Well, I went ahead and did it. I decided I better get it while the gettin' was good, and ordered this from Dixie. Yeah, it's a little too expensive, but I wanted it, and they had it (no one else has anything hardly!). The stubby 51 Navy .44 with the Thunderer/Lightning grip frame. Total fantasy gun from one end to the other, but that's ok.
I really like the thing. It is not perfect, but it's pretty good, and what isn't perfect is easily fixable. Like the trigger screw head is rough and not well shaped. No big deal. The timing seems good, though the bolt dropping out of the cylinder stop may be closer than I'd like, it still seems barely fast enough, and there's no nicking of the cylinder notches (the curved Colt "water table" looks really cool, but it makes it mighty dang hard to see what's going on in there!). The front end of the barrel underlug is roughly machined, and looks unfinished. Again, not a huge deal. My intention originally was to cut this solid lug out the way it would be on a real full length barrel with loading rod, drill and thread it for a screw, and that way you would have use of an actual loading rod. Just stick it in place, put in the one screw, and voila! You have a full length working ramrod. Why Pietta didn't do this, I don't know. I may or may not end up actually doing this, I don't know. It would also help eliminate some of the considerable weight of the piece. At the very least, I will clean up the unattractive front end of the lug. I'll also dovetail a new front sight. The little cone is a sharp little pokey thing, and it's also slightly loose in its divot. It's not coming out, but I can feel it's not super tight.
For its size, it's a pretty weighty little chunk! It points and handles well, though.
I noticed right off how the bore is not centered in the octagon barrel, but low. You may be able to see in the pictures. At first I was concerned, but after studying the situation, I realized that it has to be. The .44 chambers seem to NOT be centered the same distance from the base pin as the .36 chambers would be. Since the cylinder could only be made so big on the outside, it appears that in order to get the .44 chambers in, they couldn't just put them in the same place that the .36 chambers were, but moved them slightly in towards the center. This makes the top chamber center slightly lower, making the bore necessarily slightly lower. I assume that all the "Navy .44's" are done this way... I've never had one before. It's visually very disconcerting to me, but I'll eventually get over it!
And it's getting a cap rake! I'm real impressed with how the cap rake seems to be working out on my 1860.
I really like the thing. It is not perfect, but it's pretty good, and what isn't perfect is easily fixable. Like the trigger screw head is rough and not well shaped. No big deal. The timing seems good, though the bolt dropping out of the cylinder stop may be closer than I'd like, it still seems barely fast enough, and there's no nicking of the cylinder notches (the curved Colt "water table" looks really cool, but it makes it mighty dang hard to see what's going on in there!). The front end of the barrel underlug is roughly machined, and looks unfinished. Again, not a huge deal. My intention originally was to cut this solid lug out the way it would be on a real full length barrel with loading rod, drill and thread it for a screw, and that way you would have use of an actual loading rod. Just stick it in place, put in the one screw, and voila! You have a full length working ramrod. Why Pietta didn't do this, I don't know. I may or may not end up actually doing this, I don't know. It would also help eliminate some of the considerable weight of the piece. At the very least, I will clean up the unattractive front end of the lug. I'll also dovetail a new front sight. The little cone is a sharp little pokey thing, and it's also slightly loose in its divot. It's not coming out, but I can feel it's not super tight.
For its size, it's a pretty weighty little chunk! It points and handles well, though.
I noticed right off how the bore is not centered in the octagon barrel, but low. You may be able to see in the pictures. At first I was concerned, but after studying the situation, I realized that it has to be. The .44 chambers seem to NOT be centered the same distance from the base pin as the .36 chambers would be. Since the cylinder could only be made so big on the outside, it appears that in order to get the .44 chambers in, they couldn't just put them in the same place that the .36 chambers were, but moved them slightly in towards the center. This makes the top chamber center slightly lower, making the bore necessarily slightly lower. I assume that all the "Navy .44's" are done this way... I've never had one before. It's visually very disconcerting to me, but I'll eventually get over it!
And it's getting a cap rake! I'm real impressed with how the cap rake seems to be working out on my 1860.
and buggered up the screw head. Problem turned out the hole in the frame that accepts the screw head was not drilled round but was somewhat oval/egg shaped. The factory assembler just forced the screw in anyway. Ordered a new screw, but had to clean up the frame hole and slightly turn down the new screw head diameter before it would fit. Hope you don't experience the same thing.
