My powder inc cylinder loader arrived and I gave it a trail at the range, shooting the remington pietta 1858 36 cal. this review is for the loader with the remington 1858, I have not tried it with my roa or colt yet, to many problems with the 1858. Powder inc states it loads oversize balls with ease. I was loading the .380 balls I cast for my uberti 1858 36 in my pietta 1858 36. It was almost impossible to load the 380 balls in the pietta cylinder. Powder inc supplies 2 cylinder pins, a small for the roa and 1858 and a larger for the colt. The problem is the roa is about 1/4” diameter and the 1858 pin should be 5/16”. this causes the 1858 cylinder to rock and a misalignment with the ram. The whole thing just binds up. I went back to using the loading ram on the revolver at this point.
Back at the ranch, I found one 5/16” bolt in my junk box that fit the pietta cylinder with little play.. The PI cylinder base is tapped for a 1/4” bolt, I had to grind down a short section of the 5/16” bolt on my belt sander so that I could run a die down it for a 1/4” thread. Rather than make a stub arbor ala the PI parts I used the bolt full length to clamp the cylinder down firmly to the base. This prevents any rocking of the cylinder.
The next problem was the lever arm was below parallel with the ground when it just engages the ball.. I added a 3/4” pine block to raise the base, this raised the lever arm above parallel. Now I can seat balls as stated by PI in the 1858 cylinder.
I also added a extension to the ram lever arm from a short length of 30 cal rifle barrel. This gives me a better feel.