Pietta 1851 navy hammer strike

[Wolfmanjack]

I took my 36 cal 1851 out yesterday for a short range session. I’m using homemade black powder and homemade percussion caps. The pistol is wonderfully accurate and a joy to shoot. Here’s my dilemma: the first two cylinders will fire with every hammer strike no problem. The 3rd cylinder will usually have two caps that fail to fire. Each subsequent cylinder will have about 3 failures. The issue is that some fouling accumulates on the hammer and the hammer strike weakens and isn’t quite enough to set off my homemade caps. I can use factory caps at this point with 100% success. I may be able to make my caps a little more sensitive by refining my chemicals but that’s not what asking about here. Im thinking some sort of lubricating/anti fouling liquid in a spray bottle may keep my hammer falling as sharp as when clean? Are there stronger hammer springs possibly that may solve my problem? Maybe both of these is an option? Btw my homemade caps fire 100% in my hawken.

 

[desi23]

A stronger mainspring might help. Many replica revolvers seem to have rather light mainsprings. Especially when compared to a few of the original guns I've owned. Fouling build up can cause problems but, at least in my experience, it should take a lot more shots than you're firing before it causes misfires............. cylinder drag and rough cocking are usually the first signs of a fouling issue.

 

[Stantheman86]

I had the same exact problem , I have a Pietta .44 Navy that would do the exact same thing, the hammer was rubbing on the frame

Pietta mainsprings vary in thickness and power even from gun to gun

I swapped out mainsprings with another Pietta that had no issues with this and had a heavier mainspring and the problem went away . As a side effect the other Pietta now has a lighter , crisper action

Also you could lightly file the sides of the hammer slot or just use a baby wipe to wipe the sides of the hammer every cylinder until it breaks in

These guns are made better by Pietta than they used to be but for the price point they still can have some issues, and need tweaking.

I also have one with a bolt that "grinds" on the cylinder stop leades so I'll need to gently break the edge

 

[LST-1185]

I had a similar experience with a 1860 uberti army. I placed the mainspring in a vise and carefully bent the spring backward about 5/16 of an inch. Did this slowly. The revolver has been working just fine for the past two years.

 

[n.h.schmidt]

Wolfman What are you using for your homemade caps?Pop cans,copper ,or brass? If pop cans one layer or two? I ran into the very same problem of heavy blowback fouling slowing the hammer fall. That was using two layer pop cans. The cups would blow the tops off and all the fouling could blow backwards. ALL of these problems went away .When I went to brass. K&S soft brass stock #6010. 36 gauge .005 thick. It's tough enough to stay in one piece when fired .No fragments. My last 60 shots were without any hangups on a new 1860 44 colt. Straight out of the box Pieatta. I also make them with the FA-42 formula(22 reloader is close ) A reduced charge of the prime is best for the revolvers.

 

[Wolfmanjack]

Single layer soda can is what I’m using. Is that brass easily sourced locally?

 

[n.h.schmidt]

Hobby lobby and maybe other craft stores. I ordered mine from Amazon. It's a 12" X 30" role. Enough to make 1200 or maybe more with care. K&S has .005 brass sheets in displays in my hardware store. Higher priced and harder. Even using double layer pop cans will improve things. Easy to do and still cheap.

 

[ColonialRifleSmith]

I took my 36 cal 1851 out yesterday for a short range session. I’m using homemade black powder and homemade percussion caps. The pistol is wonderfully accurate and a joy to shoot. Here’s my dilemma: the first two cylinders will fire with every hammer strike no problem. The 3rd cylinder will usually have two caps that fail to fire. Each subsequent cylinder will have about 3 failures. The issue is that some fouling accumulates on the hammer and the hammer strike weakens and isn’t quite enough to set off my homemade caps. I can use factory caps at this point with 100% success. I may be able to make my caps a little more sensitive by refining my chemicals but that’s not what asking about here. Im thinking some sort of lubricating/anti fouling liquid in a spray bottle may keep my hammer falling as sharp as when clean? Are there stronger hammer springs possibly that may solve my problem? Maybe both of these is an option? Btw my homemade caps fire 100% in my hawken.

Pistol nipples have a 'teat' on them, where rifle nipples do not. If you're adventurist, Remove the 'teat' so the entire cap hits flat at the same time. Semper Fi.

 

[45D]

If the op would thin the left bolt arm, he would probably be just fine with what he's got. The "too thick" bolt arm is a major cause of ftf in Pietta revolvers.

Mike

 

[Whitworth]

Weak hammer spring will also allow blowback of the hammer and thus failure of the hammer/cap to seal the chamber allowing the aforementioned fouling to accumulate on the nipple. YMMV

 

[bang]

22gns with ball
18gns with Conicals
No knock

 

[M. De Land]

I took my 36 cal 1851 out yesterday for a short range session. I’m using homemade black powder and homemade percussion caps. The pistol is wonderfully accurate and a joy to shoot. Here’s my dilemma: the first two cylinders will fire with every hammer strike no problem. The 3rd cylinder will usually have two caps that fail to fire. Each subsequent cylinder will have about 3 failures. The issue is that some fouling accumulates on the hammer and the hammer strike weakens and isn’t quite enough to set off my homemade caps. I can use factory caps at this point with 100% success. I may be able to make my caps a little more sensitive by refining my chemicals but that’s not what asking about here. Im thinking some sort of lubricating/anti fouling liquid in a spray bottle may keep my hammer falling as sharp as when clean? Are there stronger hammer springs possibly that may solve my problem? Maybe both of these is an option? Btw my homemade caps fire 100% in my hawken.

What I discovered over the years in both percussion hand guns or rifles is nipple fouling after several reloads that does not allow the cap to seat all the way down on top the nipple crown from the capper and as a consequence requires a second strike to detonate the fulmate. A stronger main spring will often mitigate this problem but I believe the real culprit is fouling on the taper portion of the nipples. I hadn't noticed hammer face fouling as the problem but it would most certainly follow that if it did load up with fouling it would tend to cushion the strike on the cap.