Here are my 1860 Army (Pietta) still in factory oil. The cool thing is that they have sequential serial numbers! Shotgun is next...
.44 Caliber?
DD-MDA
.44s both
Now begin the never ending process of making them into shooters. Read Lawrence T. Pettifoggers instructions of how to tune them.
If you get the desire to send them off to a cap and ball smith, lay down and put a cool cloth on your head. If you resist that urge you can save your self several hundred dollars and have functional guns.
Being completely oblivious to BP shooting, what does this tuning consist of? What is wrong with out of the box?
My observations after messing with cap (percussion ignition) guns since the 1950's is that the Italian guns are a pretty good kit for you to learn on.
They are nice looking, but the internal parts can be sort of rough but can be made to work properly.
Col. Colt had a room full of old guys with green eye shades and files that finished the parts.
The Italian makers have outsourced assembly to a gorilla named Mongo that is in charge of torquing down threaded parts.
A cap gun can be made to be very reliable, but it takes time if you are handy with tools or will spend money to a good smith that specializes in cap guns.
They are a different breed from cartridge guns but are fun to shoot if you are willing to meet the challenge of early 1800 technology.
Yr' Obt' Svt'
Bunk
Quote from: Capt Quirk on January 17, 2018, 09:51:23 AM
Being completely oblivious to BP shooting, what does this tuning consist of? What is wrong with out of the box?
Go to <Tuning the Pietta Cap & Ball for Competition> up in the Dark Arts area of this forum. All you need to know.
Quote from: Noz on January 17, 2018, 05:34:35 PM
Go to <Tuning the Pietta Cap & Ball for Competition> up in the Dark Arts area of this forum. All you need to know.
No need to now, I think Bunk just answered my question. Thank you Bunk :)
I kind of like the video that duelist1954 has for tuning the 1851 Navy. Should work for the 1860, I hope!
Congregation on your new set of Guns .
One of the best bang for your bucks in any Cap Gun .
Is to switch out your Nipples for Slixshot nipples .
This alone with make your Cap Guns much much more reliable.
Rooster Ron Wayne
My brother is in Italy? Hmmm. Well Dad never let him near the tools for obvious reasons. For the most part I clean my out of box guns, clean barrel with bore paste and polish up the moving parts. Have had no problems. Now I got to look at visiting my brother. 😁
Texas Brush Popper
The internal works of most of the open top Colts are the same as the the 1847 Walker to the 1873
single action revolver. some smaller but the mechanism is the same
Bunk
P.S. that tune up is worth the time my guns just run with out cap jams.
Bunk