tpelle
Member
I thought that some of you may like to see my re-worked Pietta 1860 Army revolver.
I actually have three of these - one very old one (my first percussion revolver), which had some mechanical issues - principally the arbor was too short, or the hole for the arbor was too long.....one of the two.
Later on, after hearing that Pietta had re-tooled with CNC machines and that their quality of manufacture had improved drastically, I purchased two more - a CH date code (2011), and later on a CI date code (2012). All came from Cabelas when they had them on sale.
I find, however, that on all of the Pietta revolvers there are three things that need work to make them serviceable:
First, the takedown wedge must be fitted as it comes from the factory oversized and must be fitted.
Next, the cylinder bolt is too wide to fit the cylinder notches and consequently it peens the cylinder locking notch, so the bolt must be fitted to the notches.
Finally the cylinder bolt is timed to release much too late and the bolt, instead of releasing into the locking notch lead, drops right into the notch, which contributes to the peening mentioned above. The bolt leg that rides on the hammer cam must then be shortened significantly to let the bolt release earlier in the cylinder rotation.
After taking care of the above three issues the revolvers work much better and become much more pleasurable to shoot.
There were still a couple of things that bugged me about the Pietta 1860. If one goes to the internet and looks at photos of original Colt 1860s from the period 1860 to 1873, one can see that the rear of the barrel lug makes a graceful sweep downwards from about the centerline of the barrel, dips down beneath the takedown wedge, then curves smoothly upwards to near the bottom of the forcing cone. On the Pietta 1860, as it comes right from the box, this same curve is pretty close to the originals until it dips down under the wedge. But instead of continuing the sweep upwards towards the forcing cone it just extends back nearly horizontally to a sharp point. Honestly, every time I handled one of my two 1860s, my eye was drawn to this area and it bothered me to no end.
The other thing that bothered me was that the finish on the revolver was just too pretty. I find myself drawn to handguns with that show some honest holster wear.
I saw some YouTube videos where folks "antiqued" percussion revolvers by disassembling them and dropping the barrel, cylinder, and frame into a solution that stripped all of the bluing off, such as white vinegar, then left the naked steel simply rust. After using a wire brush and steel wool to remove the worst of the rust, they ended up with a revolver that looked like it spent the last hundred years wrapped in a rag in the rafters of a barn somewhere. This was not the look I was after. I wanted my revolvers to look like they had been carried in a holster through several years of campaigning, then maybe "retired" to civilian life and were carried by, say, a lawman in a frontier town. In other words, I was looking for what in today's vernacular is know as "street cred".
Here are the results.
In these couple of pics I show the "CI" revolver in it's out-of-the-box condition above the "CH" revolver that has been aged:
The process I used to get the holster-worn look was to take a Scotchbright pad and just start rubbing the revolver down. I didn't try to remove all of the bluing, but concentrated on those areas that would see the most wear in actual use - the muzzle of the barrel, the top and sides of the barrel and the sides of the barrel lug, the larger-diameter portion of the cylinder, and the grip frame. Parts that would be protected from wear, such as the concave portion of the barrel lug and the part of the barrel shielded by the loading lever from wear I left pretty much alone. I also disassembled the revolver to scuff the blueing on the rear grip strap and the front outside edges of the cylinder. This entire process took only about an hour or less.
Finally I addressed the incorrect curve at the rear of the barrel lug with a medium size single-cut flat file - just taking easy strokes with the file and removing metal at a diagonal by eye. Here's a closeup of the final result: The filing took about 15 minutes and cold-blue touchup took about ten.
I don't know about the rest of you all, but I like the results. Yesterday I did the "CI" revolver, so now I have pretty close to a matching pair!
Interested to hear what you guys think.
I actually have three of these - one very old one (my first percussion revolver), which had some mechanical issues - principally the arbor was too short, or the hole for the arbor was too long.....one of the two.
Later on, after hearing that Pietta had re-tooled with CNC machines and that their quality of manufacture had improved drastically, I purchased two more - a CH date code (2011), and later on a CI date code (2012). All came from Cabelas when they had them on sale.
I find, however, that on all of the Pietta revolvers there are three things that need work to make them serviceable:
First, the takedown wedge must be fitted as it comes from the factory oversized and must be fitted.
Next, the cylinder bolt is too wide to fit the cylinder notches and consequently it peens the cylinder locking notch, so the bolt must be fitted to the notches.
Finally the cylinder bolt is timed to release much too late and the bolt, instead of releasing into the locking notch lead, drops right into the notch, which contributes to the peening mentioned above. The bolt leg that rides on the hammer cam must then be shortened significantly to let the bolt release earlier in the cylinder rotation.
After taking care of the above three issues the revolvers work much better and become much more pleasurable to shoot.
There were still a couple of things that bugged me about the Pietta 1860. If one goes to the internet and looks at photos of original Colt 1860s from the period 1860 to 1873, one can see that the rear of the barrel lug makes a graceful sweep downwards from about the centerline of the barrel, dips down beneath the takedown wedge, then curves smoothly upwards to near the bottom of the forcing cone. On the Pietta 1860, as it comes right from the box, this same curve is pretty close to the originals until it dips down under the wedge. But instead of continuing the sweep upwards towards the forcing cone it just extends back nearly horizontally to a sharp point. Honestly, every time I handled one of my two 1860s, my eye was drawn to this area and it bothered me to no end.
The other thing that bothered me was that the finish on the revolver was just too pretty. I find myself drawn to handguns with that show some honest holster wear.
I saw some YouTube videos where folks "antiqued" percussion revolvers by disassembling them and dropping the barrel, cylinder, and frame into a solution that stripped all of the bluing off, such as white vinegar, then left the naked steel simply rust. After using a wire brush and steel wool to remove the worst of the rust, they ended up with a revolver that looked like it spent the last hundred years wrapped in a rag in the rafters of a barn somewhere. This was not the look I was after. I wanted my revolvers to look like they had been carried in a holster through several years of campaigning, then maybe "retired" to civilian life and were carried by, say, a lawman in a frontier town. In other words, I was looking for what in today's vernacular is know as "street cred".
Here are the results.
In these couple of pics I show the "CI" revolver in it's out-of-the-box condition above the "CH" revolver that has been aged:
The process I used to get the holster-worn look was to take a Scotchbright pad and just start rubbing the revolver down. I didn't try to remove all of the bluing, but concentrated on those areas that would see the most wear in actual use - the muzzle of the barrel, the top and sides of the barrel and the sides of the barrel lug, the larger-diameter portion of the cylinder, and the grip frame. Parts that would be protected from wear, such as the concave portion of the barrel lug and the part of the barrel shielded by the loading lever from wear I left pretty much alone. I also disassembled the revolver to scuff the blueing on the rear grip strap and the front outside edges of the cylinder. This entire process took only about an hour or less.
Finally I addressed the incorrect curve at the rear of the barrel lug with a medium size single-cut flat file - just taking easy strokes with the file and removing metal at a diagonal by eye. Here's a closeup of the final result: The filing took about 15 minutes and cold-blue touchup took about ten.
I don't know about the rest of you all, but I like the results. Yesterday I did the "CI" revolver, so now I have pretty close to a matching pair!
Interested to hear what you guys think.
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