Just got my new Pietta Remington new model army...

Claven2

Claven2

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
417   0   2
Location
Onterrible
And it is FAR better than any other Pietta BP revolver I've owned (this is my 4th Pietta and newest manufacture example).

Picked it up at Marstar, I think it was their last in stock of this model (steel frame 8" .44). Pietta's quality seems to have gotten REALLY good sompared to just 4 years ago when I bought my last one. Even the nipples were decent, though I still replaced them immediately with new Ampco/Treso nipples because they are easily the best nipples out there ;)

Lockup is perfect, fit and finish is at least on par with my Uberti (now gone), action feel better then the Uberti was. Cylinder is indexed perfectly, probably a product of the CNC machines Pietta now uses. The barrel text also seems ot be a good bit smaller and less offensive than they used to be on older Piettas and the Ubertis.

The flask is Pedersoli, but of the correct pattern.

The grips actually have nice figure too!

Anyhoot, thanks Marstar!

Now for my Kirst converter and ejector to arrive in .45LC so I can get the frame modded and reblued so I can have a dual-use Remington ;)

Life is good.

DSCN2196.jpg

DSCN2197.jpg
 
Very nice, I have heard that Pietta has improved a lot lately, the finish on yours looks very good. I have an 1851 Navy Yank .44 cal. Pietta that I am rebuilding it was made in 1981 and after a lot of use it is still in pretty good shape.

Here are the Italian date codes for reproductions if you don't already have them:

DateCodesItalianProofmarks.jpg


They show on the right side of the frame on both of my reproductions...Uberti and Pietta.
 
Wow mine was made in 1968. I would say the condition of my gun as to looks on a scale of 1-10 is 8.5 due to some small nicks . Bluing is excellent and I do not see any wear spots the only flaw is where someone caused nicks tapping out the cylinder pin.
It shoots great and is very accurate and the barrel looks great as well. Must have sat in someones gun cabinet for a very long time.
 
Yay! My Kirst Konverter arrived today :) Neat little bit of kit that turns a Remington New Model Army revolver into a 1870's era Richards-Mason type cartridge conversion. This one is in .45LC.

I still have to cut the loading gate in the frame and have the gun re-blued. At the same time, I think I'll also remove the factory front sight and install a dovetailed sight instead. It was common at the time when these conversions were done for little tweaks and mods to have been done by the gunsmiths of the day.

The coolest thing of all, is that in 1 minute or so, it can be re-converted to percussion.

DSCN2237.jpg
 
That converter kit ..does it include a new barrel or do you use the same one as when shooting percussion?? Also do you have to grind out enough metal to fit the cartridges in the cylinder???
 
You have to grind a relief for the loading gate so the cartridge clears the recoil shield, and no, you don;t need a new bbl. The stock bbl is .452" so that when .454 balls are shaved into a percussion cylinder they fit the .452" barrel, which is the same diameter as .45 Colt ;)
 
Well since VTI is sold out of the Uberti dovetail front sights they use on Uberti repro guns, I had to come up with a different front sight for my dovetail conversion. The Uberti front sight isn;t meant to be windage adjustable as it's draw-filed flush to the barrel flats. I want mine to be adjustable for windage with sight wings that overhang the barrel slightly like on a modern Marlin 336.

So in the end, I made my own sight. It's handly having your own lather and mill - but making something like this on toolroom machines is NOT cost effective - let that be a warning to anyone else following in my footsteps - lol. It takes longer than you think to make one of these on manual machines.

DSCN2539.jpg

DSCN2540.jpg


Obviously, it still needs to be polished and blued. I made the new sight the same height as the factory sight as elevation was bang-on at 15m when I test fired the revolver. This new sight should enable me to correct for windage which was rather far off last time out.

It's a trim little sight - the dovetail is only 300 thou. More pics to follow when the gun is finished.

Cheers.
 
Have you shot any cartridges through it yet??? Range Report????
I was looking for some parts for my Uberti at VTI and came across the Kirst Konverter kits, it was on this thread that I first heard of them.
How about some pictures from the range??
Are you going to cut a dovetail into the front of the barrel or is it already done???
 
I wish I had taken pics of the target at the range. I was shooting 230gr lead RN bullets in Federal cases and HP38 powder. The load is written down somewhere in the basement, but it was a standard cowboy load out of the Hodgdon manual.

Recoil was mild and pleasant - more so than from an 1873 Colt as the Remington is just so much bigger and steadier to shoot.

Unfortunately, bullets were striking the target almost 2 feet to the right at 25 meters and the factory sight was not adjustable. I aim to remedy that with the new windage-adjustable front sight.

The Kirst is a slick unit, though I tweaked mine a bit. The loading gate was hanging up a bit on the cylinder star when you close the gate, so I shaved a few thou off the back of the gate and it now works 100%. Also, the ejector assembly is not machined to allow the cylinder pin to be pulled forward for disassembly without undoing the retainer screw in the frame. I machined mine to the same profile as the original factory cylinder pin and I can now switch back to BP cylinder if I like without needing a screwdriver.

The bottom line is the Kirst is a nice kit and they ship to Canada, but unless you like a project or just HAVE to have a cartridge conversion model that isn't already offered by uberti, you are better off buying a factory repro of a converted cap and ball revolver.

I wen this way though as Uberti doesn't make this type of conversion revolver yet in .45LC.
 
Well I just got the Pietta back from Gunco where it was re-blued. I had Jason cut the dovetail for the front sight as I didn't have a small enough DT endmill and I also had Jason re-mill the relief channel ahead of the rear sight notch since on my Pietta the cutter had broken at the factory or something leaving an unsightly ridge - it's gone now and looks proper. Gunco = pure awesomeness.

So to summarize, this Remington 1858 has been converted to .45LC using a Kist cylinder and loading gate/pin mechanism along with a Richards-Mason type ejector rod/cylinder pin assembly. The new cylinder pin has been modified so that you can disassemble the gun and convert back to black powder in about 30 seconds with no tools. The Kirst ejectors and cylinder pins do NOT come this way from the factory, you would have to undo the cylinder pin retainer screw normally but with the discussed mod, it's now perfect. I called the factory to ask why they don't do it this way all the time and they said that only 5% of their customers want the ability to quick-change the cylinder and they saved money by eliminating a couple machining steps. Oh well. At least mine is not properly set up ;)

I LOVE the new windage adjustable front sight setup and it looks more or less like an original and also looks proper to the kind of period modification that could have been done to an original when converting to cartridge.

The loading gate on this one is just perfect too. Just large enough to easily clear the cartridge. The gate on the new Uberti conversion is HUGE by comparison and IMHO does not look as good. That being said, the Uberti conversions are nice guns - they just were not available in Canada in a Remington 1858 when I started this project.

DSCN2578.jpg


DSCN2579.jpg


DSCN2580.jpg


DSCN2581.jpg


DSCN2585.jpg


DSCN2586.jpg


So what do you guys think of the results? I LOVE the gun - it's been range function tested and works perfectly :)
 
Thanks, I really like it, though truth be told it would have been a fair bit cheaper just to buy a purpose-made conversion copy from Uberti - lol. Tinkering is fun too though.
 
I'm not a big fan of the Rem Army look, but I am a big fan of your posts when you do things like this, its VERY fascinating and I am always disappointed when I have to write a response because that means its over....

You did a good job, thank god you have machining skills. And I agree that that Gunco Jason guy does stellar work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom