Vintage Revolver Roundball

Judging from reloading manuals and factory ammunition catalogs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, revolver loads utilizing roundballs, as well as reduced loads were quite popular with shooters. This period covers from the 1880s, to the 1930s. What do we mean by “Gallery Loads”? In this instance we are referring to lightly loaded (reduced power) cartridges with usually lighter than standard weight bullets for use at shorter distances. With reduced power, the noise, recoil and muzzle blast are minimized for the shooter. This is easier on the novice, preventing them from developing bad habits. The reduction of noise also makes them more suited to use in indoor ranges.

Blunt (1889) describes using roundball loads in the issue Army revolver to teach recruits the basics of handling their revolvers at five and 10 yards.¹ The 1911 - 1912 Remington-UMC Catalog described the roundball gallery loads for the 32 S&W and 32 S&W Long cartridges as “for accurate short range shooting up to 12 yards;” the same was said of the 32 Colt New Police gallery load. This same catalog described the 38 Special, 38 Long Colt and 44 Russian midrange loads as suitable “for accurate indoor midrange shooting up to 20 yards.”² Winans (1904) has a chapter on gallery shooting. He also recommended gallery cartridges for home defensive use inside a building (to limit penetration through walls) and for target shooting by ladies.³ I think that these light roundball and gallery loads also had other uses such as dispatching garden pests, informal target practice and training for “practical shooting” as it was called back them.

I decided to test some of these loads in various revolvers to see how they performed in different types of shooting. Since none of the gallery or roundball loads are available as factory ammunition today, it is necessary to recreate them based on data from catalog and manuals of the time. The .315 roundball used was the Hornady No. 6003, the .433 was the Hornady No. 6030 and the .454 roundball was the Hornady No. 6070. These are of pure lead, generally intended for muzzleloaders. The .360 roundball was BPI No. 000 Super buckshot, which is hardened to some degree. The roundballs were tumble-lubed with Lee Liquid Alox to prevent leading, unless used with an SPG Lube over-bullet lube wad, in which case the ball had no lube applied directly to it.

The 32 S&W Long 100-grain LRNFP bullets were from a Missouri Bullet.313 diameter with a BHN of 12. The 98-grain Lead Wad Cutter (LWC) Hollow Base (HB) used in the 32 S&W Long was the Speer No. 4600. In the 38 Special it was the Hornady 148 LWC Hollow Base No. 10208. In both cases SPG Lube was used to fill the hollow cavity. In the 38 S&W the 100-grain lead wad cutter was from Matt’s Bullets (sized .359 BHN 11) and the 125 LRNFP (hard cast) was from the now vanished National Bullet Company. For the 44 Russian, the 165-grain Lead Round Nose Flat Point Hollow Base (LRNFPHB) was from Bear Creek Supply (.430)⁴ and in the 44 Special the 200-grain LRNFP (.429 hard cast) was made by Proofmark. The commercial bullets were factory lubricated.

Cut of 1923 Remington Catalog on page 124, showing 38 Special 130-grain Special Target smokeless load, and 38 Special Roundball load with ball seated down on powder.

Gould (1888) recommended that when using a roundball it should be seated down upon the powder, and additional lube should be forced down on the ball by use of a plug.⁵ After I conducted the first round of firing tests, I acquired a C. Sharps Arms Lube Ribbon Extruder. Using this, I extruded SPG Lube ribbons and, in the 38 Special and 38 Short Colt, conducted tests with un-lubricated .360 buckshot, over which I inserted a lube wad of SPG Lube.

A 44 Russian roundball target with black powder.

Himmelwright in his 1908 and 1922 books recommended that reduced and gallery loads use “a high-grade quick burning shotgun (black) powder.”⁶ He mentioned several black powder brands that are now vanished. Black powder, during its manufacture, is pressed to varying degrees, with the harder pressed powders burning slower that the less hard-pressed ones. Generally, Cannon powder was the hardest pressed with Musket, Rifle and Sporting (Shotgun) powders being less hard pressed in that order.⁷ As a result of Himmelwright’s recommendation, Swiss 3Fg was used for the black powder loads. Most of the smokeless loads, from the contemporary books for gallery and reduced charges, use Bullseye, which is still available.⁸ That powder was used in constructing the smokeless loads. Remington No. 1½ primers were used with all cases taking the Small Pistol primer with both black and smokeless powder. With the exception of the 45 Colt roundball load using 12 grains of 3Fg, standard Large Pistol primers (either Federal No. 150, Remington No. 2½ or Sellior & Beloit 5.3 mm boxer primers) were used in cases taking the large size primer. With the 12-grain 45 Colt load, Federal No.155 Magnum primers were used.

A 44 Russian roundball target with smokeless powder.

For testing with 32 S&W, 32 S&W Long and 32 Colt New Police (CNP) cartridges, a Colt Police Positive Special revolver with 32 CNP/S&W Long chambers and a four-inch barrel and fixed sights was used. To test the 38 CNP and 38 S&W cartridges, a Colt Police Positive Special revolver with 38 CNP/S&W chambers was used, having a four-inch barrel and fixed sights. The testing of the 38 Long Colt and 38 Special loads was done with a Colt Army Special with 38 Special chambers and six-inch barrel with fixed sights. For certain 38 Special loads, additional testing was done with an S&W K-38 revolver with 38 Special chambers, a six-inch barrel and adjustable sights. In testing the 44 Russian and 44 Special rounds, a Uberti Single Action Army with 44 Special chambers, a 7½-inch barrel and fixed sights was used. 45 Colt ammunition was tested in a Ruger New Vaquero with a 7½-inch barrel and fixed sights. Fixed-sight revolvers usually shot below the point of aim with roundball or other reduced bullet weight loads.

A 45 Colt roundball target with black powder.

Available targets of the time ranged from a bullseye to human silhouettes of various types. Commonly mentioned distances were 10, 12, 12½, 15, 20 and 25 yards. Because of cost and space 50 yards was considered impractical. The United States Revolver Association adopted 20 yards as the standard distance for all its indoor matches.⁹ Gould (1888) reproduced numerous bullseye target centers showing groupings on a 1¼-inch black bulls-eye at 12 yards.¹⁰ Some of these appeared to be reduced versions of the Standard American Target used at the time for 200-yard rifle and 50-yard pistol and revolver target shooting. The Standard American Target in slightly modified form is still with us as the 50-yard Slow Fire Pistol target B-6. It’s also available in reduced size for use at 25 feet, 50 feet, 20 and 25 yards. Blunt (1889) recommended the use of the 50-foot Rifle Gallery target as described in paragraph 148 of his work for use at five and 10 yards for familiarization training with roundball loads. This has a one-inch black bullseye.¹¹

After some consideration it was decided to use the modern version of the Colt’s Police Silhouette Target (the B-21X) and the Army L and Police L Bullseye Target for accuracy testing. Testing from a sandbag rest at 12 yards using a K-38 in 38 Special with the .360, 70-grain roundball and 6.0 grains of Swiss 3Fg, shows a group of 10 shots in the 1½ inch range. It was not hard to keep the groups inside the 5-inch black 10 ring of the Police L target, with most inside the 2½-inch X ring. The K-38 did not have enough elevation in the rear sight to raise the point of impact to the center of the bull when utilizing a six o’clock hold. As such, it was necessary to use a center hold on the bull. This resulted in a black front sight and rear sight being swallowed by the black bull, making it difficult to get a consistent hold; however, I could still keep them in the black, if not in the X-ring.

Gould (1888) recommended that, when using full charges, the revolver be cleaned every 10 shots.¹² I have found this to generally the case when using full charge ammunition. Experimentally, the cleaning interval required with gallery loads was tested with long strings of 38 Special roundball loads (lubed with Lee Liquid Alox) and 6 grains of 3Fg in the K-38. Due to the limited powder charge and lubrication, accuracy at 10 to 12 yards could be maintained to as many as 30 rounds before a thorough cleaning became necessary to restore accuracy. Gallery cartridges allowed more rounds between cleanings when using black powder. Using the 38 Special and 38 Short Colt with the SPG Lube over bullet wads, I was able to fire 75 rounds without wiping the bore or chambers. This is the best way to use black powder with roundballs.

A 38 Colt New Police black powder roundball load in a Police Positive Special; 10 shots in the X-ring on the B-21 X target, rapid fire at 12 yards.

I also experimented with seating the ball in the case neck versus seating it down on the powder. In either case, when using black or smokeless, it is necessary to seat the ball down on the powder to achieve a low extreme velocity spread. Seating the ball in the neck usually resulted in wide variations in velocity from shot to shot. This is due to the light ball weight, short bearing surface and consequent limited engagement of the roundball with the rifling.

At first, to seat the ball down on the powder I used a muzzle loading short-starter. However, I soon realized I could use the regular seat and crimp dies to do this. The full-size seater plugs would not enter the case mouth as they were about the same size as the interior diameter of the case. By utilizing the next smallest seating plug (32 in a 38 case etc.) it was a simple matter to seat the roundball to the correct depth in the cartridge. The gallery and midrange loads using smokeless, with conical or wadcutter bullets, were seated and crimped normally. I loaded the 98-grain Speer Hollow Base wadcutter and the Hornady 148-grain Hollow Base wadcutter with a charge of black powder that filled the case and filled their hollow bases with SPG lube. These performed similarly to modern smokeless wadcutter loads. I generally tested the roundball loads at 10 yards and the midrange loads at 20 yards. Accuracy, given the revolver that they were tested in, was ample for the intended purposes. If I did my part, staying in the black on the Police L target or the X-ring on the B-21X target was not difficult.

10 rounds, 38 Special black powder roundball loads in 1½ inches at 12 yards off a sandbag.

Black powder generally performed better than smokeless with the roundballs, I suspect, because at the low pressure being generated, the black power burned faster and more consistently than even Bullseye. At low pressures, black powder has a faster rate of deflagration than smokeless; as pressures increase, smokeless, at some point has a more rapid rate of deflagration than does black. This generally means smokeless needs more pressure to burn consistently.

50 rounds, 38 Special black powder roundball load (with SPG Lube over bullet lube wad) with no wiping.

In the smaller cases, like the 32 S&W or 32 Colt New Police, the difference between the standard charge cartridge and the gallery cartridge is small. With the 32 Colt New Police, using a 100-grain bullet, the standard charge of Bullseye is 2.0 grains and the gallery charge is 1.5 grains. The difference in recoil and noise is barely noticeable, even in a small frame revolver like the Colt Police Positive Special. A similar condition applies in the 38 Long Colt, where the standard charge with a 150-grain bullet is 3.0 grains of Bullseye and the gallery charge is 2.5 grains. Some people, I suppose, might have felt that the slight reduction in recoil made for better scores in timed and rapid-fire strings. This small reduction may also be why these gallery charges began disappearing from the catalogs in the 1920s, and were gone by World War II, except for the 148-grain wadcutters in the 38 Special. In the larger cartridges the reduction in recoil and noise is more noticeable and worthwhile. For their intended purposes, the accuracy was adequate to very good. With gallery black powder loads, increasing the number of shots with before wiping became necessary was very worthwhile, as was the reduction in noise and muzzle blast compared to full charge black powder ammunition.

Plus, an additional 25 rounds of 38 Short Colt black powder roundball loads (with SPG Lube over bullet lube wad) with no wiping, for a total of 75 rounds with no wiping.

As smokeless replaced black powder in factory ammunition in the 1920s, and 1930s, the reduction of recoil and muzzle blast allowed by smokeless in full charge ammunition compared to full charge black powder loads reduced the utility of reduced charge black powder ammunition. This probably led to decreased sales of that type of ammunition and the eventual dropping of the black powder loads from the catalogs.

Endnotes

^1. Blunt, Firing Regulation for the Small Arms for the U.S. Army, 1889, paragraph 844, page 312. He recommended 10-12 grains of powder.

^2. Remington-UMC 1911-1912 Catalog, page 83-85, page 88-90, page 93-94.

^3. Winans, Hints on Revolver Shooting, 1904, Chapter V, pages 43-46, pages 115-121.

^4. Bear Creek uses a proprietary lube containing Molybdenum Disulfide and the hardness is unknown.

^5. Gould, The Modern American Pistol and Revolver, 1888, page 85.

^6. Himmelwright, The Pistol and Revolver, 1908, page 133.

^7. Gunn, “Bullet Design for Black Powder Cartridge Rifles” in Precision Shooting 1997 Annual, page 472.

^8. Himmelwright, 1908, page 50. Himmelwright has a number of reduced and gallery loads listed in his 1922 book, Pistol and Revolver Shooting, Chapter III, pages 37 through 58.

^9. Caswell, “The Indoor Revolver Gallery” in Fitzgerald, Shooting, 1930, page 146.

^10. Gould, 1888, Chapter IX.

^11. Blunt, 1889, paragraph 844, page 312.

^12. Gould, 1888, page 73.