Pietta Colt Navy 61 - Is this normal?

[Sundance]

Hope I make myself understood when I ask this?

Looking down the barrel of the aforementioned with a powerful penlight torch I notice that I can see  - slight half moon to the right approx 1mm or so of the flat part of the cylinder.  Now could the ball be missing the rifling slightly on this side when it starts to travel.  Also on left side could the ball be dragging - mishaping etc.

The gun is locking up fine, and shooting OK.

Wedge is in correctly, x2 small pins at bottom of barrel located correctly etc.

Furthermore on shining torch behind nipple - when the gun is cocked nice round even circle of light.

Am I worrying over nothing, or could there be a problem?  Never noticed this before, however one of those things never looked that close before.

If I'm not clear feel free to ask for further info... Cheers.

[Cuts Crooked]

That ain't RIGHT!!! Yer gun isn't timed properly and it's shaving one side of the ball because the chamber isn't aligned with the bore!!

If it's accurate I guess I'd live with it, it may be slugging the ball up enuff to engage the rifling, but it really isn't condusive to fine accuracy!

[Sundance]

Ahhh.. usual rapid response from Cuts.  Always count on yeh coming up with an answer.

Now how do I fix it Cuts?  Is it something I should be concerned about i.e safety ??

As said everything locking up fine etc.

Could I have done this knocking out that darn wedge?  EEEK!

[Lars]

Does it happen on each and every chamber? If so, it is likely a problem with either the "hand" that rotates the cylinder and/or the bolt stop. IF it only happens on some of the cylinders, then you probably have a more difficult to fix problem.

You can check to see if the cylinder is over rotating by pushing (rotating) it even fruther clockwise, conversely, if attempts to rotate even further clockwise decrease, even remove, the little "cresent moon(s)" then the hand is not rotating it enough.

I have seen several cheap C&Bs, with their soft metal, that had badly buggered "hands" that were result of shooter trying to use hammer to rotate a badly crudded (from way too much BP powder fouling) cylinder. Result was a cylinder that would not be rotated fully against the bolt stop.  Remedy in that case is often a new hand.

It the cylinder is overrotating, fitting a new bolt (cylinder stop) is the likely remedy.

Lars

[hellgate]

I've had older vintage Pietta SS Remingtons (2) that were so far off allignment that as the ball entered the forcing cone it would cam the cylinder right off of the bolt and lock up the gun. The cylinder would be about 1/4" rotated (can't remember which way) after firing and i'd have to manually turn the cylinder to get it back into the bolt cutout so i could cock it again. A major P.I.T.A.  The "fix" was to ream out the forcing cone to where the ball had  a bigger opening to jump into and the gun quit locking up but i could always see the "crescent moon" when looking down the  barrel when cocked. Otherwise the bolt needed to be moved over so the cylinder would lock up when properly alligned. I never bothered to do that; I just found it a new home.

[Smokin Gun]

Like Lars said if the chamber is too far clockwise check the top of the hand for a burr or bump or that its just too long on top of hand. if moon of chamber thru barrel is counter clockwise...new hand or build up old one with a wire welder/MIG. As far as I know...hope that helped.

[Cuts Crooked]

All of the above is excelant advise! Another possibility is that your bolt stop is not properly located, especially if this is happening on all chambers. Ergo, if it's locking in the bolt stop but all chambers are out of line when "in battery", then you may have a more serious problem. This might be fixable by filing out the bolt slot and installing & fitting a new bolt. Hard to say wihtout having the gun right in front of me though. If it's only happening on one or two chambers another possibility might be the notches on the back of the cylinder are not cut properly or have a burr on them.

Might try asking about this in the Gunsmithing forum, those guys over there know about C&B gunz too!

[hellgate]

I think Cuts has a point: if the hand it too long the bolt will stop the rotation of the cylinder and wherever the bolt holds the cylinder is where it will line up. The bolt is the key to where the cylinder comes to a stop when cocked. If the chambers are out of allignment when the gun is locked up (cocked/in battery) then the bolt or cylinder cutouts are out of position. On my guns, I bought new cylinders (no help) but it was the bolt that needed to be moved over. Rather than do that I had a gunsmith ream the forcing cone and that cured the jamming upon firing problem I had from bad chamber/barrel allignment. It didn't do anything for the lousy allignment but reduced the jarring of the cylinder when fired off center.

[Sundance]

Well many thanks fellla's for the contributions.

I've just got back from the club compared pistol with other club members Colts - all Pietta and all but x1 .44 very similar x1 probably far worse.  Club gunsmith seemed to be of the opinion that I was perhaps being too critical as the gun shoots pretty well.
I've just finished cleaning it and putting it back together on looking at the hand carefully the tip does have a slight rough tip - knurled very slightly.  I think I'll be ordering another one shortly and replace it to see if it cancels out the alignment problem.

Looking at the inside of the barrel prior to cleaning it showed leading right the way down so the ball must be travelling correctly - see Cuts first comments.

What kind of groups should I be getting with this pistol?  On a good day I can manage 3-4 inchs at 25yds with the odd flyer.  I got a nice cloverleaf group before Christmas - luck I think!   With my Euroarms .44 58 Remington (target sights) I can now get 2-3 inch groups consistantly, I've been shooting this though for the past year at least once a week.

Again thanks fella's for your comments.