Uberti 1858 New Army

B

Buttonwood Bill

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I am buying a Uberti 1858 New Army and am wondering what make and size caps are best, what size ball and where to find a six cavity mold in the right size. Also does the antique finish hold up as well as the standard blue? I like historically accurate pieces, were they ever made with the target sights, and what do the traditionalists think of them? Are they considered "kosher"? Does Uberti even make the target model? Any information on this will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.
 
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Okay, here we go!

I personally never use the nipples that come standard in any black powder revolver. Before I even fire the pistol, I replace them with Treso/AMPCO nipples that use a number 11 cap. This way all my black powder pistols use the same cap.

You will want to use a .454 ball.

I don't know of anyone who makes a 6 cavity ball mold. You would not want one anyway. Just order a single one from Lee or others and make them one at a time. I would highly recommend that you have someone educate you who does this and already has the equipment so you can learn how to do it properly.

Any finish blued or antique is good and will hold up just fine with proper care.

The original Remington's had no target sites and were sighted for 75 yards. Uberti does indeed make a target site model. It all depends on what you want to do with it. I have an original Remington also a Uberti with target sights. No harm, no foul either way. If you intend on competing with it, no rear adjustable sight is allowed.

I hope this helps and all the best,

Birch
 
I would go with a double cavity mold. A single is just too slow but a six ball mold is hard to use for a beginner. I'm about as traditional as they come and I personally wouldn't have one with target sights but its whatever floats your boat, you're the one that's going to be using it.
 
I second the double cavity mold. I made all the ones you see in the pic in about an hour the other day. I use a 20 dollar Aluminum Lee mold, they even come with handles, hard to beat em. I fluff and buff my aluminum Lee molds though. Mainly polishing the underside of the sprue plate, polishing the cavities with steel wool and valve lapping compound, and lube them with 2 cycle engine oil.
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I have used Remington #10 in place of 11s, they will "stretch" where CCIs won't.
You have to press them on with something like a short dowel.
Remingtons do not have as much of an issue with caps jamming the works, just go shoot it and worry about the nipples later.
Don't waste money on a caper right away, most don't like '58 Rem.s.
Most of all Have Fun!
 
First shoot the gun with the strock nipples. My two Uberti Remingtons LOVE the Remington #10 cap. I have shot them for years with the stock nipples and Rem#10s. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Also you can get 6 cavity molds from either biglube.com or Track of the Wolf. Get the .454 mold. There is nothing wrong with the DC LEE mold either. I have probably cast 20,000 balls from mine and it is still good. Also occasionally you will see a 4 cavity Lyman .454 mold on Ebay. They are HEAVY but serve well too.
 
Remington 1858

I have owned a few of these in .44 caliber. I strongly disagree with using a .454 ball even though the manufactures all recommend the .454. The purpose is to seal the cylinder and thus prevent chain firing (torching other cylinder) I find the .454 balls were very hard to start and shaved more lead. I use .451 with a felt wad under the .451 ball which starts easier and still shaves a very nice circular ring of lead to seal the chamber. If the wad is not used something like Crisco should be used . Purpose for the Crisco is two fold, no.1 reason it stops any potential flash over. no. 2 it is a very good lube for 3f black powder. I also use the stock nipples. Except I use a number 11 Remington cap. Also to to my have a retired income being less than I would like, I buy Italian Pietia,s I also have a couple of 1851 Navy revolvers in 36 caliber, one is a Uberiti square back trigger guard the other is a Pietia. The Pietia is far less expensive. I have compared the two and they both shoot almost identical groups. The wood to metal has an excellent finish on all of my revolvers. I would recommend either one. Also I strongly recommend a 36 AND a 44 Loading tool especially for shooting off of a bench, it makes reloading about 4 times faster.
 
I had a .451 mold, had to get rid of it. My Uberties wanted .454. With pure lead you can be more oversize it gives better contact with the refiling.
 
My Uberti made '58 Remington had cap problems with the factory nipples. The just misfired a lot. I tried #10's, No 101/2"s & No11's. None quite fitted. I tried reshaping & polishing the cones, no go. I found a 6-pack of the old Uncle Mike's stainless ones that take #11 caps & never looked back.

I strongly disagree with using a .454 ball even though the manufactures all recommend the .454. The purpose is to seal the cylinder and thus prevent chain firing (torching other cylinder) I find the .454 balls were very hard to start and shaved more lead.
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But if it shaves a circle isn't that sealing the chamber as long as its a complete shaved circle?

Mine takes the .454" balls but will run with the .457's as well; but its harder to ram because of the extra diameter.

Can't help you with the casting as I just buy balls.
 
As long as your chambers are consistent and your casting is consistent a .451 ball will be OK. Occasionally you will get a smaller cast or a slightly large chamber and develop "ball creep" (which is NOT a venereal disease) where the ball will slide forward under recoil and lock up the gun when that chamber rotates to the edge of the barrel. My Uberti chambers run .448 (at least they were there when brand new) so a 3 thou larger ball ought to be OK. The .454s allow for a little more variation.
 
I've always assumed that as long as you are shaving a ring of lead you're good to go with a gas-tight seal to prevent chain fires.

I have not experimented with using larger-than-necessary balls to see if better accuracy could be obtained.

Steve
 
I use std nipples that the Uberti come with and have found that CCI and Remington caps were a bit hit and miss.
I started using RWS 1075 caps and have had no problems since.
I use .457 balls and they are fine, 21grains of Goex (I found that to be the most accurate load for target shooting) and cracked wheat as a filler when needed.

Cheers
Gaz
 
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Lee makes a decent gang mold for .454 round balls (look here). Have to keep 'em warm throughout pour though (PITA when your just starting out and still figuring things out, but a gang mold like this is a heck of a time-saver when you need a lot of round-ball quickly and familiar with their need for heat.).
 
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Once I get a rhythm going I can pump out round ball fairly quickly with my Lee 2 cavity mold. For a home caster, the 20 dollar molds are hard to beat.
 
I got the Pietta

and asked three different people which cap to use, all three owned the same model and two had pics of their guns on their phones, so I'm pretty sure at least two of them really owned an 1858 pietta , regarding caps I got three different answers, bought three tins of different caps and found out that CCI #10 Does it for my girl, know somebody else got the same gun, same store and uses 11's ..
 
Don't believe all the hype about these "wonder nipples" like the Tresso/Ampco and Slix-Shot brands.

I swapped the stock nipples of my Uberti '51 Navy for a set of the stainless steel Slix-Shot nipples, and low and behold I started to get cap jams and light strikes. I e-mailed Slix-Shot about this, mentioned I was using 20 grain charges, and they told me that the nipples weren't meant for that "hot charge" and to scale my powder charge back to 10-15 grains to solve the problem.

I felt that was ridiculous, so I went back to my old stock Uberti nipples and low and behold... the nipples held on to Remington #10 caps perfectly and I experienced no more problems.

OP my point is, do NOT waste money beforehand on buying a new set of wonder nipples for your revolver. Instead, try your stock nipples out with a type of caps they like and see how they do. You might be surprised, I'd recommend trying the Remington #10 caps mentioned. They hold on nicely to most nipples and make a nice flame. Should work well on your New Model Army.
 
Model 12, In defense of the Slix Shot nipples: they may be a tad too short for your gun. I have shimmed up numerous nipples of various makes when getting "light strikes". It's not really a light hit but a shallow nipple that seats too deep. I make shims out of coiling thin wire around a nail and clipping the coils off and hammering them flat. You can also buy shims from McMaster Carr:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-shims/=q5h0dh


Click: "Shims for lenghtening screw shoulders--Metric"

Shoulder diameter of the nipples is 8mm.

Get the screw size 6mm which is the nipple threaded shank size.

Pick the thicknesses you want.
 
I have a uberti 58 remington still have the stock nipple i use remington #10 caps never had a problem.I cast my own round balls with a lee double size 457 I can shoot the cap of of 2 lite bottles at 50 ft all day long. 451 balls will be to small I bought my gun new in 2013 the 454 balls didn't fit tight enough
 
Measure your chambers first and then get the mold that shaves about .006 off when loading. Many Ubertis prefer a .457 ball just like the 2nd Generation Colts.

While no expert on the subject, no factory installed target sights have passed before my eyes (Remington types) but plenty were modified by their owners.

Track usually has the 6-cavity mold you're looking for, do you have a bottom pour pot? While having both, I prefer the 2 cavity molds as I lack the stamina required to keep the 6-cavity hot enough.
 
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