I found this while doing research - thought it might be of interest.
survivalistboards.com/threads/1858-remington.212993/
Introduction:
The 1858 Remington black powder revolver, it is a fine pistol, a capable handgun.
The frame is beefier than other black powder revolvers. This pistol also has the useful advantage, of being able to swap out the cylinders quickly, making it faster to reload, it was a favorite among union troops in the civil war used to great effect. Firing a .45 caliber lead round ball weighing approx 140 grains at up to and over 1000 fps, this revolver is still a viable weapon. In reality, it is a useful handgun, a good side arm for hunting, and a good weapon for self defense if need be. The truth is that a soft lead ball does tremendous damage to a living target, having a tendency to crush and flatten. Another advantage of the 1858 Remington are the safety notches between each nipple, allowing you to have the hammer in a safe position and have all 6 chambers loaded, instead of just 5 with the colt. I bought this revolver from Cabela’s and I have been well satisfied with it, for around 200 $ It was money well spent.
Here I will include some information, about safety, and some techniques I have found to be useful.
1858 Remington pistol modifications and techniques:
First I will summarize three problems:
1) cross-firing and chain firing
2) jamming of the cylinder pin
3) roughness of internal parts
Here are the solutions:
1) Proper fitting caps are an absolute must, loose or overly tight caps are nothing but trouble.
Most of the time, chainfires and cross firing are caused by loose fitting caps that back off of the nipple, exposing it to the flame of the adjacent cylinder. Replace with Tresso nipples, use only proper fitting caps, the “pinch” technique is NOT safe. To put this simply if you are having to pinch the caps in order for them to stay on the nipple you are using the WRONG caps! Lube over the ball helps somewhat with fouling, but is not a cure for chain fire as you may have heard elsewhere.
2) The jamming of the cylinder pin is a common failing with the 1858 Remington, the solution is 3 fold. first you polish the cylinder pin, and the cylinder hole it slides in (do not remove metal just polish), use lube "pills" between the wad and ball. (recipe below)
3) Roughness of internal parts is very easily improved by gently stoning the sear surfaces.
Another problem that causes more fouling is over packing the powder, load 40 grains of black powder or triple 7, add the wad and pill and lightly pack it, do not cram it down tight. Powder needs to be slightly loose in order to burn more efficiently.
Lube pills:
Melt 1/3 bore butter, 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 paraffin wax.
In a pan you don’t plan on using for food, heat the mixture till it is fairly hot, but not anywhere near boiling,
pour your melted lube into a shallow pan, old plate or something similar, and cool, cast it to be 1/8" – 3/16” deep.
Place in the fridge to cool faster if you like. Use a .45 long colt case or a .45 acp case that you’ve sharpened the inside of.
Alternately, you can simply melt the lube and soak your wads in it, this works just as well.
With blackpowder revolvers, lube is a good thing, use lots of it. Never use petroleum products, they will create a gummy mess that is very difficult to clean.
Make use a loading stand, it loads better than your revolver and you can control the depth much better.
It is very necessary to use wads, not using them fouls the revolver even worse.
Goex pinnacle's fouling is looser and easier to clean than triple 7, but triple 7 produces more velocity.
NEVER use smokeless powder your revolver will become a grenade, always lube it down good with some bore butter or traditions lubed patches.
Screws:
Apply gorilla grease on the nipples in your pistol, it’s a miracle worker, anyone who has had a stuck nipple or breach screw understands this.
Gorilla grease was originally intended for breech plugs but works great on nipples, after hundreds of rounds fired, I was able to remove the nipples easily.
For the screws, be sure to use anti seize on them and use proper fitting screwdrivers.
I learned this fact the hard way with my first black powder pistol, this is the one time you can use a petroleum product, spark plug anti seize works great and it’s a buck for a small packet you can get at an auto parts store. Never over-tighten them, they will cold weld and be very hard to get out. Run them down and give them a good half turn.
Round balls:
Use only pure lead, it is very difficult to seat hard lead balls, and it is also less accurate.
Your particular pistol may prefer .451, .454, or .457 try them to find out which one seats best.
I prefer to use a slightly over sized ball, When seating the ball, it will shave off a sliver of lead.
I get a much better seal, and there is more bearing surface to engage the rifling.
As a matter of preference I prefer Speer or Hornady swaged balls. You can use cast balls if you prefer, however it is critical to to make sure the sprue faces up and is centered.
Powders:
Triple 7 is hands down my personal favorite, Pyrodex did not give me good results for a couple of reasons, it caused heavy fouling, and was much more difficult to clean. Pyrodex is also more corrosive so be warned clean your guns after shooting right away. Triple 7 also seemed to give the best accuracy, and was more energetic than pyrodex. I also shot the new pyrodex pistol pellets, they were a waste of money, half of them were broken! This is all a matter of personal choice, if you like pyrodex and it works well for you, use it.
Loads:
(These are Remington 1858 STEEL frame loads only!)
These are volume loads not weight loads.
Never go by weight when using black powder.
.454 lead round ball
40 grains triple 7
Lubed wad
(shot fantastic! Great accuracy)
<1” groups at 10 yards
.457 round ball
45 grains triple 7
Lubed wad
(real powerhouse, however less accurate I shot 2” groups at 10 yards)
.454 round ball
30 grains triple 7 or pyrodex
Lubed wad
(light recoil, decent accuracy 2-4” groups at 25 yards)
Birdshot load
Half teaspoon of #12 or #8 birdshot
20 grains of triple 7
Lubed wad underneath the shot
Dry wad on top of the shot
Lightly pack powder and wad first, add shot, wad gently press to beneath the chamber mouth.
(this is an interesting load, at less than 15 feet it made one hole with a few smaller ones around it, farther back it opened up quite well) I think this load would work well for pest control, or perhaps some small game if you’re close enough.
Storage:
Yes you can store this revolver loaded, If it is kept in a dry place with well fitting caps it can fire months after being loaded. Once I left it loaded for 6 months and every shot in all the cylinders fired.
.
