As I mentioned earlier, this year Santa brought a Dragoon for my boo. This past weekend we had a chance to shake it down.

We shot about 7 cylinders full.  We were running Triple Seven black powder substitute, a 25 grain charge, with a cornmeal topping. For about 3 cylinders, we had Wonder Wads. For the remainder, we just doubled up the corn meal to take up space.  .454 balls for half the loads; .451 for the rest. Packed with Crisco to top things off.

Needless to say, it was hella fun!

What took me by surprise were the misfires. We averaged 2 per cylinder. Now, all but one fired on the second attempt; we only had to replace one percussion cap. Only the last cylinder fired all 6 on the first try. When we disassembled to clean, we found not one, but two percussion caps flattened into the action. While that may account for later misfires, it certainly does not account for the initial ones. Is this common?

Did I mention it was hella fun?

For the first 3-4 cylinders, the loading lever never fell loose. Towards the end of the day, it was falling nearly every shot. Again, this was on a 25 gr charge. That surprised me.

Yet, still, hella fun!

I'm not kidding when I say I could have done that all day long. As it was, we were limited by ammo.

Hella fun!