Pietta 1858 Remington shoots high with Colt 45 conversion cylinder

[VMC]

This 44cal Sheriffs Model shot low with the 44 round balls and black powder so I filed down the front sight to take care of that. With the cap shortage around here, I got a 45 Colt conversion cylinder from Taylors to shoot cartridges since I have a large supply of lead, primers and powders. I needed to raise the front sight since the cartridges now shot 6-8" high at 20 yd. I found this front sight part #JA182 at S&S Firearms that is .540 tall. It only needed a little filing to fit the dovetail in the barrel. I will probably have to file this down some to adjust but I think it will work fine. I can change out the sight when going back to round balls. Here is the new sight installed with the old one sitting next to it for comparison. This model gun had the dovetailed front sight instead of the round post sight that some Piettas have.

 

[armoredman]

Wait, you have two front sight dovetails for the different loads, smokeless to black? Interesting, never heard of that before.

 

[VMC]

Nope the back one is the filed down original I set on top to show the difference between the two. It can be swapped out easily with the taller one. Just wanted to show you can find a taller sight than stock if you need one for 45 Colt conversions. Only one barrel dovetail.

 

[AlexanderA]

It seems evident that you're getting a higher velocity out of your cartridge handloads than out of the loose percussion loads. If you can control for the powder charge and bullet weight (so that the two loadings are the same), then the point of impact should be the same. That would be difficult if you are using smokeless powder for the cartridges, but not so much if you stick to black for both.

 

[VMC]

I forgot to mention I was using 7.5gr of Unique smokeless powder (cowboy load) over 255gr lead bullet. So you are right about the higher velocity. I have to try black powder in the cartridges to see how it performs. With round balls I was using 30gr of black powder.

 

[woodnbow]

It seems evident that you're getting a higher velocity out of your cartridge handloads than out of the loose percussion loads. If you can control for the powder charge and bullet weight (so that the two loadings are the same), then the point of impact should be the same. That would be difficult if you are using smokeless powder for the cartridges, but not so much if you stick to black for both.

Lower velocity usually leads to a higher poi. The bullet is in the barrel longer during recoil and thus lands higher on target.

 

[VMC]

I can see where that can happen too with the bullet taking longer to exit the barrel. I was shooting from a rest both times at same distance and the Unique powder had a much stronger sharper kick and resulted in the higher impact on target. I guess there's a lot of factors involved with powder, bullet and recoil muzzle flip to cause the 6" high difference. I plan to settle on a black powder ball load and a more powerful smokeless cartridge conversion load and just swap front sights accordingly. I really like to be able to swap cylinders to the 45 Colt cartridge when I want.

 

[BCRider]

A heavier bullet tends to shoot higher for sure. I've proved that with my .38Spl loads in my S&W's revolvers over the years. Also shooting faster tends to hit lower. That I proved with my own "revolver roulette" where I'd load my S&W .357's with 5 Specials and one Magnum. The Magnum typically hit about 3 inches lower than the .38Spl group's center point.

What you could do, if you like, is reduce the bullet weight to speed up the muzzle velocity and it'll hit lower. With a little combo of lighter bullet and the right powder measure you should be able to come pretty close to matching the POI of the round ball.

Mind you if it'll be a while before you see any percussion caps to where it's more a case of a few months then at least you already have the other sight. 6 of one, half a dozen the other.....

 

[Slamfire]

Put a straight edge on the top of the front sight and the back of it resting on the rear. You will notice the slope of the straight edge is down!

Darn those laws of motion. Lets cancel Newton!