r/canadaguns • u/Vintage_Pieces_10 • Jun 18 '26

Shooting Handgun hump-day (Antique Swiss 1882)

Definitely one of my favourite antiques to shoot! She’s not just a display piece but a reliable shooter. Definitely recommend for those seeking an antique revolver!

50 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

3

u/BigRedGunNut Jun 18 '26

I have the 1882 Swiss and the Swedish 1887. Both are fantastic to shoot.

Edit. Question. Are you using 32 S&W Long or the Fiocchi 7.5mm Swiss Ordnance (which I hear might be to hot for the antique status revolvers)?

2

u/Possible_Jellyfish69 Jun 18 '26

Not sure about their 7.5mm swiss, but Fiocchi 455 Webley is way less hot than Fiocchi claims. They say 850fps on the box, but I've chronographed it as averaging 568fps out of a 6" barrel.

1

u/BigRedGunNut Jun 18 '26

I've been hesitant to try. The newer black boxed stuff is claimed way hotter than the original ammo and hotter than Fiocchis older brown boxed ammo. With the cost of these pistols I don't watch to risk any damage.

1

u/Possible_Jellyfish69 Jun 18 '26

That's fair. I've found the Fiocchi 455 very inconsistent compared to my handload (more than double the standard deviation in fps). I even had one shot with fiocchi where it was nearly a squib and the bullet visibly bounced on the range floor lol. Reloading is much cheaper too

1

u/Vintage_Pieces_10 Jun 18 '26

I actually had a squib just like that, but it was a handload .45AR in my Webley. The bullet literally drooped out of the barrel and rolled across the range

1

u/Possible_Jellyfish69 Jun 18 '26

Interesting, what powder, and heavy or light crimp? I've been using Trailboss and a pretty heavy crimp and no squibs with my handloads yet (but I haven't been handloading for very long)

3

u/Vintage_Pieces_10 Jun 18 '26

Winchester 231, 3.5 grains, light crimp, and this one was on a cast 225g LRN bullet that I powder coated myself. That was the only one I’ve had a squib from that recipe after 500-600 rounds (aside from a squib where I forgot powder lol)

1

u/Possible_Jellyfish69 Jun 19 '26

Thanks for sharing. I'd like to try powder coating, and I'll probably try win 231 at some point since it's actually available

3

u/Vintage_Pieces_10 Jun 19 '26

Powder coating is easy as hell and the results are pretty cool. Got a convection over from the thrift store, used a bunch of yogurt containers (any plastic with #5 stamped into the symbol will work), dump the bullets in, dump some powder, shake for a couple mins (no5 plastic being shook creates static electricity for the powder to stick), bake for 20 and let it cool for 10-15.

I use Eastwood powder coat (many colours) but as long as it has polyester in it, it will work. Pictured is some Eastwood translucent blue I used on some 200g LSWCs and they turned out great!

1

u/BigRedGunNut Jun 18 '26

That's kind of scary. Didn't realize Fiocchi was like that. Reloading is definitely WAY cheaper.

2

u/Vintage_Pieces_10 Jun 18 '26

I was curious about the Swedish 1887, I’ll have to see when one comes around!

As for the ammo, my bore is undersized, in fact it dials in at .305, so the fiocchi 7.5 is off the table. Therefore I’m using .32SWL that I’ve reloaded with special .308-.309 sizes 78g LRN from OMA bullets (great guy to deal with) and they work like a charm (the bullet needs a heavy crimp though as the .308-309 bullets sit a little loose in the case. So loose in fact that I don’t even need to flare the case, I just skip right to bullet seating after resizing. Heavy crimp though solves all the looseness and the bullets run flawlessly)

1

u/BigRedGunNut Jun 18 '26

Nice. I've primarily been running 32 SW hollow base wad cutters in both of mine but will likely load some propper ammo at some point. I have dies and 32-20 brass. May potentiall pull the Fiocchi bullets and use that brass with new powder and a lead bullet but am not sure I want to go through that hassle.

2

u/Vintage_Pieces_10 Jun 18 '26

A trick too if you want to use .32SWL and prevent bulging (or at least significantly reduce bulging), I wrap one turn of green painters tape around the casing and as you can see, the casing I’m pointing to isn’t bulged practically at all after the tape is removed, whereas all the casings around it were all fired without tape and are pretty deformed (still reloadable, just lessens the brass life).

I’ve also considered pulling 7.5 fiocchi or trimming 32-20 casings myself but was dissuaded so far with having to do that work when green painters tape seems to work decently well haha

Also I saw your reply with the Swedish 1887, awesome video! (I’ll have to finish it later). Love the (what appears to be) maple box you’ve got for it too.

1

u/BigRedGunNut Jun 18 '26

Really need trick with the tape. I'll have to try that.

The box is actually a thrift store jewelry box that I repurposed. I like it. Not quite as cool as a genuine 130 year old gun box but a definite improvement over nothing.

3

u/Vintage_Pieces_10 Jun 19 '26

I thought the tape trick was an old forum tall tale, but then I gave it a whirl and sure enough to my surprise, brass is pretty much in perfect condition!

Genuine 130 year old box or not, it’s a great repurposing of the thrift store find! I’m currently making a couple boxes myself, one for my MAS 1873, and one for another redditor’s MAS 1873, for the same reason: definite improvement over nothing haha

1

u/theservman on Jun 24 '26

Upvote for left handed.