Beginner BP revolver advice
- Thread starter echo6mike
- Start date
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Shouldn't you be celebrating with your family instead of typing in your phone? Go have a Happy Thanksgiving today, reloading can wait. 
What a coincidence, we are eating at the same time. I guess I better put away the air rifle and get washed up for the Zoom call.
echo6mike
Ultimate Member
Still looking, and seeing a few Piettas coming back in stock out in the world (including Gunbroker). Not that they last long, but there is a trickle of availability.
Standard barrel length or Sheriff model, which to concentrate on? Pros and cons, anyone?
Still not sure if I’d prefer 1858 or 1860, both seem good...
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Standard barrel length or Sheriff model, which to concentrate on? Pros and cons, anyone?
Still not sure if I’d prefer 1858 or 1860, both seem good...
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
linkstate
Ultimate Member
Go with the standard barrel: Classic looks and handling but more importantly, longer loading lever for more leverage. Better sight radius.
Since this is probably a just for fun pistol, get the one that speaks to you. For me it would be the Colt if only picking one. In .44 caliber.
I will say the Remington is a bit less fiddly. But just get the one you are drawn too.
Threeband
The M1 Does My Talking
I have a Navy Arms Pietta Shooter's Model Remington sitting around since the 1980s. I only shot it a couple of times, so it's nearly minty. Does have the line around the cylinder. I nearly forgot I had it until I saw this thread.
This is a special grade revolver, with a gain twist barrel, dovetailed front sight, and a tuned action. I think Dixie still sells this for nearly $1000, but I think they're out of stock.
https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index...135+Pietta+Remington+Army+"Shooters"+Revolver
I found a recent post online of someone asking $575 for one.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/pietta-remington-shooters-model-revolver.125474/
Here's one that just sold for $633.
https://www.gunbroker.com/Item/885227156
If anyone is interested, I think I'd let it go for
Another write up: https://www.n-ssa.net/vbforum/showthread.php/17370-Pietta-Shooters-Model-Revolver
These are a couple of crummy snaps I just took. I can provide better pictures, if anyone wants them. This is a very good looking revolver, with a distinctive German silver trigger guard and backstrap.
This is a special grade revolver, with a gain twist barrel, dovetailed front sight, and a tuned action. I think Dixie still sells this for nearly $1000, but I think they're out of stock.
https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index...135+Pietta+Remington+Army+"Shooters"+Revolver
I found a recent post online of someone asking $575 for one.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/pietta-remington-shooters-model-revolver.125474/
Here's one that just sold for $633.
https://www.gunbroker.com/Item/885227156
If anyone is interested, I think I'd let it go for
Another write up: https://www.n-ssa.net/vbforum/showthread.php/17370-Pietta-Shooters-Model-Revolver
These are a couple of crummy snaps I just took. I can provide better pictures, if anyone wants them. This is a very good looking revolver, with a distinctive German silver trigger guard and backstrap.
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Hello - This is an interesting topic. I have shot the Piettas, Ubertis, and Ruger Old Army. I carry a cut down Old Army as back up for black powder deer hunting. Barrel shortened to 6” so it is easier to carry. I would recommend a Uberti over a Pietta for two reasons:
- Forged frame so you can load as much powder as you can pour in the chamber.
- Has a faster twist - I think 1 in 16” so you can shoot conical bullets as well as round balls. Conicals are heavier and give a lot more power and penetration. They shoot great with the right twist, which the Uberti’s have.
- Forged frame so you can load as much powder as you can pour in the chamber.
- Has a faster twist - I think 1 in 16” so you can shoot conical bullets as well as round balls. Conicals are heavier and give a lot more power and penetration. They shoot great with the right twist, which the Uberti’s have.
Zorros
Ultimate Member
echo6mike
Ultimate Member
Zorros
Ultimate Member
Someone hard chromed it along the way. But markings are clear and all numbers match. I load it down due to age. Mine and it’s.
Mike OTDP
Ultimate Member
- Feb 12, 2008
- 3,324
PM Threeband right now and buy his Pietta Shooter's Model. That's a very good price.
Here's the unpleasant truth: Uberti and Pietta are both making their normal-grade BP revolvers to a price point - and it's a price point that does not allow for a high standard of fitting. The big-box stores are selling these to the plinkers and reenactors. Both of whom are satisfied with a puff of smoke and a bullet slung in the general direction of the target.
Now, for a novice, I'd honestly recommend a Remington repro. They have better sights, and are inherently more accurate. Pietta is conceded to make a better Remington than Uberti. Colt repros? I'd go with Uberti, but it's very much a wash. Go with the full-length barrel.
Things you will need include a powder measure, a bottle for filler (I use Cream of Wheat, dispensed from a cheap kitchen ketchup bottle), round balls, and caps. And some lube...there are a bunch of variations, ordinary petroleum jelly, Crisco, and even mixes of beeswax and motor oil. Plus a nipple wrench, old toothbrush, and cleaning rod.
Tips: Your most accurate charge will be in the 15 grain range. Use filler on top, leave about 3/8th inch for the ball. Ram the ball until it just is below the chamber mouth. There's no need to play 800-lb-gorilla with it. Put a dab of lube on top of the bullet to keep the fouling soft.
More tips: Shoot with your little finger under the grip. This will position your hand for a clean trigger pull. Shoot each chamber individually for group - with the bargain guns, chamber alignment is hit-or-miss. You'll usually have one chamber that will shoot well, though.
The guns will shoot. The higher-end repros and good originals will shoot incredibly well...I've got a 25-meter target with 12 of 13 rounds in a 2-inch group. Shot offhand. But that's my #1 original Remington, the gun I shot to a World Championship in 2018.
echo6mike
Ultimate Member
Here we go, I can bid on these and have a gunsmithing project to start black powder with!
"Lot of 2 handyman special percussion revolvers, 1858 & 1851"
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/888297739
"Lot of 2 handyman special percussion revolvers, 1858 & 1851"
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/888297739
kmittleman
Active Member
So can you just order the conversion cylinder and that’s it?
was42
Member
BP Revolver Shooting
I have been slinging lead with this one Uberti Remington .44 since 1965, mainly at North-South Skirmish Association matches, including team shooting at breakable targets and individual match paper targets out to 50 yards off hand. Here are a couple of mods: raised front sight for a solid 6:00 hold at 25 yards on a board mounted clay pigeon or the 9 ring of a paper target. Second, I replaced the steel nipples with Ampco beryllium brass nipples and they have never burned out in 50 years + caps fit perfectly (German). I removed the brass trigger guard and soldered a piece of brass flush behind it, then filed and refitted it to work as a trigger stop...perfect and N-SSA legal (you can't see it and once fitted, non-adjustable). My load: .451 or .452 Hornady swaged round ball, 20 grains of 3-F Goex black powder, Cream of Wheat (measured from my metal pistol flask spout), MCM BP lube over the ball using an ice cream wooden stick. My trigger pull is 3 lbs., shim on the hammer tumbler. I take the cylinder out of the pistol to load, except for the ball and grease. I run a wet patch down the bore after every 6 shots and wipe the cylinder chambers with a damp patch. A drop of oil on the cylinder pin and this routine will keep me shooting all day.
I have been slinging lead with this one Uberti Remington .44 since 1965, mainly at North-South Skirmish Association matches, including team shooting at breakable targets and individual match paper targets out to 50 yards off hand. Here are a couple of mods: raised front sight for a solid 6:00 hold at 25 yards on a board mounted clay pigeon or the 9 ring of a paper target. Second, I replaced the steel nipples with Ampco beryllium brass nipples and they have never burned out in 50 years + caps fit perfectly (German). I removed the brass trigger guard and soldered a piece of brass flush behind it, then filed and refitted it to work as a trigger stop...perfect and N-SSA legal (you can't see it and once fitted, non-adjustable). My load: .451 or .452 Hornady swaged round ball, 20 grains of 3-F Goex black powder, Cream of Wheat (measured from my metal pistol flask spout), MCM BP lube over the ball using an ice cream wooden stick. My trigger pull is 3 lbs., shim on the hammer tumbler. I take the cylinder out of the pistol to load, except for the ball and grease. I run a wet patch down the bore after every 6 shots and wipe the cylinder chambers with a damp patch. A drop of oil on the cylinder pin and this routine will keep me shooting all day.
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The conversion cylinder is just a gun part. Ships direct to your door.
You can put the cylinder into the revolver if you are legally permitted to build/possess a firearm.
kmittleman
Active Member
Nice! So it’s like an 80% type deal?
Archeryrob
Undecided on a great many things
I guess it could be thought of that way, but the Government does not consider it like that yet. It is not as easy as Clint easy shows it on the movies to roll cylinders in and out without a bit of practice. A slight pull on the hammer after dropping the loading bar with the barrel 45 degrees down and then pulling the cylinder pin while pushing it out to the right. If the gun is not pointed down right the loading ram locks the cylinder from side movement. That part is easier then sliding it back in as you miss the hole with the cylinder pin half the time and have to slide by feel. It is not really easy to hold the gun, cylinder, back of cylinder, dump all the shells and put new shells back in, back of the cylinder back on and then rotate cylinder back in the gun. Probably exactly why Clint had spare cylinders to switch out.
Making paper cartridges are helpful for speedy reloading and having a capper. Digging out of that 100 cap tin is a PITA in a hurry.
The real 80% type fix is the Kirst Konverter to make an 1858 to an 1873 in use. Only down side is you have to do your own machining for the shell eject slot on the frame, or pay someone to do it. With the Kirst being $434 to $45o, 1858 at $280 now and you can buy a 1873 on Gun Broker for under $500. This makes it a really cool alteration that is really expensive vs buying the solution to the conversion.
Making paper cartridges are helpful for speedy reloading and having a capper. Digging out of that 100 cap tin is a PITA in a hurry.
The real 80% type fix is the Kirst Konverter to make an 1858 to an 1873 in use. Only down side is you have to do your own machining for the shell eject slot on the frame, or pay someone to do it. With the Kirst being $434 to $45o, 1858 at $280 now and you can buy a 1873 on Gun Broker for under $500. This makes it a really cool alteration that is really expensive vs buying the solution to the conversion.
If you don't want to DIY you can also buy a "conversion revolver" that a replica of an original conversion. These are firearms under federal law so standard paperwork, HQL, gun on the Handgun Roster, purchase from FFL are all required.
kmittleman
Active Member
Ok so it’s not really as easy as buying an 1858 revolver and buying a .45 LC cylinder for it?
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