Black powder revolver project - Pics

[wellfedirishman]

So, a while back a posted a WTB for an ugly beat up old black powder revolver to use for a project.

I found a Brass Pietta 44 cal (thanks Justin!) that was was as requested: action was frozen, springs and other internal parts were broken, and it was full of gunk and old cap fragments.

I disassembled it and cleaned out the gunk, and with some parts taken from another (old unknown brand) beater revolver and modified to fit, I got the action working.

This what it looked like, and it shot very well (5 shots touching at 10 yards):

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/wellfedirishman/Black%20powder/PiettaBrass185144-1.jpg

I then decided to chop another barrel (from the unknown beater) I had to make a snubbie out of it, with an approximately 3" barrel. I hacksawed and filed the muzzle flat, and then crowned it with a brass carriage bolt wrapped in 1000 grit sandpaper with lubricant. This is a home-made (i.e., not recommended for accuracy) solution, but it works fine for a short range pistol like this one.

This shot pretty well too (fist size group at 10 yards). It was a bit of a pain to have to remove the barrel each time to load though, and due to a tight fit of parts it fouled up quickly:
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/wellfedirishman/Black%20powder/Sheriff-Right.jpg

So I took the original Pietta long barrel (shown above) and chopped both the barrel and the loading lever to make it loadable (using an extender on the loading lever), and also a better fit.
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/wellfedirishman/Black%20powder/PiettaBrass185144-2.jpg

This shot great too. The leather strap is to keep the loading lever up when shooting.

For the second part of this project, I decided to put on a birdshead frame I made (from the aforementioned unknown beater) onto this gun:
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/wellfedirishman/Black%20powder/PiettaBrass185144-3.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/wellfedirishman/Black%20powder/PiettaBrass185144-5.jpg

Here is the birdshead frame. It is in 2 pieces, as I cut the corner off the original frame to make the birdshead. It look a lot of annealing and quenching of the brass to soften and bend it into shape. It then took about an hour of woodwork to convert the original grip into a birdshead and make everything fit.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/wellfedirishman/Black%20powder/PiettaBrass185144-4.jpg

Overall, a fun project. Now I have a nice little birdshead snubbie in 44, and it shoots great too. It took about 4 hours of work, to do this, with a hacksaw, drill, and files.

[justingrosche]

Sweet!!!! I'm happy that your happy with it. Nice build.
Justin

[Alan]

If I had access to a good machine shop, I have a project I would like to play with.

Picture a Colt Dragoon given the same treatment Colt gave the 1851 Navy to get the 1860 Army. New oversiazed rebated cylinder bored out as much as practical and barrel rebored to match. I reckon we could go at least to a .490 RB and maybe a bit more. 8)

[Boz330]

I saw an article in one of the gun mags some years ago that I would have liked to have tryed. The guy was looking for a belly gun, maybe for SAS shooting. He took a 58 Remmy and cut down the barrel and then installed one of the cartridge conversion cylinders with a loading gate and did the birds head grip mod. It was a really neat little package when he finished.

Bob

[Bullshop]

You might try some NASA lube when you start shooting it.
I have gotten back some reports that it keeps the cylinder free for more shots than other lubes.

[Geraldo]

I like it! What I'd like to do is put a Navy grip frame on an 1860 Army and cut the barrel down.

[Erich]

Pretty neat!

[Captain*Kirk]

You might just leave the bullet ram off, like on the Wells-Fargo model and use the cylinder arbor to seat the balls.
Just a thought. It looks great!

[wellfedirishman]

Captain Kirk, do you mean like this?

How are you supposed to load this without a separate reloading stand?

[Geraldo]

If I had access to a good machine shop, I have a project I would like to play with.

Picture a Colt Dragoon given the same treatment Colt gave the 1851 Navy to get the 1860 Army. New oversiazed rebated cylinder bored out as much as practical and barrel rebored to match. I reckon we could go at least to a .490 RB and maybe a bit more. 8)

Since you're talking about Dragoon mods, here is a cut down, but not bored-out Walker:

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/254520/

[Captain*Kirk]

Captain Kirk, do you mean like this?

How are you supposed to load this without a separate reloading stand?

Never done it, but I'm told it goes like this:
Remove the cylinder. Place on a hard flat surface bore up (nipples on the table) charge all cyls, place a ball in each bore. Grasp the frame by the grip and use the cylinder arbor to push down/seat the balls. apply grease, install cylinder and barrel/wedge, the cap as you would normally.
Sounds like it would work, anyway. You might have to indent the end of your arbor with a Dremel so it doesn't slip off the ball.

[Geraldo]

Captain Kirk, do you mean like this?

How are you supposed to load this without a separate reloading stand?

Never done it, but I'm told it goes like this:
Remove the cylinder. Place on a hard flat surface bore up (nipples on the table) charge all cyls, place a ball in each bore. Grasp the frame by the grip and use the cylinder arbor to push down/seat the balls. apply grease, install cylinder and barrel/wedge, the cap as you would normally.
Sounds like it would work, anyway. You might have to indent the end of your arbor with a Dremel so it doesn't slip off the ball.

I imagine it's all in fun until you slip and drive the arbor into the hand that's holding the cylinder :shock:

If you've got the unmodified barrel from one of the project guns, you could load it using the barrel with the lever, then switching to the cut down barrel.