First time shooting my Pettta 1851 44 Cal

[Prospector]

I finally got to shoot my Pietta 44 Caliber 1951 Navy Colt replica.  I think I may need some help/suggestions on the care and feeding of this.  Here are my findings.

Soon after I bought it, and before I shot it for the first time, I replaced the stock nipples with Slix-Shot Nipples (the ones with the little holes in the sides of the cones).   Mike Beliveau said that these really helped solve many of the problems with spent cap jams in his 1951 replicas.   I fired a total of 35 shots with it the day before yesterday (About 6 cylinder loads).  I was using about 30 grains of 3F 777 powder under a .454 round ball, with no under-ball wads but with my 50/50 Beeswax/Olive Oil lube over the balls.   The gun seems a bit stiff from the start, and got a little stiffer by the end of my range session. 

The good news is, I fired all 36 rounds without having to clean the arbor or anything else.   The cylinder would still turn well enough to fire, although it was a little bit stiffer that when I started.  That is definitely better performance than my Remington.  I usually have to clean the cylinder pin/arbor on the Remmy after about 3 cylinders worth or so.   

The bad news is, I think I had only one time when I was able to fire all the chambers of the cylinder without a jam.  Most of time the jam was clearly caused by a spent cap, usually getting caught between the cylinder and the recoil shield.  I had one failure to fire, and again, I am fairly certain that it was caused by a spent cap.   There were some jams that seemed to be caused by a timing or other mechanical issue.  During those times, it seemed I had to rotate the cylinder back and forth with my other hand in order to get it to free up.  Often, I would find a spent cap stuck to the hammer face.   I know that I can fill in the notch on the hammer face with Epoxy, and this may eliminate some of the issues.  I have just not brought myself to make that modification yet.  I am still under the illusion that the notch might be a useful safety feature if I want to load all 6 chambers.  Those little safety posts between the nipples on the cylinder surely are short, though.

So, any suggestions on how to fix this (other than filling in the hammer face notch)?

[StrawHat]

I have never used Slix Shot cones but with the cones I do use, I make sure the caps are a snug fit.  No pinching or gluing them in place, just a snug friction fit.  I have polished cones to make the fit the caps.  Once I get a good fit, I lay in supply of caps for that revolver, maybe 1000, maybe 5000, it depends on how much I plan to use it.

On a couple of revolvers, I have installed a cap post in the frame to keep the caps from being pulled into the space under the hammer.  I use a 1/16" drill bit and drill it maybe 3/16" deep.  I then use the shank of a dull 1/16" bit as the post, either gluing it in place or soldering it.  (Glue is more than sufficient.)  Then, I use the dreaded Dremel tool to cut the post off just proud of the cone.  I also enlarge the hammer slot to pass over the post and still engage the safety pins.

I do not fill in the hammer notch.  I use it to keep the cylinder from turning when I load the revolver as Colt intended it to be loaded. 

Kevin

[Prospector]

Those are good suggestions StrawHat!  I like the idea of installing a cap rake a lot better than filling in the hammer notch.  Can you post a picture or pictures to illustrate what you did with the Dremel tool?  I am having a hard time picturing what you mean by, "just proud of the cone".  I also am not certain of the exact location for the cap rake (how far back from the front of the hammer opening, and how close to the cones.

I forgot to mention that I was using CCI #11 Caps.   They seemed to be a good, tight fit.  In fact, they kind of snapped snugly in place onto the nipples when I applied pressure with my wood stick to seat them.  I think they were a very good fit.  On the one failure to fire, I first thought that maybe I did not have the cap seated all the way onto the nipple.  That may have been the cause, but I think it was more likely a spent cap that kept the hammer from hitting the nipple hard enough.   I did not have any caps fall off before firing them.

I tried CCI #10 caps but they were too small to fit on the Slix-Shot nipples.   I did not try Remington caps.  Maybe I will do that next time out.  Also, I found that I could not use my Pedersoli inline capper.  It would not fit in the openings for the nipples.

[StrawHat]

Hedley does it a whole lot better than I do.

http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?topic=5744.0

Kevin

[Captainkirk]

Hedley does it a whole lot better than I do.

http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?topic=5744.0

Kevin

Thank you so much for posting that, Kevin!

[mike116]

Yeah,  thanks for that post Kevin.  I saved it for future reference.   I've been considering a cap rake for a couple of my revolvers.

[StrawHat]

Yeah,  thanks for that post Kevin.  I saved it for future reference.   I've been considering a cap rake for a couple of my revolvers.

I have them on a couple of mine and they work well.  I make them as small as possible (diameter) because I do not want to open the notch in the hammer.  I also deepen the notch, if necessary, so I can still use the safety pins in the cylinder.

Of course, a couple of my revolvers do not need them, my pair of Uberti 1861s from the 70s, keep right on shooting with no problems.

Kevin

[Prospector]

Yes, thank you Kevin for posting that link.   Good article.