flibuste
Member
Remington 1858 target 4.5" with choked barrel
hello,
I would like to share with you the story of this particular pistol which started its life as a blued Pietta target with standard 8" barrel in the eighties. You will notice that at that time the frames and general size of the guns were smaller than today's production : hence they are lighter and felt recoil is superior.
When I got it a few years ago, I noticed that the front sight was angled to the right due to the barrel not being "screwed" enough in the frame ; at that time I was not able to unscrew the barrel from the frame (too much torqued) ; In order to shoot it I decided at that time to modify the rear sight by making a new little piece of steel with a notch moved to the right . Although a bit weird it allowed it to shoot quite correctly with balls.
Later on I decided that I wanted a sheriff's pistol so I sawed the barrel to 6.5" and dovetailed a new front sight ; still later I went for the real stuff : a 4.5" barrel !! and modified accordingly the loading lever and dovetailed the latch. By the way I also changed the grips for jigged-bone ones from NC Ordonance
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=112103&stc=1&d=1262356377
I was quite satisfied with its accuracy with balls but had very poor accuracy with bullets
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=112104&stc=1&d=1262356587
I though that the (very) poor accuracy with bullet was because of the slow barrel twist and short barrel but one day I noticed that the cleaning rod was slowed down consistently at the entering first inch of the barrel ; furthermore I had just read in a specialized BP article that a common defect of 1858 was that the barrel was sometimes overtightened in the factory with the consequence being that the bore was stressed and diminished at the threaded portion of it ;
Damned !! What I thought was only a theory had happened to me !!
Obviously when the front sight was reluctant to align with the rear at the factory, they overtightened the barrel to attempt to align it ; Unfortunately with 2 consequences : the front sight was still not aligned but in addition the bore had "shrinked" at the start of the barrel (this not being visible for a layman)
Some years had passed since the begining of the story and now I was able to unscrew the barrel from the frame ( heat, vise and sockets and less fear to wreck everything !!) and a close look at the entering of the barrel confirmed that it was choked.
I tried to ream the first inch of the bore but my reamer (used for the cylinder chambers) was not adapted so I tried with a wood rod with sandpaper inserted in a slot : progress was very slow and I could not remove enough steel ; In the end I used a small dremel until the bore was grossly reamed at the groove size all along the first inch of the barrel ( I regularly inserted a ramrod with a rag to assess whether it was or not slowed down at this portion of the barrel : this is not rocket technology !!)
Finally I sanded slightly the front of the frame to allow the barrel to be screwed until all faces are inline (what should have been done at first in the factory), screwed the barrel and mounted a TC steel frontsight ( everything been square for the first time !!) . In the move I polished the gun and blued it with permablue.
Now it was time for test with my "Pakistanese handcrafted barrel" :
here is some shooting with a 45Colt Kirst conversion, 2handhold with rest at 25 meters, 15 bullets Lee 255gr. :
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=112111&stc=1&d=1262361278
What a surprise ! Before the modification of the barrel, in the same conditions some bullets would not even reach the target ! Obviously bullets used to be shrinked at the entering of the bore and so were undersized all along their travel in the barrel with catastrophic accuracy as a consequence . Now this does not happens anymore.
Clustering is a step under with percussion cylinder ; I reamed the chambers to # 450 but maybe 452 would be more adequate due to the large section of the bore.
Some more testing will have to be done but anyway shooting is very pleasant because it kicks and roars !
Hope you enjoyed this thread and Happy New Year !
Regards
hello,
I would like to share with you the story of this particular pistol which started its life as a blued Pietta target with standard 8" barrel in the eighties. You will notice that at that time the frames and general size of the guns were smaller than today's production : hence they are lighter and felt recoil is superior.
When I got it a few years ago, I noticed that the front sight was angled to the right due to the barrel not being "screwed" enough in the frame ; at that time I was not able to unscrew the barrel from the frame (too much torqued) ; In order to shoot it I decided at that time to modify the rear sight by making a new little piece of steel with a notch moved to the right . Although a bit weird it allowed it to shoot quite correctly with balls.
Later on I decided that I wanted a sheriff's pistol so I sawed the barrel to 6.5" and dovetailed a new front sight ; still later I went for the real stuff : a 4.5" barrel !! and modified accordingly the loading lever and dovetailed the latch. By the way I also changed the grips for jigged-bone ones from NC Ordonance
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=112103&stc=1&d=1262356377
I was quite satisfied with its accuracy with balls but had very poor accuracy with bullets
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=112104&stc=1&d=1262356587
I though that the (very) poor accuracy with bullet was because of the slow barrel twist and short barrel but one day I noticed that the cleaning rod was slowed down consistently at the entering first inch of the barrel ; furthermore I had just read in a specialized BP article that a common defect of 1858 was that the barrel was sometimes overtightened in the factory with the consequence being that the bore was stressed and diminished at the threaded portion of it ;
Damned !! What I thought was only a theory had happened to me !!
Obviously when the front sight was reluctant to align with the rear at the factory, they overtightened the barrel to attempt to align it ; Unfortunately with 2 consequences : the front sight was still not aligned but in addition the bore had "shrinked" at the start of the barrel (this not being visible for a layman)
Some years had passed since the begining of the story and now I was able to unscrew the barrel from the frame ( heat, vise and sockets and less fear to wreck everything !!) and a close look at the entering of the barrel confirmed that it was choked.
I tried to ream the first inch of the bore but my reamer (used for the cylinder chambers) was not adapted so I tried with a wood rod with sandpaper inserted in a slot : progress was very slow and I could not remove enough steel ; In the end I used a small dremel until the bore was grossly reamed at the groove size all along the first inch of the barrel ( I regularly inserted a ramrod with a rag to assess whether it was or not slowed down at this portion of the barrel : this is not rocket technology !!)
Finally I sanded slightly the front of the frame to allow the barrel to be screwed until all faces are inline (what should have been done at first in the factory), screwed the barrel and mounted a TC steel frontsight ( everything been square for the first time !!) . In the move I polished the gun and blued it with permablue.
Now it was time for test with my "Pakistanese handcrafted barrel" :
here is some shooting with a 45Colt Kirst conversion, 2handhold with rest at 25 meters, 15 bullets Lee 255gr. :
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=112111&stc=1&d=1262361278
What a surprise ! Before the modification of the barrel, in the same conditions some bullets would not even reach the target ! Obviously bullets used to be shrinked at the entering of the bore and so were undersized all along their travel in the barrel with catastrophic accuracy as a consequence . Now this does not happens anymore.
Clustering is a step under with percussion cylinder ; I reamed the chambers to # 450 but maybe 452 would be more adequate due to the large section of the bore.
Some more testing will have to be done but anyway shooting is very pleasant because it kicks and roars !
Hope you enjoyed this thread and Happy New Year !
Regards
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