Took the 1858 to the range on Friday. Went with a friend who has an old Uberti copy in 8” stainless.
After loading up with 30gr Pyrodex, I let her rip. The flash, the distinctive report, the huge white cloud of smoke and the smell of sulfur were awesome!
After my first shot, the guy next to me coughed, set his semi-auto down on the bench and walked away. He figured it out pretty quick and he’d spend the first ten minutes of the 15 minute firing periods shooting, while I cleaned and loaded, then he’d take a break. I actually thought I saw him grinning once as my friend let off with his gun.
On loading it seemed that the balls were seated well down in the cylinder, so after the first cylinder, I went to 35gr. Excellent; more fire, smoke and noise!
My target was at 15 yards and my friend’s at 25. I kept mine in about a 4” circle, about 3” right and 4” down. My friend’s been doing this a long time and at 25 yards, he was punchin’ ‘em in a 2” circle in the middle of the black and didn't matter; right handed or left!
I was not real pleased with the loading lever coming unlatched every couple of shots. Seems the latching mechanism at the muzzle end has a funny angle on it. But I think I can fix that with a little careful file work.
We only had ‘bout an hour, so with all the jabberin’ and cleanin’ and comparin’ guns and such, we only got off 18 rounds of BP each. Toward the end I put the conversion cylinder in and let loose with some 45 Colt. That was fun, but shooting BP was about as much fun as I’ve ever had with a gun in my hand! I’m pretty sure I chuckled or outright laughed every time either one of us pulled the trigger!
