Navy Arms "Confederate" Navy

[rebel727]

Quality on the ones made in the last ten years or so is top notch. The only comparison I can make to authenticity is with the 58 Remington. The only real difference is the Pietta grips are thicker. I think the Colt grips are closer to originals. Pietta has their name plastered on the side of the barrel. Uberti has them beat on that but fit, function and finish on Pietta is just as good.

 

[Zonie]

"...Colt never made a 51 in .44 but Pietta does. Usually when somebody says Confederate Navy it's a .44..."
------

Your probably right but the real irony is the Confederate only had one company that made a .44 and that was the Dance Brothers in Texas.
There gun is easily recognizable by the fact that it doesn't have the "recoil shield" that almost all other revolvers of the period had.
This essentially made a gun with a flat receiver with the exposed cylinder showing on both sides of the frame at the front and the rear.

All of the Confederates other revolvers except the Dance Brothers .44 cal gun were .36 and even Dance made a .36 caliber revolver that looked like their bigger .44.

 

[bnail]

Hey Zonie,
Any advice on accessories, such as nipple wrench, specialty nipples, loads, etc?
I've heard rumblings about Stainless steel nipples, are these necessary? What size cap do these take?
I tell ya, I'm a complet newb when it comes to CW era weapons so I'd appreciate all the advice I can get. :thumbsup:

 

[Mulebrain]

“Do you suppose that a new Hand spring would fix the problem?”

I suppose that the hand spring may be lose on the
hand or may just need to be bent for a little more
tension on it.

If that doesn’t fix it, I would replace the hand/spring
combo. It would be a lot easier to do.




I will second that!

I use 20 grains of fff in my .36 Navy's with great results!!




Tinker2

 

[Zonie]

Hey Zonie,
Any advice on accessories, such as nipple wrench, specialty nipples, loads, etc?
I've heard rumblings about Stainless steel nipples, are these necessary? What size cap do these take?
I tell ya, I'm a complet newb when it comes to CW era weapons so I'd appreciate all the advice I can get. :thumbsup:

Yup. For a C&B Revolver, you need a Pistol nipple wrench to remove the nipples. A rifle nipple wrench usually won't work because 99 percent of the time they are too big in diameter.
Several places (like Dixie) sell them but make sure it is for a pistol.

As for special nipples, the aftermarket ones usually work better than the factory supplied ones but I wouldn't recommend buying any of them until at least 18 shots had been fired thru the gun.
If the 18 shots work, the aftermarket nipples won't do anything to improve the gun.

Stainless steel nipples (and "monel") both erode less than regular steel nipples but if the factory nipples are working I wouldn't buy them.

As for the factory nipples they usually take either #10 or #11 caps.
#10 caps are sometimes kinda hard to find and pinching the mouth of #11 caps will make them stay on #10 nipples. Just make sure the caps don't fall off of the nipples when the gun is fired. If one does, it creates an excellent possibility of a "chain fire".

Folks who have problems with caps not firing when the hammer hits them should examine their guns nipples before buying new ones.
Often, with used guns, the existing nipples have been deformed (mushroomed) by the previous owner "dry firing" the gun.
These deformed nipples won't allow the cap to seat down tightly so the first hammer blow only succeeds in pounding the cap down where it belongs. A second hammer fall will often fire it.

To fix this, remove the nipples and, using a small metal cutting file remove the "mushroomed" material.

If this doesn't fix the problem, then consider buying new nipples.

Here again, C&B nipples are not the same as Rifle nipples. They are much shorter so if you buy any, make sure they are Cap and Ball Pistol nipples and the thread size is correct for your gun.