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Nothing replaces quality time behind the trigger. You learn new weird quirks about guns, get to try new things, and experiment

I just bought a 2nd round barrel ".44 Reb Navy" to make a brace , with one I had for a while. I antiqued it to match the other one

The new one shoots 3" to the left at 15 yards. I sandbagged it, used every fundamental, and fired several cylinders from the sandbag. The gun printed a nice , neat group about 6" high and 3" left of my point of aim each time. Oh well, I'll probably just live with it . The one I had already hits dead on for windage and equally as high. I guess the new one left Pietta a little off. I could someday open the sight notch to the right i.e. "the Ruger Fix" when I get to it. Or probably not.

I think I just tried too hard and aimed too good.....I shot the gun with my left hand and it hit dead Center. BOOM problem solved. If my "push off" and poor trigger pull technique with my left hand makes it hit dead nuts , oh well. If it works it works.

I finally decided to try to use a utensil to spread Crisco on top of chambers. It's way easier. It was 90 out today and it stayed usable. I switched back and forth between wads and Crisco.
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For the first time ever, I had a mainspring work loose and jam a gun up. Apparently the mainspring screw worked loose and allowed the mainspring to slide over , preventing the hammer from moving. After breaking the gun down and tightening the screw, no more problems

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I could see the wads leaving the bore smoking, and at times they made the gun blow a smoke ring. This one stuck into the paper after shooting at about 5 yards. The ground was littered with burnt wool wads. I could probably have picked them up and reused them.

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I just bought these ear plugs that are also ear phones. It adds a new element to be able to listen to a Pandora station while shooting.
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Half the fun of getting out to shoot is getting some air, people watching, enjoying some alone time, and working the kinks out of new guns

I played around with some "unmentionables " too . There's never not a reason to get out and shoot
 
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Stan,
I have a 51 sheriff that was shooting to the right. If I looked just over the top of the gun with the hammer cocked I could see the barrel pointed ever so slightly right. I took a smooth triangle file and with short, gentle, strokes, filed the barrel where it meets the frame. A couple few passes and the barrel points straight.
If you look at the picture of the barrel, you can see where it was hitting the hardest on the lower left corner.
I'll shoot it tomorrow and try to finish sighting it in
 

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Stan,
I have a 51 sheriff that was shooting to the right. If I looked just over the top of the gun with the hammer cocked I could see the barrel pointed ever so slightly right. I took a smooth triangle file and with short, gentle, strokes, filed the barrel where it meets the frame. A couple few passes and the barrel points straight.
If you look at the picture of the barrel, you can see where it was hitting the hardest on the lower left corner.
I'll shoot it tomorrow and try to finish sighting it in
That's an excellent idea, I didn't even think that

The open top Colt design is so simple, the bullets go where the barrel points because it's not screwed into a frame

It may just need a little finessing to bring the barrel straight

The Pietta tech probably didn't square it up 100%

My only other option is to open up the rear sight if the barrel looks straight. It may very well be that the front sight hole was drilled a hair off Center
 
I was cleaning the gun and had the thought of turning it on the lathe to true it up and thought, "why not see what it looks like when I hit it with a file?" A couple passes and done
I checked it tonight and it looks straight . I looked at the barrel from every angle and it's as straight as it's going to get. It must be something else slightly off or the bore is drilled a little cocked.

Further study is required 😃

I'm going to take these out again and really get the pair on the sandbags for a good first cylinder , cold, clean barrel zero check at 25 yards

I'll take my fine file set with me and I had wanted to open the rear sights to a U shape anyway since I'm using these as CAS "training guns" for 10-15 yard point shooting

So if this revolver hits off to the left again , I'll just make it a U that is off to the right a little and adjust accordingly.

I did this with a Uberti Leech & Rigdon recently, it got it dead on for windage.

Ruger does the exact same thing at the factory 😃 they file one side of the rear sight until it hits to Point of Aim. If it works it works, the days of S&W techs bending frames with lead blocks is long over (excuse the unmentionable)

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