Ran into a peitta 1858.

[Tackleberry41]

Was away for Christmas, was in a shop with a friend while he was getting something. They had a case with 2 1858 type, one steel other brass. I would have not really looked as blew my gun budget already but the steel has adjustable sights. Price was right so I put it on my card. The gun locks up VERY tight, probably to much so. Hammer down or fully cocked there is zero play in the cyl. And near zero cyl gap, I could not get .002 ga to slide in. Not really an expert on these things, but guess who ever owned it figured it needed to be that tight. It only works with the one cyl, I have a spare and another pietta 1858, one cyl you cant cock the hammer all the way. All the spring tensions are way more than need to be, again if a little is good, more is better. Face of the hammer is peened. Any screws were over tightened, and packed full of grease. There are obvious file marks on the cyl lock, maybe they bought new parts, fitted them that tight.

I have a set of pietta parts I had bought. And some from a gun I no longer have. What is to much in one of these guns, some cyl play is required? And guess some play required for it to use another cyl. The spare cyl has never been fired, one that came in the pistol must have been left loaded, rust where the powder would be while loaded but nowhere else. I have a 45 colt cyl hone, hopefully can fix that.

[rfd]

if the price was right and good, sure sounds like a fine find, congrats!

[Omnivore]

Contrary to the beliefs of some, the cylinder gap only needs to be enough to allow the cylinder to turn. If the gun has a strong hand spring, as many Italian guns do, then you'll have to push the cylinder to the rear with some force, if it's sitting half cock, to overcome the hand spring and measure its true gap. Two or three thousandths is fine.

I've seen plenty of file marks on brand new Piettas. If the cylinder indexes properly, and locks up reliably, then there's no reason to mess with it.

If the gun indexes and functions as it is, then the most I'd do to it would be, maybe, replace the brutal springs with lighter ones, and take down some of the sharp exterior edges as I do with any of these guns.

The use of spare cylinders, although I have several, does not interest me in the least. I wouldn't ruin a nice tight cylinder gap by opening it up for a spare. I'd rather face off the spare to fit the gun, if I felt I couldn't live without a spare cylinder for it.

I'd need a super duper good reason to take a hone to the chambers, and right now I can't think of any such. Increasing chamber diameter to one thousandth over barrel groove diameter might be a good improvement on Pietta's otherwise undersized chambers, but I wouldn't use a hone for that. I'd have it reamed or bored. 44 caliber percussion cylinders are a LOT smaller than any 45 Colt chamber of course.

Leaving a gun loaded for a century shouldn't cause the chambers to rust. More likely it was cleaned improperly and left wet, or something along those lines.

Give it a good cleaning and try it, and then see if it needs anything.

[Tackleberry41]

I decided to use the cyl in my older Pietta. It will have 3, its loose enough to use all 3 without messing with anything. Tho the one cyl is a bit long, one that came in the new gun. It wont even fit in the old gun, its a few thou longer than the other I have from a different pietta. And I will fit a howell conversion cyl to the new one.

When I said tight, I meant tight. Zero movement in any direction when the hammer was cocked or down. The cyl lock was done at an angle where it wedged in the cyl. Then the hand was overly long, I was afraid to shoot it way it was, it was binding up. But not gonna mess with anything till the conversion cyl gets here. That very small cyl gap will work pretty well with smokeless cowboy loads.

Who ever owned it managed to destroy the nipples, all of them are peened from dry firing, as was the face of the hammer. I wasnt gonna attack the chambers with a hone. I got most of it out with a bore brush. The rest of the gun is clean, so wasnt lack of cleaning on the chamber rust. Who knows it was an estate sale thing. But internally it was packed with some sort of grease, green, drying out, pain to get it all.