Range Report - Smith Carbine

[TheWall]

Got to go the range this morning w/my Pietta Smith Carbine. I shot from 50 yards and 75 yards and did okay (see targets below).

All shots were seated using 28 grains of Goex 2FG and plastic cases from DGW.

I love shooting this carbine!

The first photo is my 50 yard target, the second is my 75 yard target.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well considering it was meant to shoot at fellows in line formation, standing...., I wouldn't want you to shoot at me with it, even out past 100 yards.

LD

 

[kBob]

Interesting. And thanks for posting the info and pics.

Your groups don't seem particularly out of line with what one of the G&A magazine writers published this month for his oriiginal Burnside and Enfeild ML carbine. His loads were however more stout and just what was used in the ACW.

I did wonder if his makeshift home loads suffered a bit from not being as well made as originals. Also he loaded the Minie American style in his Enfield even when using Pitchard bullets.

If I had been a damned Yankee horse trooper it still looks like I would have liked best to be armed with a Sharps or Maynard early in the war and a Spencer later.....like they had a choice.

I wonder why the italians are not making a maynard .50 or perhaps better yet a "Confederate" model in .35 (most Maynards seized in Federal Arsenals in the south were appearently the .35) that might actually use modern lead .357 lead bullets for ease of reloading. Sell the gun with ten Maynard cases and offer additinal cases as an accessory.

Offer the tang sights as well. A fake tape primer door would be fine.

WHen I was a kid around 1960 the hardware/feed/ grocery/ novelty store by the seed cleaning mill sold a brand of toy caps that had a retangular "pellet" that barely fit the tape from side to side and preforation to preforation.....wish I had saved a couple or hundred boxes as they probably were Maynard tape design. We liked because they had the compound in the old familure demolitionist "P" formula....Plenty.

Wow I do run on sentences like crazy.

-kBob

 

[TheWall]

Italian Maynards?

kBob,

I would love to have a replica Maynard. I suspect it's a marketing issue. Navy Arms made a Smith replica I believe in the 1970s and it was popular. That may be why Pietta came out with one. I am sure that others on this site with more knowledge than myself can answer that question.

 

[TomADC]

Nice shooting, did you ever swap out the trigger spring?

 

[TheWall]

TomADC: I ended up sending the carbine back to Dixie Gun Works. The gunsmith fixed her right up and sent it back pretty quick. The trigger pull is now excellent and the lock works perfectly.

 

[TomADC]

Based on those targets I'd say they did a great job.
Haven't had mine out in a while have even given thought to selling it.

 

[kBob]

The Wall,

Just saying I wish they did make a Maynard. Does not look as complex to make as a Smith or Galiger. My understanding is that at Carbine ranges 200 meters and less the Maynard was the most accurate of the ACW carbines. I suppose they would need a few originals to take measurements from.

-kBob