Pietta 1863 Remington Pocket - Couple Questions

Hornady makes a .315" ball, it's a cheap option to try. I think Cabela's has it in their stores, if not, they have it online. Midway too.

If that's not satisfactory, Dixie gun works makes a .318 or .319 ball. Shipping will set u back a lot.

Final option is 0 Buck. I don't know if the lead is harder than black powder balls are, but it probably is. That will make it tougher to seat the ball with that stubby lever that I heard can break easily.

I had considered getting one of these a couple years ago, but decided that the oversize ball and chambers and everything else wasn't worth it and I didn't want to spend that much money on an inaccurate gun. I'd rather spend the money on an 1862 pocket made by Uberti and buy a spare barrel and chop it down. .375" balls and conicals will work just fine and those are easy as cake to find.
 
I need to find my calipers and measure the chambers. I swear they are smaller at the mouth ( leading edge ). I really don't care what size ball I have to use. So long as it is larger than the bore diameter when it leaves the chamber.
 
Who made that one? Pietta or ASM? Palmetto used a different front sight.

A .315 or smaller round ball is a rifle ball, not for a cap and ball revolver.

.319 is the bare minimum for a Pietta made gun. .320 and .321 are better.

They are a pain to continually reload on the gun.

They disappear in a pocket and shoot way high.

Loaded too lightly, the rounds can bounce off steel or wood target stands and come back at you! We use 9-10 grains of 4F, that's all that fits under the ball of our Palmetto.
 
It seems that the smallest diameter of the cylinders is at the leading edge. With the .310 balls I can feel a slight resistance as the largest diameter of the ball contacts the leading edge of the cylinder but once in the cylinder the ball rolls free. So the inside of the chambers/cylinder is larger than the leading edge.
Click to expand...

I have encountered this on a couple of bp revolvers....so I used a RCBS chamfering tool to lightly chamfer the chambers...bringing the opening to the same size(dia) of the chambers. Loading ease was much more consistent, the balls had no more creep when firing, really improved the revolver.
 
That is a Pietta. I was unaware that .315 and smaller were for rifles.

Interesting idea using the chamfer tool. I need to measure/slug before I do anything.

Thanks.
 
I no longer recall but the groove diameter of the Pietta Pocket was just a bit over .32" and the chambers something like .315" or something. It's waaaaay undersized. And chamfering the mouth won't fix that.
 
Right, the ASM and Palmetto variations, out of production, are more accurate once worked over.

One can still have fun plinking with those .326 groove diameters and indeed use it just fine for defense.
 
Honestly, the OP would probably be better off getting one of these:

p-310-1860-cb_1.jpg


https://northamericanarms.com/shop/firearms/1860-earl-4-barrel-cap-ball-2/

That's the 4 inch cap and ball North American Arms revolver. It shoots proprietary .22 bullets, but NAA sells them cheap, but most probably not as cheap as bulk 0 Buck.

However, the gun shoots real bullets, not balls. The bullets weight 30 grains, .31 balls are typically 50 grains... point is the .22 bullets will likely penetrate way deeper and straighter than the round balls.

What is absolute is the NAA will be more accurate because it's better made and the bullets are meant to be shot in the gun.

Other note is that NAA sells spare cylinder for a super low price of $40, when I was looking for spare cylinders for the Pietta '63, I couldn't find a price lower than $90. It's totally safe to shoot 4F powder and with 4F in that 4 inch barrel, I don't see how you couldn't get over 1000 fps from it, where the .31 will be anemic and likely under 750 fps.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot the OP already bought a '63, I thought he was considering getting one.
 
Send it back?

I bought a Pietta 1858 NMA about ten years ago. Traditions was the distributor, maybe still is?
I think mine had 6 different sized holes in the cylinder. Maybe not 6 but maybe two of them were actually correct. The others were variably oversize.
I got Mr. Surly on the line at Traditions. They would only agree to "look" at the issue. Mind you I was telling him I know how to use calipers and was giving him the varying dimensions on the phone down to .001
Of course it was also on my nickle to send it in.

They did send me a new one which was fine and I still have it, the original they sent was pretty bad, even dangerous for a newbie. This was their target model in stainless, was not cheap.

All companies make mistakes. It's how they handle them that is the measure of the company.
 
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Yup

I was both surprised and disappointed.

First I really wanted stainless, I like shiny guns, what can I say?

The target model is pricey, I recall real close to 500 for it.

The replacement they sent was good. I thought they would just replace the cylinder, but they sent a new gun.
The replacement is accurate and reliable. I just don't shoot it enough.
 
Pietta probably thinks most people will buy one of the pocket Remington and pop it off a couple times at a tin can then forget about it. Accuracy and tolerances probably aren't super high on their priorities when it comes to this model.
 
I agree!

I agree Model12win, when I bought my NMA supposedly Pietta had improved greatly, and was running neck and neck with Uberti with regard to overall quality.
The first NMA I received was dangerous. Not a good thing for the ball to come off the charge during recoil.
Yes, I was using the correct balls, only two of the cylinders would shave a ring of lead, the rest were variably oversize.

Had Traditions been friendly and helpful I would feel differently about their company. The man on the phone, not the gentleman on the phone was downright surly. I had little hope of a fair resolution to the issues after speaking with him. They refused to pay the freight going in, I do not recall who paid the freight back to me. I think I paid freight both ways.

I was pleased that they sent a new NMA, and it's a fine one. We don't forget when companies do the wrong thing.
 
Makes it sound like the Target model uses the same machinery but has a few extras thrown in (adjustable sights and better front sight).
 
Have you done anything with your pistol?

I've been drawn to this gun for quite some time. It's rather low on my needs though. If/when I do get one I'll likely buy Swiss 4F and have Accurate Molds create me a bullet mold. But I'd also have to open those chambers up.
 
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