Newbie With a Pietta 1851 Colt NAvy

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onetuza

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Hi. I'm new to black powder shooting. I fell in love with a Traditions Pietta 1851 Colt Navy revolver in "antique" finish at Bud's and after paying off my layaway, took posession last week. While waiting I had ordered and received all the necessary parafernalia (sp?) and made a couple of items like a nipple wrench, pick and cap seater myself. Also while waiting, I read everything I could find on the internet.

I was very pleased with the workmanship and quality of the Pietta product. Disassembled and cleaned it and couldn't get it back in working order until I finally realized that the trigger/cylinder stop spring was not seating itself on the trigger notch. I pushed it forward and then flattened the spring with one finger to elongate it and held it while I installed the trigger spring screw. Problem solved.

I went to the range a couple of days ago and had a ball. It was a hot day in Florida and loading one of these is work, but what gratification hearing that low boom and seeing the sparks and that cloud of smoke! 30 rounds, no misfires, no mishaps, (till later).

I tried both 25 gr and 30 gr loads, and I tried Speer .454 and Hornady .454 balls. I used wonder wads under the balls and bore butter sparingly dispensed from a Nalgene unitary wash bottle. The following are some of my observations.

As expected she shot several inches high at 15 yards, so I adjusted my aim. As an infrequent hobby shooter, I don't see myself modifying the sights.

The Speer balls, while darker, smoother and rounder, seem to be made of a harder lead and therefore were harder to jack into place than the Hornady balls. With both, it left a very small ring of lead, so I'm satified with the choice of .454 over .451 or .457.

I used Remington #10 caps and they fit perfectly. No pinching nonsense. I seated them just in case, with a little pressure from my home made tool, though I didn't detect any forward movement of the caps. These Remingtons are the longest or deepest caps and I feel I got that one right.

The other thing worth mentioning is the difficulty I had capping the first two loading sessions. I have a plastic snail capper. I kept missing the nipple and rolling the cap over on it's side. I was cursing the capper until I discovered the problem. I was holding the capper parallel/perpendicular to the nipple. The curved access surface was holding the capper, thus the cap, too high with respect to the nipple. As soon as I angled the capper forward so the bottom of it was more perpendicular to the access surface, I was able to hook the cap right in place. No more problems, capped every one thereafter with speed and dexterity. I love this capper.

Now for the downside. I made two big mistakes:

First, having read a comment on a forum from someone who apparently does this, I sprayed the gun with moosemilk and put it in a plastic bag before leaving the range. Perhaps the fact that I didn't clean the gun until three hours later was a factor, but the process left blotches, for lack of a better word, etched into the finish in multiple areas. They would not come off even with polishing.

Second, I disassembled the gun and put the parts in a big plastic pan of very hot water and soap. I had the nipples contained in a small strainer. Well, in my cleaning enthusiasm, I was less than carefull regarding parts separation and several nicks and dings showed up I assume from parts touching each other.

Needless to say I was ****** (especially being a Virgo) but the saving grace was that it is the "antiqued" version, not a nicely blued version, which would have made blood shoot out of my eyes!

So, I hope this is helpful in some small way to other newbies. Happy shooting.
 
I never immerse my gun parts. Once I take the gun on a "shake out cruise" and it functions fine I take all the nipples out and coat the threads with anti-seize grease and never take them out again. That will save you a lot of time in cleaning to not bother with the nipples each time. Also get a ton of Q-Tips, a can of canned air, a spray/squirt bottle for solvent and one for rubbing alcohol. Get a roll of paper towels for wiping down the parts.
My cleaning method:
Knock the gun apart into the 3 big parts. Wipe down the outside of the barrel, frame & cylinder with a towel lightly wetted with whatever water based solvent you want to use. Then hose down the inside of the bore and punch wads through til they come out clean then wipe dry & set aside. Take q-tips & a wetted toothbrush to the frame where fouling accumulated taking care to not get solvent into the inner workings (hold it upside down). Dry off with paper towel, set aside. Hose cylinder chambers with solvent from the spray bottle, use test tube brush/bore brush to loosen fouling, toothbrush the nipple cutouts, rehose the chambers & nipples with spray solvent to wash out loosened fouling out, follow with spray alcohol, wipe down and set aside after Q-tipping chambers to dry them further. Now put heavy grease on the back of the cylinder and length of the cylinder pin. I use automotive bearing grease. Take an oil soaked patch and run it through the barrel and chambers and wipe down the outside of the gun. Drip some oil into the lock work and reassemble. I fold a piece of typing paper in two and place it between the cylinder and the barrel as I tap the wedge in. Once the cylinder grabs the paper I have the gap set at .007" (paper thickness is usually .0035"). The canned air is to blow out any residue alcohol from the chambers and nipples before oiling. Before the next shooting session I check all the flash holes for residual debris and run a nipple pick through till they are all open before loading.
 
Use ballestol 1 oz/6 oz DISTILLED water. If you use any other water you will have some problems. Like eating into your bluin. I know.

Instead of taking your gun down screw by screw for the first few months, I suggest just taking down the barrel/ wedge and cylinder and removing and cleaning nipples. and let them soak. If you want to-take off the trigger guard clean main spring- use swabs to clean out around trigger bolt spring (or sear) . Check hammer hand assembly. Then oil lightly w/ pure ballestol. Reassemble. Unless you're shooting 50 to 100 rounds per week--then I wouldn't take it all down until at least 4 months then you do overhaul. Anyway-that's how I do it. Also, make sure you don't have screws in too tight---they will have to be drilled out. Screws on side of frame should be loosen and oiled and set back gently but firmly.
 
Hardy + 1

I like taking the nipples out each time I clean the pistol. I think Hellgate's anti-sieze trick works just as well. I just take them out every time because I am a little finnicky.

Not sure I understand the discoloration you are speaking of, nor can I picture the "antiqued" finish. Some photos, especially showing the marks on the pistol might be helpful.

Not cleaning the revolver for three hours should not have caused any appreciable corrosion. Of course you should clean fastidiuosly soon after shooting the revolver but I have gone a day and had no negative effect.

I would say this.

I bought a Colt five shot .36 at a gun show in Dade City, Fl a coupla months ago. It had what I called an antique finish on it which appeared to be professionally applied. It was essentially thinned paint followed by a wash of even thinner darker paint. It was a greenish color on the steel parts and a brass color on the brass parts. The revolver was defective from the factory and required an awful lot of work just to get it shooting. The finish came off with acetone, and a little polishing.

As I went through the process of restoring the pistol I developed a theory that the revolver was sold to a vendor as a non working piece intended only for the non-shooter market. Then the vendor had the revolver antiqued for effect. I figured that there might be others out there because it isn't likely that the manufacturer would sell only one pistol this way. I thought it might be an outlet for pistols that did not pass the final QC but could not be economically fixed. Sounds crazy but if you had the chance to examine the pistol I bought, you might arrive at the same conclusion.

Now you have successfully shot your pistol and so it is very likely that it DID pass the final QC at the factory.

I don't know all of the processes that people use to "age" the appearance of their pistols but my thought is that all of them will retain their appearance even after the pistol is fired.

It was a good report you wrote and may generate some interesting discussions.
 
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