Pietta 1851 Navy .22 LR

[Sharps40]

Lighting off a primed case, no bullet or powder to smooth out the rim, shows barely adequate indentation of the rim. It works well with federal but the much thinner rims of Winchester/others may be a reliability problem.

The gap shown in the photo, between cylinder and firing pin plate is a full .017"....tons of forward movement when the hammer strikes the firing pin. I'll fix it.

 

[Sharps40]

An endshake collar for the arbor would be at least .420" long to fill up the gap. The easy way to take up most of that .017" of cylinder movement is to use the shims that come in the kit.

2 each .024" and one each .016" (shims in about any thickness can be had on line or you can make them.)

.024" was not enough, and adding on the .016" shim caused some cylinder drag when the thick rim federal cases were loaded.. So, I cleaned off .003 from the breech face of the barrel insert, simple fine sand paper and a figure 8 motion, checking as I went with a .040" stack of shims between the barrel and the barrel insert.

Perfect function, about .002" endshake when loaded with debulleted cases, cylinder turns easily and as the photo shows, the firing pins are now just slightly deforming the rim giving it that wavy look around its circumference.

Time to grab up some ammunition of various makes and get out on the range for testing.

 

[Sharps40]

From the range results of on hand brands....everything went bang on the first shot....about 50 rounds fired.

Federal Automatch and Federal Champion (510) the old Lightning ammo are best overall. Easy in (generally falls into chamber), easy out (Loaded ammo will fall out, fired cases need ejected - as expected), smallest 7 yard group was 5 shots in one inch on the steel with the Champion and the Automatch slightly larger. (poor aiming point/no bullseye)

Winchester T22, Need a q-tip to push each case into the cylinder, Ejector rod needed to push loaded round out of the cylinder....fired cases sticky enough to need a good push with an ejection pin. Checked to see if it was dirty chamber, Federals fall in and out, T22 not so much whether clean or dirty inside. Groups were about 2 inches.

Winchester SuperX 32 grain fasties....same as T22 with the additional solid bump needed on the ejection pin to get em outta the chamber.

Working on the sights....the gun is so heavy I overestimated the front sight height needed and all ammo shoots about 3" low at 5-10 yards.

So, given what's available on my shelf, Federal for the win.

 

[Sharps40]

Pending acquisition of a loading lever assembly, or deciding how to hang an ejection pin underneath the barrel...a section of the broken leg from an extendable rifle monopod provides a faux under lever.

All I need now is a long nail for clearing chambers and some range time. A .22 configured similarly to the three other 45s and I can practice more.

 

[StuP]

Very interesting.

 

[Sharps40]

A pocket full of 70 or so Federal automatic. 12 rounds in I had to disassemble and use a brass rod and small smashwacker to eject the empties.

Scrubbed under power with a bronze 30 brush till smooth and clean. Decided to check with a clean reamer and it only inserted about 1/3 of the way in. So, lubed it up and recut 6 standard chambers. About as much metal removed as I've experienced going from rougher to finisher.

Back out with that pocket full of federals and problem solved. Guess I'll polish up the new chambers and be done.

Bunny accuracy at 3-10 yards. Better than I'd hoped for.

 

[carter-gee]

Dude, you’re like the black powder remodel king 🫡

 

[Sharps40]

Not done with this one yet.

 

[Sharps40]

I got back to this one today for 50 rounds of Federal Automatch. Finish reaming and a mirror polish of all 6 chambers did the trick. Easy in and out and the only hitch was I misplaced my case poker outer and had to use a length of 17 caliber cleaning rod. Sight adjustments are getting close on, Only an inch under the bead at 7 to 10 yards. The gun is so heavy for caliber, the front sight is not much more than a bead on barrel now and I'm making the adjustments back at the hammer! But I think we'll get it right soon and have a good bang around gun that shoots spot on at 10 yards.

I'm impressed with the accuracy, and with the gunsmithing of the chambers, the reliability....though I kinda feel a $400 conversion cylinder shouldn't need all 6 chambers reamed. But, water under the bridge now, the cylinder and insert are genius!

I do need to post new photos as I removed the temporary underlug and installed a nice case hardened loading lever and its all looking pretty nice.

 

[Sharps40]

Not bad for a box of parts and a new cylinder/barrel insert. Shoots just fine for me. An ancient Marbles Sun Spot up front, because that's what I can see. A touch of Oxpho Blue on the brass to knock off that Sporting Girl look. Not a smooth as an 1873 and not as convenient to load and unload but I'm happy and it'll provide fine inexpensive practice against the other three opentop revolvers in center-fire calibers.