1860 sale at Cabelas

Cool thanks!

Those Colt armies do look pretty tasty, but I have my heart set on a Remington with a 5.5" barrel. I have a practical use for this gun that no other gun I have will fill. My K frame is the same size, but it's only a .38, I want a .44 I can carry in my jacket or tucked in one of my cowboy boots when I'm out bumming around the woods. Basically all I want is a shorter version of my favorite handgun.
I kinda wish I could find a nice wadcutter mold, that would make it a pretty formidable weapon for stuff that goes bump in the night.


But I gotta not get temped by threads like this. I have been tempted to get a Colt, and I will eventually. I just gotta get a 5.5 Remmy first!

i was going to get an 1858 remington as well but they were out of stock for the next month... so i got an 1860 army now, and ill buy a 5 1/2 inch remington later

Levi, you'll absolutely love the Shorty Remington; I know I do. You'll probably want "a bit more holster" than what fits a K-Frame well, though. I have an old Safariland 'Duty Holster' that was molded for a 6" barrelled Model 27 or 28 (the N-Frame .357's); used it for years to haul around my 4" 629. Not anymore.... the smokeless .44 usually stays in a "taco" gun case and the cop holster is wrapped around the 5.5" Remington.

Of course, it's not all that concealable....

You are right, I probably will fall in love the second I open that box. But then again what gun have I gotten that I didn't love? How is the accuracy from the shorter barrel?
As for a holster, I have this nice big chunk of cowhide from an old pair of chaps. I'm thinking a nice wet-molded shoulder holster like Dirty Harry has would do nicely as a woods carry piece.

Accuracy is "not bad" right now. Mine apparently does not like the same charge (30 grns of Pyro - LOOSE, not the pellets!) as my full-length NMA that's proof-marked two years older.
I'm still working on what makes the li'l guy reasonably accurate. Right now I'm at 28 grains with both .451 and .454 inch balls and working my way down 'til I find its sweet spot. Gonna go out to the range in about 15 minutes or so; see if I and my son can "squeeze in" with all the winter visitors.

ive always wondered if you could use a drop of melted parafin wax, or a combustable glue to hold a 30 grain pyrodex pellet to the bottom of a conical bullet for your own "cartridge"... maybe a was in between the two so you just drop it in the chamber and ram it to load

Here's photos of 2 steel frame Pietta 1860's that were purchased on sale yesterday at my local Cabela's.
Both of them have the 2012 "CI" proof date code.

ive always wondered if you could use a drop of melted parafin wax, or a combustable glue to hold a 30 grain pyrodex pellet to the bottom of a conical bullet for your own "cartridge"... maybe a was in between the two so you just drop it in the chamber and ram it to load

Click to expand...

Won't work.

Bp burns slowly enough that part of the pellet will exit the barrel with the bullet before it's completely burned. Might make an interesting tracer round, though.

mykeal said:

Won't work.

Bp burns slowly enough that part of the pellet will exit the barrel with the bullet before it's completely burned. Might make an interesting tracer round, though.

Click to expand...

you dont think the act in crushing the bullet into the chamber, as well as the concussive force of ignition wouldnt break that seal between the two? parafin is easy to break

Here's photos of 2 steel frame Pietta 1860's that were purchased on sale yesterday at my local Cabela's.
Both of them have the 2012 "CI" proof date code.

Click to expand...

Likewise the fluted cylinder model I just got on sale.

I wonder if you could bore out the inside of a conical bullet, melt a ping pong ball with some camphor, and stick that goop in there then dust it with BP to help it ignite. With a light powder charge you could have sort of a flare!

Busyhands, you are well named. As they say, idle hands are the devil's tools. Always lookin' for something fun to mess with aren't cha? You are way ahead of where I was at your age in finding mischief but it sure was fun. :>) I've seen some of your videos. OK, back to ping pong balls (celluloid). I would expect that acetone might dissolve it. If not, I used to dissolve smokeless powder with acetone to make stuff flame out after it dried.

I used a 1/8" thick lube cookie made from (well I can't remember, but it was sticky/gooy stuff) over the powder and this cookie would stick to the back of the bullet when it left the barrel. All the powder sticking to the lube cookie would cause a pretty good tracer.

arcticap said:

Here's photos of 2 steel frame Pietta 1860's that were purchased on sale yesterday at my local Cabela's.
Both of them have the 2012 "CI" proof date code.

Click to expand...

Beauties! That tiger-stripey stock is great!

1KPerDay said:

Beauties! That tiger-stripey stock is great!

Click to expand...

These photos show the other sides of the 2 guns that I posted about above.
Surprisingly both sides of that grip have a similar fiddle back look.

Dang, that's purdy. Hope my new one is half as nice.

Hellgate said:

Busyhands, you are well named. As they say, idle hands are the devil's tools. Always lookin' for something fun to mess with aren't cha? You are way ahead of where I was at your age in finding mischief but it sure was fun. :>) I've seen some of your videos. OK, back to ping pong balls (celluloid). I would expect that acetone might dissolve it. If not, I used to dissolve smokeless powder with acetone to make stuff flame out after it dried.

Click to expand...

Hellgate, can't help tinkering with stuff! My father actually came up with that nickname, because when I was born I had workin' man's hands. Smokeless powder might work pretty well for these tracers, just unsure of how fast the pressure would build in the barrel.

I do have 2 live 223 rounds sitting on my shelf, I bet you could just pull the bullet and put the powder in a shot glass with some Outer's solvent (that stuff has camphor in it) to make celluloid or maybe some acetone if we got any and put that in a hollow based bullet before the solvent evaporates.

It would probably be best to try this in a dedicated smokeless gun first, perhaps in my M&P with some HBWC bullets and some FFFG BP as the propellant. Or perhaps in some .32 short loads. Those would be so slow that seeing the 600 FPS bullet wouldn't be too hard!

The 5 1/2" Pietta '58 Remington I have it the most accurate BP revolver I have except for one of my ROAs. It hits point of aim at 30 yards and it's really good at 75 yards.

I figure that 5.5 pietta could be used in a similar manner to a K-frame. Something you can carry concealed but hit something at a reasonable distance with. Kinda medium sized and not too heavy.

Hmm... I do have an idea for how you could do interchangeable barrels with a Remington though. Maybe if you drilled a hole through the frame and part of the threads for the barrel the tapped it you could put a screw in there. Of course you might have to make a barrel wrench, but that shouldn't be too hard. Of course maybe a regular wrench would work provided it fit and you could pad it. Pietta Remington barrels are easy to take off. Fitting it to the gun isn't too hard, I have done it before.
That might be a good option as well, like having two revolvers in one.

Just thinking out loud here, of course with an 1860 Colt conversions to different calibers and cartridges would be probably be easier.

So, I'm used to the pinky finger under the grip type hold on my shorter gripped 1851's and SAA's, but the longer grip is new to me. Do ya'll keep the same grip with an 1860 or move that pinky up to join its friends on the front of the grip? Don't really have small hands, and could probably be fine keeping the same grip, just wondering whether to make use of that extra real estate up there....

I put my pinky next to his brothers. I actually prefer the Army grip frame over the Navy.

ksujedi, if you get the 1860 london model itll have navy grips

I went ahead and ordered another 1860 Army after finding them on sale over the weekend and then finding the thread here. I have the sherrif's model at the moment that I have done too much fiddlin' with bubba style, so I wanted something I would keep nice, plus I wanted the full length barrel