I've been keeping an eye out for one for a while, because my collection was lacking one. This one just sort of fell into my lap. I did some horse trading with a guy for an 1860 Army. To sweeten the deal, he threw in a bunch of parts from a couple other pistols. So I took the deal. Here's what he sent me.
Looked like nearly everything I needed to build a Pietta G&G, minus a few parts. Everything that was missing, I robbed out of a seldom used .44 Navy. I also got a set of grip screws from a seller on eBay. Once I had everything together, I started fitting the pistol together. The first thing I noticed was the barrel address. I have never seen a Pietta with a Navy Arms address. Not saying they didn't exist, I just haven't seen one.
The date code on the brass frame is CN, which is 2015. I imagine the barrel is considerably older, which would explain the fitment issue I had. I had to smooth out the arbor, so it would fit into the barrel. It fit, but it was really tight. Speaking of the arbor, it was short. I mean really short too. Over an 1/8". Pushing the wedge in at all, would lock the gun up tight.
So I made my usual steel spacer and soldered it to the end of the arbor. I know some of you put it down in the barrel with JB Weld, I'm just not a fan of that. Not that it's wrong, because it obviously works. I just have an aversion to using glue on a gun. It just doesn't even sound right to me. So I solder it on the end of the arbor. Plus, my way is completely reversible if the need should arise.
Once that was done, I dressed the spacer down with a file, until I got the cylinder clearance to .003" as I have seen it recommended. It seems to work, so that's what I set mine to. And it's repeatable every time I drive the wedge in. Your mileage may vary.
And here's the semi finished product. I just need to decide how I'm going to finish it now. Brand Spanky new, or weathered. I haven't decide yet. This gun is pretty beat up. So I may go for the weathered look.
Now my lonesome Leech and Rigdon has a confederate buddy to play with.