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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

1851 Pietta- Finish Work Video


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  • 7 years later...

One of my customers just gave me a Pietta 1851. I test fired it with 20 grains of pyrodex p and a hornady 36 cal, .350" patched ball.

 I needed the patches as the .350" balls would roll out of the chambers. Hornady also make a .375" 36 cal ball that may not need a patch.

What a sweet shooting gun!  :) 

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9 hours ago, ken98k said:

After loading it up again, I think it will work better with the .375" balls.  I'll look around town tomorrow to see if I can find some locally.

Back in the 80’s I had a Remington repro. I had some trouble getting a good fit with my home cast balls. Either loose or had to really bear down on the lever to seat them properly. I lucked into finding a hollow base .450 conical mold and the improvement was remarkable. The slug’s skirt squished down easily getting a good tight fit without needing a lot of elbow grease seating it. Don’t know if a hollow based conical mold is/was made for 36 caliber. Mine is an old Ideal brand mold probably from the 50’s. The down side, casting the hollow base slugs was a royal PIA, a lot of rejects. I had to use a propane torch to heat the pin to get a good fill on the skirt. 

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