I bought a matched pair of Pietta 1851's some years ago, and I have not had opportunity to shoot them much, but right out of the factory they needed tuned up. The bolt is a bit too wide for the cylinder notches, the lock work is burred and dragging causing slow hammer fall and poor ignition. All of these issues can be addressed and corrected, but it is pain with a new gun that should run good out of the box. Colt's cap and ball mechanism is not difficult to understand, or to time, and parts are readily available. The cowboy action crowd has really put these pistols to work, so the tuning information is readily available. I don't know if the original Colts gave these issues or not, but you just about have to fit up your own gun to get one worth shooting a lot. Keeping the cylinder pin greased is very important, about 18 rounds in my experience is the end of reliability before a tear down and thorough cleaning. The big secret to keeping spent caps out of your lock work is to have the recess in your hammer nose welded up and dressed flat. The recess "grabs" spent caps and pulls them off to drop into the lock work. Most pistols use the recessed hammer, whether the locking pins are present or not. Got that tip from the cowboy action guys, my hammers will lose their locking pin notches in the near future.
