New Remy Owner with a few ??

[Dalion]

Well, I just got my Pietta 1858 Remington revolver from Cabela's and I am very well pleased.  Not a nick, scratch or miss-fitted part on the gun, so far as I can see.  It is a little rough, but even working the hammer and trigger for just a few minutes I could already feel it smoothing out.  This is first cap and ball revolver in 27 years.  I am cleaning the factory preservative grease out and I have a few questions.

1.  I have Ballistol and was planning on using it to relubricate the works.  Is there a grease equivalent to Ballistol oil?

2. The trigger/bolt spring screw is torqued in quite tightly.  Is this normal?  I made sure the spring had as little tension on it as possible before trying to loosen it but it would not give.  Is this one of those; add Kroil, let it do its work and get a good screwdriver and go for it situations?

3. The hammer is hitting the nipples at an angle.  Should I trim it so that the hammer face is parallel with the nipple face and just shy of making contact with the nipples?

4. The cylinders measured .448 and the bore is .450 across the lands.  I have read that a pure lead ball should obtrude enough to fill in the lands and should shoot well. Is this mostly true even with 24 to 28 grain charges of 3F?  If not, I will consider having the cylinders bored out to slightly larger than bore size.

5. I am thinking of opening up the rear sight notch for a better sight picture.  Any thoughts, either positive or negative on that?

6. I've read that one of the nipple wrenches that Dixie sell will work well on the Remys can someone tell me which one it is?  Is it; "NT0501 Nipple Wrench - T style Large Revolver?"

Thank you all for helping and for sharing your experiences that made purchasing and getting into C&B shooting much less stressful.

[Skinny Preacher 66418]

1) I use ballistol in/out. The base pin I like to smear some BP suitable grease.
2) Mine came really tight too. Make sure you use a 'hollow ground' screwdriver not a cheapo that will torque out.
3) I would do that only if it looked way out of alignment, gave cap problems at the range, or simply bothered me
4) I Konverted all of my '58s, but before I did so I had good enough accuracy using .451 balls in mine (3" group at 25 feet). Your reasoning does make sense and should increase accuracty.
5) I've considered that myself. A hand file should do it.
6) I used the cheap one that came with mine. It got boogered up easily...but then again it never boogered my nipples since they were harder.

99% of the time I'm pounding steel, so never really searched for ragged hole accuracy. Have fun with her.

[Flint]

1. Bore Butter works well as long as the temperature isn't unreasonable.

2. Get a perfectly fitting gunsmith screwdriver, lock the revolver down in a padded vise, after Kroiling it for an hour or so, set the screwdriver, rap it a few times and, with all your weight on it try to unscrew the screw.  If you get it out damaged, order a new screw.  I don't recall whether Pietta's screws are as soft as Uberti's, but the fact is the Italianns seem more concerned with their tooling life than the quality of the finished part.

3. Note the position of the body of the hammer when it is in the fired position, with the hammer nose resting against a nipple.  Is there a lot of space between the hammer and the frame on each side where the hammer nose extension starts?  See where it rests with the cylinder removed.  The difference is the amount of material you need to remove from the hammer face, but it must be removed to match the angle of the nipple face, which, on a Pietta, is usually not even close.  I determined the angle the nipples are set into the cylinder and matched it with a line (Sharpie pen works on a stainless) on the flat of the hammer nose for reference, then started filing until I matched the angle and got the hammer to just barely touch the frame in the fired position when against a nipple.  If the angle is wrong, dry firing or hitting a fired chamber in a shooting string, or even just firing caps will mark the hammer face, and damage the nipple cones to the point where you can't even seat a new cap, the strength of the mainspring will determine how long it will take to do damage.  If you have more than one cylinder, check them all, and adjust for the cylinder with the deepest nipple wells.

4. If you ream the chambers, find a reamer that will give you as close to the barrel's groove diameter as possible, but still be tight on available balls, probably .454.or .457.  You need not ream any deeper than you expect to seat the ball.

5. You can open up the rear sight, but I would wait until you see where the gun shoots, you can compensate for windage left or right at the same time.

6. There are hardened nipple wrenches from Taylors that fit the Remington, and you do want a hardened wrench, most on the market are way too soft and don't last very long.  I bought one from the Possibles Shop, it came in a Taylors package card. Revolver Nipple Wrench For 1851, 1860 Colts & 1858 Rem  Hardened Steel 83-1012  $9.95

http://www.possibleshop.com/nipple-wrench.htm

 

[Dalion]

Pards,

I want thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.  It helped me get a plan of action together as to what to do first.  I accidentally dry fired it a couple of times and I have an impression of the nipple on the hammer and the metal on the hammer is already peened a little.  And that trigger/bolt spring just will not give.  I have a screwdriver that fits the slot but it wouldn't give.  The screw slot started to booger so I stopped.  I'll have to take it to my gunsmith.  It's a shame I have to do that just to take it apart. 

I'll let you all know how she shoots.