1851 navy cap and ball
- Thread starter brybenn
- Start date
I would suggest going to U tube and looking at all the different types 1st.
Some have a Wedge holding the front of the pistol on.
some cannot use Conical led bullets only ball lead.
Some have very short barrels and others have very long barrels./
some are Brass framed, and will stretch over time if your loading Hot.
some have very nice Target sights and others have a V notch & a tiny front sight.
they come in 36cal and 44 cal. The 36 is very pleasant to shoot.
There is alot more,..so take a look at what style you would like,..and go from there.
Do not buy a Neglected pistol that hasnt been cleaned regularly,...it will have a lot of corrosion.
OH, and make sure you watch "how to load" video's , or you will have a hand grenade due to a chain fire.
Some have a Wedge holding the front of the pistol on.
some cannot use Conical led bullets only ball lead.
Some have very short barrels and others have very long barrels./
some are Brass framed, and will stretch over time if your loading Hot.
some have very nice Target sights and others have a V notch & a tiny front sight.
they come in 36cal and 44 cal. The 36 is very pleasant to shoot.
There is alot more,..so take a look at what style you would like,..and go from there.
Do not buy a Neglected pistol that hasnt been cleaned regularly,...it will have a lot of corrosion.
OH, and make sure you watch "how to load" video's , or you will have a hand grenade due to a chain fire.
had an absolutely gorgeous uberti 51 navy london model earlier this year, everything was smooth and tight, the blueing was beautiful, the color case hardening was hands down the best ive ever seen, no issues with the wedge at all, i had also bought a brass frame for it from dixie gun works but amazingly i actually preferred the steel frame after having the two, but the brass is ###ier IMO. i only sold it because shooting black powder pistols at the club was a bit of a hassle and i preferred shooting flintlocks. if you go with a uberti i dont think you will be disappointed
Pietta is very good. I had one, a steel frame, which is what you want. Mine was in .44cal. mainly because I already had the mold. Use RB as conicals are difficult to load and for me not as accurate. They all have a wedge holding barrel on. Nicest looking revolvers ever made.
I've seen but not shot a couple of recent Pietta cap and ball guns. By a small margin I'd say Uberti still is somewhat better. But it is a SMALL margin and for the lower cost I'd say Pietta is a better bang for the buck.
This isn't the case for Pietta's cartridge replicas though. The recent (10 years) Pietta cartridge 1873's are very nicely made and don't take any measurable degree of a back seat.
One issue that almost all the wedge retained Colt style guns have though is that the arbor is not correctly fitted to the barrels. So the wedge ends up being more of a tensioning device than a locking device. I've got two 1860's and an 1851 that are older Uberti made guns with the various early distributor names. Navy arms on one, Euroarms on another and one that is actually stamped Uberti. All three had to have a mod that added a shim button to the front of the arbor so it would bottom out in the barrel's arbor hole just as the cylinder gap was just right. When this is done the wedge correctly works as a locking wedge and not an adjusting wedge.
Another commonly seen mod is to drill and tap the end of the arbor so a strong set screw can be threaded in as an adjustable extension button. That's a nice option too. In my case I soldered (regular low temp solder)a small button of steel to the end of the arbor and then carefully filed it down to adjust the gap.
There's another issue with the open top Colts and Colt replicas. The front sight is rather short being set up to hit at point of aim out at something ridiculous like 100 yards. For closer in they shoot WAY high. I doctored my own 60's and the 51 up with taller front sights so I didn't need to radically alter the sighting groove on the hammer. For the 51 this involved making up a new taller brass sight pin. I removed the old one (pressed in) and soldered the new one into place.
Please don't let all this detail work scare you. Get one and try it. If, like many of us, you really like handling and shooting C&B revolvers THEN seek out a smith that knows these guns and can do these mods.
When tuned though these guns with round ball can perform just as good as any cartridge gun for accuracy.
This isn't the case for Pietta's cartridge replicas though. The recent (10 years) Pietta cartridge 1873's are very nicely made and don't take any measurable degree of a back seat.
One issue that almost all the wedge retained Colt style guns have though is that the arbor is not correctly fitted to the barrels. So the wedge ends up being more of a tensioning device than a locking device. I've got two 1860's and an 1851 that are older Uberti made guns with the various early distributor names. Navy arms on one, Euroarms on another and one that is actually stamped Uberti. All three had to have a mod that added a shim button to the front of the arbor so it would bottom out in the barrel's arbor hole just as the cylinder gap was just right. When this is done the wedge correctly works as a locking wedge and not an adjusting wedge.
Another commonly seen mod is to drill and tap the end of the arbor so a strong set screw can be threaded in as an adjustable extension button. That's a nice option too. In my case I soldered (regular low temp solder)a small button of steel to the end of the arbor and then carefully filed it down to adjust the gap.
There's another issue with the open top Colts and Colt replicas. The front sight is rather short being set up to hit at point of aim out at something ridiculous like 100 yards. For closer in they shoot WAY high. I doctored my own 60's and the 51 up with taller front sights so I didn't need to radically alter the sighting groove on the hammer. For the 51 this involved making up a new taller brass sight pin. I removed the old one (pressed in) and soldered the new one into place.
Please don't let all this detail work scare you. Get one and try it. If, like many of us, you really like handling and shooting C&B revolvers THEN seek out a smith that knows these guns and can do these mods.
When tuned though these guns with round ball can perform just as good as any cartridge gun for accuracy.
Brybenn:
One of the best internet sites for cap and ball revolvers (or bp guns in general), is duelist1954. Mike Beliveau, the site's host, is the black powder Editor for: 'Guns of the Old West' magazine, and an authority on black powder firearms. You can likely have all your questions answered by referring to his very detailed and highly informative videos. He even has one on how to choose a first cap and ball revolver. Plus, videos on how to safely modify contemporary cap and ball revolvers to shoot conical bullets. As well as many others of interest. Worth a look.
One of the best internet sites for cap and ball revolvers (or bp guns in general), is duelist1954. Mike Beliveau, the site's host, is the black powder Editor for: 'Guns of the Old West' magazine, and an authority on black powder firearms. You can likely have all your questions answered by referring to his very detailed and highly informative videos. He even has one on how to choose a first cap and ball revolver. Plus, videos on how to safely modify contemporary cap and ball revolvers to shoot conical bullets. As well as many others of interest. Worth a look.
With the current state of our leadership ive given up the idea of adding more restricteds at this time. I thank all for the advise given. If and when the conservatives get back in and we can still own guns ill pick up the ones ive been looking at
