.44 Stainless SCORE(S)!

[Doc1]

I recently posted about getting back into BP shooting with a blue steel Pietta 1858 I recently acquired. Sometimes it seems that when you start looking for certain things, they seem to pop out of the woodwork. A friend and I make it a social hobby to hit most of the gun shows in south Mississippi and Louisiana, but BP isn't very big down here. I was thinking that a killer deal on a stainless BP revolver would be cool, but I only recalled seeing one stainless BP revolver offered by a private seller in recent memory.

At a recent Mississippi show, one of my dealer buds offered me a deal: He had a (mostly) like-new stainless 1858 Pietta .44 for $150!!! Unfortunately, whoever owned it previously had dry fired hell out of it and mushroomed the nipples. Then they added insult to injury by apparently scratching the rear of the cylinder in ham-fisted attempts to remove them. I have spare blue steel nipples, but I want to preserve the all-stainless look so I'm spending a pleasant afternoon with a tiny vise and jewelers files recontouring the nipples and dressing the hammer face. I could chuck the nipples in my mini lathe, but I think the hand work is going to be fine. I'm going to polish out the scratches on the cylinder and she should look perfect. What's not to like for $150?

The latest stainless score was yesterday at yet another show. A private seller had a table full of mostly cheap guns, but lying amongst the dross I found a perfect, stainless Ruger Old Army. That went home with me for $450. I've fired a couple of my Pietta's too-small .454 balls through it, but the ROA really wants .457 so I have bids in on a couple of molds for it.

Now I have a severely-depleted gun toy account, but enough new BP toys to keep me happy for a while!

Best regards
Doc

[nekshot]

great deal on both guns! Ahhh the feeling of "happy" is a gooood feeling until it wears off!
nekshot

[Hellgate]

Doc,
You also could buy a set of SS replacement nipples from Track of the Wolf or Slix nipples (also stainless) from Desperado bullets.

[johnson1942]

doc 1, ive always wanted one of those 1859 remington stainless hand guns as they make good long colt catridge cylinders for them and ive heard the conversion is very accurate. you may want to consider that route.

[Doc1]

Johnson1942, I'm very strongly considering one of those conversion cylinders! I'm thinking about going with the .45 acp cylinder instead of .45 Colt. I don't own anything in .45 Colt, but have lots of .45 acp. The stainless Pietta has proven to be very accurate with a .454 ball over 30 grains of FFG. It'd be interesting to see what it did with fairly mild smokeless loads.

Best regards
Doc

[rodwha]

Have you tried any 3F through it?

[johnson1942]

i have read that your gun with a conversion cylinder can out shoot alot of regular revolvers and are very reliable. now you got me going again cause i really would like one to.

[Doc1]

It's been a little while since I checked in on this thread. Both the Pietta stainless 1858 and the Ruger shoot more accurately than I'm capable of. I have no complaints on that score. I finally broke down and picked up a stainless .45 ACP conversion cylinder (Howell's) for the Ruger and shot it for the first time yesterday. It was just a minute-of-dirt clod test and I killed several threatening tin cans! Nothing on paper, but the conversion cylinder seemed accurate enough shooting my 1911's semi wadcutter fodder. Mechanically it was flawless and the finish is very nice.

I'd still like to pick up a stainless 1858 .45 Colt cylinder for the Pietta. If anyone has a used one they'd like to get rid of, I'd certainly be a potential buyer!

Best regards
Doc

[johnson1942]

fun isnt it?