Pietta .44 Dance and Pietta 1851 Navy .36 Interchangeability

[expat_alaska]

I know this subject has been discussed before on various forums, and there have been several posts about this, but there have really been no definitive conclusions.

I would like to use a Pietta Dance & Brothers .44 cal. (non-rebated cylinder) as a base to create a Dance .36 cal. pistol.

The Pietta Dance .44 does not have a step/cut in the water table, and some other gentleman on one of these forums has mated a Pietta G&G .36 barrel and plain cylinder to a Pietta Dance .44 frame. He has stated that the hand is either too long/short to turn the cylinder adequately to the stop position.

Mike Belliveau (duelist1954) has a very good recent YouTube vid about shooting the Pietta Dance .44, and I have asked him if he would, as a trial, to swap barrel/cylinder from one of his Pietta Navy .36 pistols onto the Pietta Dance .44 frame and check the hand operation on the cylinder in this configuration. He has stated that he thought the hammer, trigger, and bolt screws were in a different configuration than the Pietta 1851 Navy. (I have a hard time thinking that Pietta reconfigured their standard 1851 Navy frame even slightly just to produce an obscure revolver that many folks may not be interested in, nor even heard of, and therefore not a big seller.)

No word so far.

If anyone has any other information about this, I would appreciate this immensely. I would like to add this Pietta .36 Dance to my sparse collection of 1851 Navy-type pistols insofar as interchangeable barrels/cylinders.

If the Pietta Dance pistol is viable to convert easily to .36 using Pietta 1851 Navy barrels/cylinders, I will have a plethora of many pistols just by barrel/cylinder exchange.

I might even have a replica fantasy of an 1851 Navy Squareback .44 Dragoon.

I don't want to purchase the Pietta Dance .44 until I feel sure that this scenario has a chance to work.

Thanks in advance for any information.

Jim

 

[Panzerschwein]

Have you tried VTI gun parts? You might be able to buy just the components you need, and won't have to buy an entire Dance.

 

[expat_alaska]

I still need the Dance frame as I do not want to mill off the recoil shields from an 1851 Navy to possibly recreate a Dance, and then try to apply case colors to the frame.

There are extant references to a few Dance .36 pistols with recoil shields, and I have pics and references to those. I think the Dance Brothers experimented a lot, so I don't think there are many Dance revolvers that fit the somewhat "normal" description of "The Dance Revolver", whatever that may be.

I think they did so as to pacify the Texas Confederate military controllers so that the boys creating these pieces did not serve on the front lines, thus keeping whatever arms they produced would go to local military units. Many references point to George Dance heading up the revolver production, but James H. Dance (Jim Henry) being an officer in a Texas regiment and probably being quite proficient in prodding senior officers to see his way of thinking, saved a lot of these young men from seeing battle and instead manufacturing pistols for these units. How many pistols is a matter of semantics, depending upon the sources.

I still need a Pietta Dance frame.

Jim

 

[Panzerschwein]

Even if you do need to modify the hand, it shouldn't be too difficult. If you really want one, it might be the only way.

 

[RCampb6131]

Dance and G & G compatibility

Expat: I am the one who originally posted the picture of the .36 cal. Dance made from swapping the barrel and cylinder with a Griswold & Gunnison. This works for display, but does not work mechanically. The G & G .36 cal. cylinder is slightly smaller in diameter than the .44 cal. Dance cylinder. When you cock the hammer, the bolt doesn't fully engage the cylinder notch, and doesn't hold the chamber securely in battery. As I said, it's ok for display, but I would not advise trying to shoot it.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Yeah I didn't think it would work.

You could always petition Pietta to come out with a .36 caliber version, or just get a Spiller n' Burr, which are fine guns.

 

[expat_alaska]

Yeah I didn't think it would work.

You could always petition Pietta to come out with a .36 caliber version, or just get a Spiller n' Burr, which are fine guns.

Sorry, the Spiller and Burr is not an option for me. Ugly as all get out, as much as I am concerned.

Insofar as petitioning Pietta, forget about it.

I just have a problem with reconciling the fact that Pietta created a Dance .44 revolver (which in manufacturing terms is nothing more than milling off the 1851 Navy recoil shields with a non-rebated .44 cylinder and a non-cut water table without creating a new frame).

I am sure there is more than that insofar as that creation, but I need to know more.

I want to know if this a different frame, screw placement, et al, et al, before I procede.

Any comments are appreciated.

Jim