Project pistol I just picked up

[Junk Yard Dog]

The one I have in the pic above I bought from the estate of a Confederate reenactor, you can see it's been scratched and dinged up a bit, but still works fine, nothing loose. I had a hell of a time scrubbing all the crud out of it when I first had it apart.

[mogunner]

I've got some slight pitting on the face of the hammer where it will hit the caps, have to wait and see if it'll give me any problems. Rifling is faint but still there.

[SA1911a1]

Reenactors commonly do that with these, there are some who specialize in removing any modern markings from any BP weapon for the living history guys to use in their kits. These are not firearms under Fed law so it's legal to remove markings on them.. Nice piece, very popular with southern reenactors despite this model never having been made by the South during the war

We were kind of like the Finns, Jim. We didn't make them, but we sure ended up with a lot of them.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Not this model, Colt never made a .44 on the Navy frame and the Southern made copy's were .36. Back then in 1851 .44 was an army caliber, and used on the big dragoon and Walker revolvers, both intended to be fired from horseback. It wasn't until the eve of the States War that Colt produced the 1860 Army model in .44, at last a holster pistol for field officers that could be easily carried on the belt and handled while on for and waving a sword around with the other hand. The Confederacy did produce several revolvers, the Spiller & Burr is brass frame, but that is not a Colt copy, the Dance in closer to the Colt Navy but lacks the shield on the sides of the frame over the caps and is a steel frame . This brass frame Pietta most resembles the Griswold and Gunnison revolver that was a copy of the 1851 Navy with a brass frame , but it was .36, not .44.

[mogunner]

Well, here the critter is. Still a bit of tweaking to be done on it to get it where I'm entirely happy with it, but at least it's functional now. Hoping for the weather to take it out and "break it in" soon. I tried to NOT make it look brand new, only single cold blue on the barrel to keep a sort of "holster wear" look to it, blued the cylinder darker. Man I love the lemon oil for wood!

[Celt]

[millman]

Good job Mogunner.

[ponycarman]

Looks great

[ponycarman]

Hey mo, did you get to shoot this thing yet

[mogunner]

Yeah, shot it once last Sunday. I'm going to have to machine a shim to go in between the cylinder arbor and the frame, when the barrel wedge slot lines up correctly I can still turn the arbor about 1/8 turn before it's tight in the frame, not sure if the threads stretched in the brass or what. It was nice and tight before I shot it then you could wiggle the entire barrel and cylinder a tiny bit afterwards. I'm not all that familiar with these critters so figured it best to be cautious and take care of the "slop" before shooting it any more. We shot my buddy's identical one, I have to say I'm not really a big fan of them. The spent nipples fall into the action and lock the cylinder up pretty often is the biggest PITA, loading takes forever on these as well. Being able to remove the cylinder and load it on one of the fixtures available would be a lot nicer but the Navy model makes it too difficult to do like that. I may at some point buy the Army model with the easily removable cylinder, but I doubt it. I like my rifle but really not enthused with the pistols and revolvers overall. Maybe too many years shooting cartridge firearms I guess?

[ponycarman]

Haha maybe its an aquired taste. I'm thinking about getting one of these from cabelas when they have it on sale now.

[iwuzwhatiwuz]

Looks good mogunner! Im looking forward to getting my hands black this weekend. Does anybody know the name of the gentleman who sells cast bullets over on the castboolits forum? I found him once but can find him now. Thanks.

[mogunner]

Looks good mogunner! Im looking forward to getting my hands black this weekend. Does anybody know the name of the gentleman who sells cast bullets over on the castboolits forum? I found him once but can find him now. Thanks.

What ya looking for? I just bought swaged Hornady balls for this one, but have a local guy cast up the conicals for my .50 rifle. We're shooting BP again this weekend, I just spent a couple of hours working on this one and got it fixed... the idiot had the cylinder arbor screwed out and must have boogered a thread a little, I measured everything and cleaned up the threads a bit and got it screwed back in where it SHOULD have been, locktited it and now everything freakin lines up where it should...the barrel wedge JUST goes in far enough for the spring hook to pop up on the other side of the barrel and now I have a gap between the cylinder and barrel where I didn't before, so I'll try shooting it again before making it a wallhanger. If the brute does ok, I'll invest in some new, QUALITY nipples for it...

[ponycarman]

Let me know how it does. I just ordered me one frome cabela's

[iwuzwhatiwuz]

I found it. Forefathers casting over on the castboolit forum sells 500 balls for $41 shipped. Best deal I've found on lead balls. Glad you got it figured out, a lot of people suggest pinching the caps to prevent them jamming the works. On my Pietta the Remington #10 caps fit like a glove.

[mogunner]

Did that, they still blew apart like the end of Elmer Fudd's shotgun...maybe some Treso nipples will help with that from what I read.

That's a decent enough price on the lead balls even if they are cast. My buddy keeps offering to cast some for me but I know him well enough that I just went and bought some instead of waiting on him, lol.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I was casting them, then I bought a couple of used Remingtons on GB and they came with eight boxes of Hornady ball , then someone gave me a coffee can full of more so the mold has been cold for a couple of years.

[wolfstein]

Great find. Looks like a fun project gun. I would have dropped the $25 in a heartbeat, and I am really cheap. (retired and on ss).

[entropy]

You stole my old 1851 Navy from Skipper's room!

[mogunner]

It turned out to be worth all of $25, shot a few times and the threads pulled out of the frame for the cylinder pin. I'll save up and buy a steel Army model.