Custom 1851 .44

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Michael Tinker Pearce

Michael Tinker Pearce

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A friendly forumite sent me an old Pietta 1851 Navy in .44 to see what I might make of it. I altered the grip to mimic an 1949, shortened and re-contoured the barrel and refinished it. I also mounted a new front post and enlarged the sight-notch on the hammer. Eventually I'll fit a Kirst gated cartridge conversion but for now it's finished. Handles very nicely, very comfortable grip.
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44 Dave said:
Did you shorten the back strap?
Click to expand...

I shortened the forward extension but not the backstop itself. Basically I took the grip off and squeezed it until I had the profile I wanted, then trimmed off the excess at the front and made a new screw hole. I cut the single grip in half, made two grips of it and ground them to match the reshaped frame. You can find details of the build here: pietta-1851-outlaw-44-build-phase-one
 
When all of you Colt/Rem modifiers are dead and gone, and your pistols are on the market for whatever reason, the next generation (not to be confused with Colt 2nd Gen pistols) of persons interested in such items are going to be so confused that it will make their heads swim. If you think we have discussions these days about what is correct and not correct, imagine what will happen 20 years from now. I just think about the gunsmiths in the 1920's-30's that made all of those "worthless" C&B Civil War era pistols into "other" pistols, no matter what they turned out to be, and we are dealing with some of that now.

I kind of feel bad for swapping barrels and cylinders on Pietta Navy type pistols to create different pistols, mostly somewhat historical, albeit Italian. ;)

Carry on, folks!

Jim
 
Looks like if it was early 1850s and I was going to take a ship around horn and up to California to make my fortune I would want to allways have that on my person. And in my kit a double short barrel 10 gauge and a ..451 rifle of reasonable size. Couple hundred caps in double sealed tins, $700 to invest lining my boots, 5 pounds of FF powder in a sealed keg and 10 pounds of .45 balls and I would be ready for California . In grizz country the twin tubes of .10 guage with .45 balls ought to be comforting.
 
Nice looking piece but haven't see anything on how it shoots, here or in the phase build blog. Will it hold any kind of group on a man sized target at 12 yards.
Just me but if I can't hold any kind of group at the minimum of 12 yards with any of my numerous pieces I lose interest in it as a shooter. Having said all that, I guess there is more to guns than just putting lead on target, and I have several gun safe queens.:)
 
"whughett said: ↑
Nice looking piece but haven't see anything on how it shoots, here or in the phase build blog. Will it hold any kind of group on a man sized target at 12 yards.
Just me but if I can't hold any kind of group at the minimum of 12 yards with any of my numerous pieces I lose interest in it as a shooter. Having said all that, I guess there is more to guns than just putting lead on target, and I have several gun safe queens.:)"

Haven't fired it, and won't until I get the conversion cylinder. I collected and shot percussion revolvers many, many years ago and have no interest in shooting it as a percussion gun. Been there, done that, scrubbed the guns. No thanks! :D

To paraphrase a famous quote: 'The only interesting guns are accurate guns." I don't have any safe queens; if a gun won't shoot It doesn't stay around. Unless I have a cunning plan to fix it...:)
 
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Conversions are definitely fun! Nice looking revolver!! Do you have a too long screw or a burr on the frame? Looks like the timing is off or maybe the bolt isn't retracting enough?

Do you correct the arbor for a particular barrel/cylinder clearance?
Kirst makes a fine product!

Mike
 
45 Dragoon said:
Conversions are definitely fun! Nice looking revolver!! Do you have a too long screw or a burr on the frame? Looks like the timing is off or maybe the bolt isn't retracting enough?

Do you correct the arbor for a particular barrel/cylinder clearance?
Kirst makes a fine product!

Mike
Click to expand...

The scratch around the cylinder is me not noticing a metal fragment sticking to the frame. The line connecting the cylinder stop notches is from the larger diameter cylinder contacting the cylinder-stop. I'll correct that eventually by gingerly modifying the cylinder stop.

" Do you correct the arbor for a particular barrel/cylinder clearance?" I'm a newb at this, so I don't know what that means.
 
If you are going to continue doing this great work, you need to come up with a hallmark or logo. Then, after we are all gone and a new generation finds your work, they can puzzle over the markings as we have with they Italians.
 
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