Finally shot my '58 Remingtons

[Armored farmer]

a pair of '58 Remingtons...

I have 2 '58 Remington cap 'n ball revolvers and had never fired them until yesterday. WOW. What fun! I am sorely dissappointed that I waited so long to get started.

One is a Pietta in good condition. It occasionally fails to index for the next shot. It shoots like a dream accuracy wise....POI=POA.

The other is an older Uberti. It functions perfectly, and sounds/feels better in the action than the Pietta, but the finish is not too good and it shoots 6" high.

I am going to put one in the safe, and shoot the other for fun/friendly competition at our B/P club. I would rather shoot the Pietta because of the accuracy....but don't want to have the indexing problem. I completely disassembled the gun and found nothing really wrong inside. The indexing star on the back of the cylinder looks fine.

Can I just put new innards in the frame and be good to go??
Anyone else have this problem with a Pietta??

If I can get the Pietta running 100%, it may turn into my woods gun. I am a blackpowder/history nut anyway....and it shoots as well as any gun I own.

 

[Jaymo]

Sounds like it has a problem with the hand/hand spring. Perhaps the spring is cracked or weak. You will have to carefully, slowly stone the new hand to match the length of the original. Or stone it until it works perfectly.

 

[damoc]

I agree with Jaymo seems like i had a very small amount of gunsmithing when i replaced the innards for my pietta.

cant remember exactly what it was now but that little foot thingy that pushes the cyl around does ring a bell but it could have been the other thingy
that pops up to hold the cylindar in position once it gets to where its goin.



sorry im sure that was no help.

 

[Armored farmer]

Where do you buy parts for Pietta??
I didn't find any at Midway.

 

[Starter52]

Try Dixie Gun Works for replacement parts for your revolvers.

Italian made blackpowder revolvers are notorious for broken springs.

 

[denster]

Cabelas has a complete parts kit for the Pietta for 29.95 that includes hammer, trigger, hand&spring, bolt, mainspring and trigger/bolt spring. You will have to fit the hand and possibly the bolt.

 

[Armored farmer]

AW, heck yea....I even have a DGW catalog here somewhere , <duh>.

I was shooting about 27 gr of Pyrodex. I had to seat the ball deeper with my short starter. The loading arm wouldn't reach deep enough to seat the ball on the charge.
Are you guys using more powder or a felt wad or what??
What about ball size....I was shooting .454and barely making a ring when I seated a ball. I am going to order a mold, do I want a .454 or .457 or ??

thanks,
keith

 

[mykeal]

Do you have a micrometer or a vernier caliper? $25 for a very useful tool if not.

You may have some balls that are slightly undersize. Before you invest in a mold you need to slug the chambers and find out what they really are.

Drive a ball (preferably a .457 or even a .490) into each empty chamber, remove the nipples and drive them back out. Then measure the swaged diameter; that will tell you what mold to order.

 

[Armored farmer]

I do have a digital mic, but I am pretty sure you need to shave a ring of lead off the ball to provide a good seal in the chamber.

 

[Noz]

VTI Guns has the parts you need. <http://www.vtigunparts.com/>

They are a parts store. Good people, good service.

 

[mykeal]

I am pretty sure you need to shave a ring of lead off the ball to provide a good seal in the chamber.

That's correct. And in order to make sure that the mold you buy will produce a ball that allows that to happen you should measure the actual chamber diameters first.

I was shooting .454and barely making a ring when I seated a ball.

You can't always rely on what the manufacturer put on the package as being exactly correct; it's not unheard of that a '.454' is actually 0.4535 or even smaller. That could be the reason the rings are very thin. Or, it could be the balls are 0.455 and the chambers are large. You won't know until you measure them.

It's your money.

 

[Armored farmer]

mykeal

Now I get it...thanks. (I thought you meant for me to get a mold that equaled chamber bore.)
I have been around guns all my life. The more time I spend on THR, the more I find out how little I know! lol