How to ruin a Pietta

[Black River Smith]

Kent,

That description of placement will work just fine.  That is all I will need to make the cut.

Thank you for the time and effort to provide me the info.

[Black River Smith]

Kent,

Again thanks for that info.  About 45 min to one hour -- for the calculations, measurements, filing, measurements in-between and finishing.  That fix is done.

I think I will deepen the grease grooves, also.  That will take a little more time to do correctly.


Thanks
BRS

[rbertalotto]

GREAT THREAD!  Thanks

[Doc Jackson]

Im enjoying reading this.

[Black River Smith]

Well I finished the back barrel contour on the Pietta 1860.  The only reason I did the contouring was because paper cartridges, would not work and I am interested in making and using them.  The issue was -- they would not go past the squared off side shoulders of the Pietta.

So, it took me 3 hours over a two day timeframe just to file the shapes.  I contour the back shoulder and deepened the bullet entrance cavity.  I am meticulous, took my time and did measuring around arbor face and curvatures around the wedge.  I do still need to sand and re-blue the work but.....  that is not the most time consuming part of the job.

In my opinion the Pietta has a lot of metal and did not suffer any weakness by doing this alteration. Now both round ball and conical paper cartridges insert and roll into position under the rammer with ease.

Thanks for starting this thread and providing the necessary info.  It was fun but tedious --- but the revolver now functions 'like / similar to' an original.

Also, the Pietta 1851 Navy did not require any modifications in order to get the paper cartridges to work.

[Jubal Starbuck]

    I am finding this to be a very interesting thread.  I enjoy tinkering with cap and ball revolvers to make them run better.  Thanks for your time and efforts.

   Regards,

    Jubal Starbuck

[Kent Shootwell]

B.R. Smith, won't you post a photo or two of your improved 1860 replica. I'm interested in your work as would others.
Starbuck, sharing is what makes this site work. I live to serve. 

[Black River Smith]

I will try and post some pictures before I do the final blueing, so area altered is visible.

But a caveat to my last post is -- if you do not '''like the bullet cavity shape''' change that first.  Or else, you will be doing what I am now having to do that is re-working the side radiusing to follow the new shape of the cavity.

[Black River Smith]

Attached are pictures as requested.

First is the right side of barrel.  Second is the straight on of the rear of the barrel.  Third is the left side of barrel.  Fourth is barrel attached to frame.

Please note that I did cut my own profile into the barrel above the bullet cavity.  I did do this on purpose so that it did not resemble any pattern that I saw on an original Colt.  I did not like the Knife edge or the tapered drop to the cavity that I saw on originals from pictures from the internet, so I did what the Pietta allowed and what I liked.   Plus the metal thickness would require a lot of work to get to the proper Colt image.

The fourth photo also allows you to see the deepened groove between the cylinder and the barrel and the increased depth of the grease grooves on the arbor.

[Black River Smith]

One other thing I did while cleaning up these revolvers was to modify the hammer face slot, as per the Bottom Dealing Mike suggestion and video, so that fired caps would 'hopefully' not stick and jam the action.

[45 Dragoon]

Making the slot in the hammer face thinner (as in just wide enough to allow the safety pin to clear) will go a long way towards keeping the caps from "sticking" to it. This is how the originals were.

Mike