Pietta 1858 Remington ??

[PA16th]

Just received my Pietta Model 1858 New Army .44 Caliber Black Powder Revolver from Cabela's. Have .454 round balls, lubed wool pads and an extra cylinder.
This my first cap lock revolver so I would like to know which brand #10 caps are prefered, accurate loads for this revolver, nipple wrench and any other advice particular to this revolver. I am excited to shoot this but today is not a good day-- in a blizzard right now.

Thanks
Don

 

[Khufu]

I use 35 gr of fffg powder and CCI caps. a nipple wrench is very useful for cleaning your revolver after shooting. My Pieta '58 uses .451 balls, its old and may have a tighter cylinder than yours. My Ruger old army does use .454 balls and once I accidentially loaded some of the .454 balls in my remington, and nearly bent the loading ram. lubing is a personal choice, the only thing I got from lubing was a fouled and very messy gun and certainly no better accuracy. I hope you get years of enjoyment from your revolver, and have as much fun with yours as I have with mine.

 

[Grumpa]

I just started shooting an Uberti Remington. I bought .457 balls figuring on a on a nice long bearing surface, but seating them just cut a thin ring of lead, and they seated without difficulty, no stress on the ram whatever.

I started off with 20 grains Ffg, then moved up to 30 grains. The latter were more enjoyable to shoot, and the gun seemed to like them. I made a note to try 35 grains next time out. I will also try 3Fg.

I used .36 caliber lubed veggie wads that I had on hand, and they worked well.

Lots of fun! :grin:

 

[TNGhost]

As far as caps, you may have to play around a bit to see which brand fits best, I have some RWS around here that fit nice, but have used Remington and Winchester. Its important to have a good fit, too small and they don't bottom out, making for difficult ignition. Too large and they fall off gumming up the works, or as some people say, may allow a spark to jump from an adjacent chamber and set off a chain fire. Depending on the performance you get, you may want to consider going to AMPCO nipples or one of the other aftermarket upgrades. TOW, Possibles Shop, JST, and others have them.

On ball size, accuracy, and maybe preventing chain fires, dictates going with a ball that shaves a thin circle of lead. Depending on your chamber size, .454 should do it, but as mentioned if you can use a .451, and get a good seal, 'tis easier on the equipment, unless of course you have a cylinder loading stand.

As far as a load I'd start at 25grs, I like 3F Graf's black, and work my way up, to find what my revolver liked. They all can be different :wink:

I've never had any problems with the ubiquitous "T" handle nipple wrenches, that include a pick, but there are fancier ones out there.

YMMV Happy Shooting

 

[smokepole tc]

if im not mistaking mfg. suggests .451 i have same gun 451 are perfect

 

[BullRunBear]

I have a pair of the same model from 2 years ago. (Those Cabelas sales are tough on the budget, aren't they?) I started with 25 grains of 3F Goex, a felt wad and Remington caps. Got my best accuracy with 30 grains although the chambers hold a bigger charge. My guns handle .454 balls easily enough but they shoot as well with .451s. Since my Colt C&Bs use .451s, I standardized on that size. (The Ruger Old Armies need .457 balls.)

We're digging out from the same blizzard. Won't be getting to the range any time soon.

Jeff

 

[PA16th]

Thanks for the input from everyone. This information will get me started. Cabela's sale was too much temptation.

Don :hatsoff:

 

[Terry Fairchild]

"Cabela's sale was too much temptation" hah,hah, I can appreciate that statement.
I've got 11 of those addictive revolvers in my gun safe, and 10 of em came from Cabela's.
Their sale prices on Pietas are unbeatable, online ordering is waaaay to easy, delivery is great AND the quality of those Piettas is top notch!
When I go to shoot my biggest dilemma is which gun to shoot,
I'd like to take 'em all down and shoot 'em!
You'll get a big kick out of shooting this pistol. My guess is this won't be the last one you'll buy.
I shoot .451 hand cast balls, lubed with bore butter, 25 grains of 3f and #10 caps.

 

[nkbj]

PA16th,
Do you have a set of mikes or calipers to measure the chambers? Just saying, that's usually the best way to figger out what ball to start of with.
The Piettas sometimes have had the chamber reamer inserted to different depths, creating differences in manufacture from one gun to the next and also from one chamber to the next. The reamer has a little taper to it so that makes the finished holes have various diameters as well as different powder spaces from chamber to chamber.

 

[PA16th]

I did that last night using my callipers. Each chamber was .44 Seems like a well made gun for the price. I liked their .36 cal but went for the .44
I ordered the round balls at the same time as the revolver so I went with .454 balls ( manual recomended)
Will probably try .451 balls. ( Cabella's recomended)
How many black powder guns are enough? Just one more. :grin:

Don

 

[Kansas Jake]

I've shot both 451 and 454 in my 58 Remmies. One is an older Pietta and I think the other is Euroarms. I've done the same in a couple of 1860 Colt replicas. The 454's shave a little more lead.

I have an old Euroarms Rogers & Spencer and the 451's are a mite loose in it.

With pure lead, I've not had problems loading either 451 or 454.

 

[swathdiver]

...would like to know which brand #10 caps are prefered, accurate loads for this revolver, nipple wrench and any other advice particular to this revolver.

The cones on these Piettas shoot best with Remington #10s. Get a NW-130 from Track of the Wolf and one of their pistol loading rods for cleaning and swabbing.

30 grain charges of real bp are nice, 35 makes the gun bark and 37 is about all you'll get under the ball, maybe 40.

The chambers are sized at around .450, so use .454 round ball, the smaller ones will barely hold and shoot poorly through the .451 grooves on the barrel.

Pietta tightened up the twist for conical ball shooting in the latter part of 2012, so if your gun was made after that, it's also made to shoot boolits accurately.

 

[nkbj]

I did that last night using my callipers. Each chamber was .44 Seems like a well made gun for the price. I liked their .36 cal but went for the .44
I ordered the round balls at the same time as the revolver so I went with .454 balls ( manual recomended)
Will probably try .451 balls. ( Cabella's recomended)
How many black powder guns are enough? Just one more. :grin:

Don

I don't know Don. Can you get too many?
Got the 1858's in .36 and .44 and then got the tinker twitch for a .40. Thinking about a .40 caliber 1851 after reading about Colt's experiments with it. Maybe some day!

 

[wpjson]

How many is enough? Just one more than you have now, whatever that number is.