Dilli GaHoot Galoot Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 Just picked up a Pietta 1851 Navy in 36 cal, and overall I'm very happy with it, but I do need a little guidance to make sure I'm on the right track with fixing it. The Good: Got it at a great price ($300.00 to my door) The arbor is shockingly the correct length! The timing is also spot on and cycling it as slow or as fast as I can it doesn't skip or fail to lock up on every cylinder with no drag line on the cylinder. It shoots to POA at 15 paces and my first group shot standing with two hands was +/- 3" which for me with a new gun is just fine The Bad: Not much really, the grips stunk, but I replaced them with a set from Buffalo Brothers, it would be nice if Pietta used the same grip from from their SAA's instead of one that's just slightly not that, but oh well. And the cap cutout might be a little undersized or the CVA capper a pard gave me might just not be the correct one, and there were a few burrs that needed to be cleaned up, but nothing that would have prevented you from using it is as received. The Ugly: It eats caps like a 17 year old eats Doritos and that is where I need some help. The caps locked it up tight and I needed to pull the barrel to clear the jam. I was lucky enough to trade into 500 CCI #10's, and the priming compound is well distributed, but for now, those are the caps I have to work with. My plan is to replace the factory nipples with Slix-Shot nipples, fill the safety notch on the hammer face with JB Weld and get a better capper and making sure the caps are firmly seated. I know there are other fixes, but those are a bit beyond my shadetree gunsmithing skills, with possibly the exception of drilling a vent in the factory nipples as a poor-pards version of the Slix-Shot nipples. I'm all ears if anyone has any other suggestions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie Dawg, SASS #50329 Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 Factory Nipples suck. Spend the $35 and buy a set of Treso or Slix nipples. --Dawg 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warden Callaway Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 Maybe this will help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie Dawg, SASS #50329 Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 Dilli: Here's a couple of articles that Larsen E. Pettifogger wrote on tuning Pietta Open Top cap guns. These were in the Cowboy Chronicle some time ago. --Dawg Tuning_the_Pietta_Part_One copy.pdf Tuning the Pietta Cap & Ball for Competition part 2 copy.pdf 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dilli GaHoot Galoot Posted March 24 Author Share Posted March 24 1 hour ago, Prairie Dawg, SASS #50329 said: Dilli: Here's a couple of articles that Larsen E. Pettifogger wrote on tuning Pietta Open Top cap guns. These were in the Cowboy Chronicle some time ago. --Dawg Tuning_the_Pietta_Part_One copy.pdf 591.48 kB · 1 download Tuning the Pietta Cap & Ball for Competition part 2 copy.pdf 870.74 kB · 1 download Thank you for reminding me about that info! I have read about the risk of the hammer damaging the nipples, but hadn't found how to test for that, part 2 includes this very useful info Now that the nipples have been installed, we want to make sure they aren’t going to be damaged by the hammer. Put the hammer into the frame and place the cylinder on the arbor. Line up a nipple with the hammer and lightly push the cylinder back with one hand and push the hammer forward with the other. If you can feel the cylinder move forward, the hammer is contacting the nipple. Remove material from the nose of the hammer until it no longer contacts the nipples. Don’t remove too much material. We don’t want the hammer impacting the nipples, but we don’t want a large gap between the hammer and nipples either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griff Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 (edited) Welcome to the wonderful world of C&B shooting. Some folks install "cap rakes", (basically a piece of drill rod either epoxied or soldered into the top of the hammer slot in the recoil shield & a matching slot cut in the hammer face, basically enlarging the safety slot already there). I had a gunsmith install "Manhattan Conversions"* in mine. It narrows the gap of the hammer slot to about the width of that in an 1858 Remington with attendant narrowing of the hammer face and filling in the "safety pin notch". I still get the occasional split cap that folds over on itself and locks up the revolver. It's easily overcome by having the off hand assist in turning the cylinder to point at which to problem cap exits the recoil shield and enters the capping notch and falls away. I use a Tedd Cash "snail capper" as it better fits in the Colt style/sized capping notch. I also sometimes use an inline capper that I've trimmed down to also fit. (Very minor filing of the brass side of the capper). * the Manhattan revolvers were a contemporary of the Colts and very similar in operation and looks. Edited March 25 by Griff 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafe Conager SASS #56958 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Like Dawg said buy some tresso or slix nipples, also you can fill in the hammer face grove with jb liquid weld then smooth it flat with a file that will help the hammers not pull the cap off. Rafe 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene Slim SASS 81783 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Try smoothing the recoil shield - the curved channel where the nipple with spent cap passes. Sometimes the clearance is such that the spent cap drags on the surface and falls into the channel as the cylinder rotates. On that note, smooth any burrs in the hammer channel (at the 12:00 position) that might grab a slightly dislodged cap as the cylinder rotates. Welcome to C&B shooting! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dilli GaHoot Galoot Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 2 hours ago, Griff said: Some folks install "cap rakes", I was fortunate enough to begin working on guns in the pre interwebs era and did not have the ability to ask a huge group of strangers if something I had planed was a good idea, and if that was the only (or significantly best) option I would already be in the basement cutting a slot for a Mercury dime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warden Callaway Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 (edited) 18 hours ago, Prairie Dawg, SASS #50329 said: Factory Nipples suck. Spend the $35 and buy a set of Treso or Slix nipples. --Dawg I've got 5 Pietta cap guns with stock nipples and they've seem to work fine. I have polished up hammer faces and broke sharp edges around safety pin notch. Edited March 25 by Warden Callaway 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Rich Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 38 minutes ago, Warden Callaway said: I've got 5 Pietta cap guns with stock nipples and they've seem to work fine. I have polished up hammer faces and broke sharp edges around safety pin notch. ^^^ This and you will find fewer cap jams if you cut back on the loads a little. I used to shoot full loads and almost never had caps left on the nipples when I got to the unloadin table. My hammers were not pulling the caps off. My loads were blowing them off. kR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dilli GaHoot Galoot Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 5 hours ago, Kid Rich said: you will find fewer cap jams if you cut back on the loads a little. I used to shoot full loads and almost never had caps left on the nipples when I got to the unloadin table. My hammers were not pulling the caps off. My loads were blowing them off. kR I went with 18gr Swiss 3f as a starting load Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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