Pietta 1858 Remington

[Dave Markowitz]

I picked up this Pietta 1858 Remington from Cabela's about a year and a half ago. It shoots well, though I noticed that once my hands get a bit slippery and the gun rolls under recoil, the loading lever tends to get unlatched.



My load is a Hornady .457" round ball, Wonder Wad, 28 grains of FFFg Goex, and a CCI No. 10 cap. I've also used mutton tallow on top of the balls instead of the wads, but it's messier.

Note: Cabela's recommends .454" balls, IIRC. I used the larger .457 balls because I stock them for my Ruger Old Army and they load and shoot fine in the Pietta. They have a longer bearing surface and so might be more accurate, though I haven't test that.

Target from today:

 

[dogrunner]

Hey Dave:

I also have one of Pietta's Remington copies that I picked up way over ten years past. Bought the thing from Cabela's just for something to 'screw around with' and I was absolutely surprised when it arrived! Only gave a c note for the thing and thought 'what can you expect' for that. The finish and most of all the inherent accuracy of that gun amazed me. It will easily hold it's own with any Smith I own (and that's a bunch) and really quickly turned itself into a real keeper. Goes with me every muzzleloading deer season and I have yet to tire of using it.....A friend recently picked up one of the short bbld versions similar to yours and fitted it with a .45 lc cylinder....really curious to see just how well it performs with that.

I don't really bother to weigh or measure charges, just fill the cylinder on mine to within a quarter inch of the mouth and seat a home cast 451 on top. I finish off with CVA's lube and my groups very much resemble yours.

Great gun for a great price and with no doubt one of the best gun buys I've ever made!

 

[Dave Markowitz]

dogrunner ... Yup, they are surprisingly well finished for the money, and quite accurate. I am toying with the idea of a Kirst Konverter for it so I can shoot .45 LC cowboy loads in it.

BTW, I measure my powder charges using the spout on my flask, I don't actually weigh them out. Works fine for me, and using the powder flask is convenient.

 

[Ontos]

As far as percussion revolvers go I tend to be a Colt man, but that is one sharp looking short barreled Remington.

 

[pohill]

How hard is it to load a .457 with that short loading lever?

 

[Omnivore]

My pietta '58 also had the loading lever drop once in a while. I looked closely at it and noticed that the plunger on the lever was getting barely any purchase on the barrel-mounted catch. The angle on the two interfacing pieces didn't match. A little work on the plunger with a small grinder and a file fixed the problem. I'd forgotten about that 'till you mentioned it.

Mine has the 8" barrel, but I don't notice much if any difference in seating difficulty between the .454 and the .457 balls from Speer.

 

[Voodoochile]

I have both a 23 year old 8" barreled & a new 5.5" barreled Pietta 58 New Armies & all I use is .457 Ball & it loads quite easily for me especially the Hornady Swaged Balls where the Lead is softer "probably 99.5% or because of the swaging process" than my Cast Balls where the lead is 97%.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

How hard is it to load a .457 with that short loading lever?

Piece of cake.