated, you smear either a proprietary "grease", e.g., Thompson/Center's "Bore Butter" (available in the UK?) or even "Crisco" (hydrogenated cooking oil; OK and very inexpensive) over each chamber. The easier way is to look for the appropriate caliber prelubricated felt wads, as I mentioned in an earlier post, seat them over the powder charge and the RB atop them. This prevents chain firing and lubricates the bore as well.

No, that's done after they're seated. Besides, what exactly would you lubricate [on the round ball]? Once seated, you smear either a proprietary "grease", e.g., Thompson/Center's "Bore Butter" (available in the UK?) or even "Crisco" (hydrogenated cooking oil; very inexpensive) over each chamber. The easier way is to look for the appropriate caliber prelubricated felt wads, as I mentioned in an earlier post, seat them over the powder charge and the RB atop them. This prevents chain firing and lubricates the bore as well.

Thanks Paul

I thought that a smear of lube might help them to chamber easier.

Much appreciated

Just remember that the ball should be of a size and the cylinder bores UN-champfered so that the balls are CUT as they are seated.

The thin ring of lead sometimes called a "wedding ring"
confirms that the ball is properly sealing the cylinder bore.

Problems seating the ball are more usually because the loading lever is forced to swage the ball to the bore rather than shaving it against a sharp edge on the chamber.

AD

I use 30grs of Pyrodex "P", .44 Wad, a premeasured amount of Cream Of Wheat on top of the Wad and a .451 ball.........I use the Cream Of Wheat to keep the ball flush with the Cylinder so it has a slight jump into the Barrel.

I was a couple cheapo pawn shop revolver "kits" that got me into semi-serious "gunsmithing" --

These were the Italian made Colt 1861 Navy? (Hickock's 36 cal.), a couple Colt 32 cal "pocket pistols."

Basically I learned to take the mechanisms apart, also, did some finish work on exterior, actions, etc. Slow rust brown/blackening.

Because black powder revolvers require some serious cleaning and keeping tuned up, the "gunslingers" of the Old West became gunsmiths in their own right. Their lives depended upon keeping their gun in good working order.

Cheapo revolvers mean you can learn some basic "finish work" skills without risking ruin to an expensive gun. They got me into kits builds in black powder generally, and it transfers to expensive guns down the road.

Anyway -- local shop has a "junk case" full of "parts guns" wrecks, odds, ends, junkers, beaters . . .

Today I picked up a CVA brass frame 32 cal. 5 shot "Colts Patent" revolver for $25.00. It was "jammed up" but in good shape, clean, not rusted, or "buggered" on the screws.

Got it home, cleaned it up, took it apart. The trigger and cylinder stop springs were installed upside down. $25.00 and it works now!

Mostly, I pick these up as "projects" and "coffee table guns."

I recently purchased an 1858 Remington clone, and my buddy picked up an Uberti Walker. We have had more fun with those two smoke wagons than we've had with all of our other pistols/revolvers combined. Very relaxing.

The REAL fun is watching all the "tactical" dudes pour volumes of lead down range with the various assortment of black pistols, and then when we have a line break to check targets, no one even comes close to the groups we're getting with our BPRs. Of course, most of the tactical fellows can't really shoot anyway, but it is still amusing to watch the frustration on their faces.

We have some gnome targets we shoot, which just add to the fun.

Santa was generous to me this year. Today I got a Rogers & Spencer cal. 44 revolver. They are from EuroArms of America (no doubt made in Italy) and the model I got comes with a Lothar Walther match barrel. Let the fun begin.