This project started three years ago with an impulsive Buy-It-Now purchase of the frame and an impulsive thought that it would be fun to build a customized percussion revolver entirely with parts from eBay and/or online parts vendors. It was an objective in which good sense did not fully apply due to the cost disadvantage compared to the price of a factory-built replica in the same general category.
To keep my foolishness within some sort of spending limit, I proceeded in no hurry, and did not buy any items that were unreasonably priced respective to supply and demand. I preferred eBay for having the ability to choose parts from listings with pictures rather than blindly ordering them elsewhere by part number. As time passed, buying elsewhere became a decreasing option anyway due to the ongoing manufacturing shortages. So it all came from eBay sellers.
The main components are:
Frame -- from a Pietta "Old Silver" 1851 Navy
Barrel -- from a Pietta Griswold and Gunnison Confederate Navy
Cylinder -- from a Pietta brass-frame 1851 Navy
Trigger Guard, Grip and Backstrap -- from whatever Pietta Navies
Aside from the relatively steep outlay, a second disadvantage of this project was also predictable. Since percussion-revolver replicas are generally imperfect in one way or another out of the box, there was no expectation that random parts would all be perfect or perfectly go together. Some fitting and other work was required.
The barrel needed a little corrective refacing at both the muzzle and the forcing cone. The frame's arbor was a tiny bit too long for the arbor hole of the barrel. It had to be filed down enough so that the barrel lug could join firmly against the frame as the arbor bottomed out. The width of the barrel lug face was narrower than the mating surface of the frame by a millimeter on each side, so the frame needed a gradual narrowing on its forward sides to terminate without overhanging.
Sometimes refitting a part is not feasible, depending on how it was fit originally. An example of this was the trigger guard, or to be more specific, the three trigger guards. It took that many to find one that was wide enough to be refit flush along both sides of the frame. I lucked out right off with the grip and backstrap. They had sufficient excess on both sides to enable a good refitting.
The finished product is a DIY Leech & Rigdon replica. I wanted it to look like a new copy of this original one:
https://www.rockislandauction.com/d...-confederate-leech-rigdon-percussion-revolver
I like having a Pietta revolver such as was never produced by Pietta. This gun turned out to be an excellent and trouble-free shooter to boot, so no regrets.
