Pietta 1873 revolvers for cowboy action
- Thread starter trackert
- Start date
Bird's head or "Thunderer" style grips work for smaller hands. Not so well for folks that take large or Xlarge gloves. I'm one that takes L or XL depending on the maker. The times I've tried bird's head guns they did not fit me worth a darn. And I'm pretty tolerant of different grip styles from shooting a fairly wide variety of handguns.
The lower angle hammer is easier to reach for recocking rapidly. Especially if you elect to shoot any classification where you are holding the guns one handed. The Bisley style high hammers are a stretch and a half if trying to rapid fire the guns. On the other hand if you go with and stick with two handed style categories the high hammer might work out well. Talk with a few of the faster shooters in your local group and ask before you buy. Otherwise if you are looking at a good sale price NOW I'd say stick with the regular lower style as the best all 'rounder.
These things are all mechanical so anything can happen. But my own two Pietta 73's have served me well for 8 years and probably 8 to 10 thousand rounds at this point. In all that time the only failure I've had is the firing pin retainer pin in the hammer fell out on one gun. Lucky for me I spotted this before the firing pin itself jumped ship. It was an easy repair that has held up for around 2 years now. Other than that the guns just get better and better each time out.
The lower angle hammer is easier to reach for recocking rapidly. Especially if you elect to shoot any classification where you are holding the guns one handed. The Bisley style high hammers are a stretch and a half if trying to rapid fire the guns. On the other hand if you go with and stick with two handed style categories the high hammer might work out well. Talk with a few of the faster shooters in your local group and ask before you buy. Otherwise if you are looking at a good sale price NOW I'd say stick with the regular lower style as the best all 'rounder.
These things are all mechanical so anything can happen. But my own two Pietta 73's have served me well for 8 years and probably 8 to 10 thousand rounds at this point. In all that time the only failure I've had is the firing pin retainer pin in the hammer fell out on one gun. Lucky for me I spotted this before the firing pin itself jumped ship. It was an easy repair that has held up for around 2 years now. Other than that the guns just get better and better each time out.
The screw that holds the ejector housing is one I constantly forget to check. That one for sure is worthy of a drop of blue. The three action screws I snug up (firmly snug but not overly tight) but without any loctite. I'm too often into the works to clean the guns to justify gumming the screws up with a dab o' blue. Instead I check them once at the beginning of the day to ensure they are not working loose. Usually they are fine for three or four days worth of use before I find a screw or two that has worked slightly loose during a previous shooting day.
By working them this way I hope to keep the slots and threads intact for many years to come vs over tightening and risking the screw driver tips wearing away at the slots over time.
I'm not saying that my way is the "One And Only Way". It's just the way I do it with all my cartridge and cap&ball single action revolvers. And it seems to be working because the screws are staying in pristine condition and I've not lost any.... yet
My big reason for going with Pietta over Ruger when I picked my cowboy action guns was to get to experience the true feel of the original Colt style actions. And I'm happy that I did. I actually quite enjoy the classic method of going to half #### to shuck and reload.
And little did I know that by picking this option I'd avoid the need to "run around Ruger Mountain" if my thumb slips off the hammer before fully cocking the gun. That was a bonus I hadn't expected. Then on top of that I get 8 years of good reliability and the guns are still going strong? DOUBLE BONUS ! ! !
I didn't just lay a curse on myself I hope... .
Thanks for all the tips guys,my revolvers should be here next week,can hardly wait! My 1851 navy likes to loosen a screw out now and again so am used to checking the screws. If anybody reloads what's the suggestion on crimping for revolvers and lever guns? I've started building a reload recipe for my 1873 Win. In the 38/357 and wondered if you can get the same load to work well in both rifle and revolvers?
I like a load that lets me feel like I'm actually shooting a real gun. So I tend to load to the middle of the .38Spl range for power. That being 3.4 to 3.5 gns of Titegroup in the .38Spl casings and 3.6 to 3.8 gns in the .357Mag casings for the rifle. I use a touch more in the .357Mag cases to make up for the extra casing volume. Notice I'm indicating a fair range in powder. I'm running these loads through a progressive press and since as noted the cowboy action events don't require the ultimate in consistency for accuracy I tend to not sweat over a .2gn variation when checking the powder drops. In practice the guns themselves don't notice anything either even when shooting at paper for groups or small bonus targets.
Bullets are 125gn LRNFP Bullet Barn bullets. I use the 130's because for the number of them I shoot the $8 difference between the 130's and 158's adds up over time. Some of the folks are using 105's. But these are so light that they don't feel like a "real gun" and the pressure pulse is so short and light that the cases end up fouling the outsides between casing and chamber excessively from what I've seen. So I have stayed with 130 as the happy middle ground.
A light roll crimp is all we need for the pistols. Working a harder crimp does little and over time will work the brass more and likely see the casing mouths cracking sooner instead of later.
On the rifle I'm using an 1892 (Rossi 92) and I found that a somewhat heavy taper crimp works best for smoother operation at cowboy action speeds. If you're using an 1873 with the direct push this likely isn't a big deal. But if you find that the roll crimp is snagging give this taper crimp thing a try. Chances are you'll find it's just fine.
The revolvers can use any style bullet of course. But you'll find that the rifle will tend to snag on SWC's when you get to running the lever at Cowboy Action speeds. So for the rifle at least stick with the RNFP style. But if you score a good price on a bunch of SWC or even DEWC bullets don't be afraid to use them in the handguns. Note, if using full wadcutters the SASS rules insist that the nose of the bullet protrude by some small amount so RO's can easily spot if it's a live round or a spent casing.
Bullets are 125gn LRNFP Bullet Barn bullets. I use the 130's because for the number of them I shoot the $8 difference between the 130's and 158's adds up over time. Some of the folks are using 105's. But these are so light that they don't feel like a "real gun" and the pressure pulse is so short and light that the cases end up fouling the outsides between casing and chamber excessively from what I've seen. So I have stayed with 130 as the happy middle ground.
A light roll crimp is all we need for the pistols. Working a harder crimp does little and over time will work the brass more and likely see the casing mouths cracking sooner instead of later.
On the rifle I'm using an 1892 (Rossi 92) and I found that a somewhat heavy taper crimp works best for smoother operation at cowboy action speeds. If you're using an 1873 with the direct push this likely isn't a big deal. But if you find that the roll crimp is snagging give this taper crimp thing a try. Chances are you'll find it's just fine.
The revolvers can use any style bullet of course. But you'll find that the rifle will tend to snag on SWC's when you get to running the lever at Cowboy Action speeds. So for the rifle at least stick with the RNFP style. But if you score a good price on a bunch of SWC or even DEWC bullets don't be afraid to use them in the handguns. Note, if using full wadcutters the SASS rules insist that the nose of the bullet protrude by some small amount so RO's can easily spot if it's a live round or a spent casing.
