1851 brass pietta

how will this gun hold up to 20 gr. 3f round ball load?

What caliber?

I believe Pietta recommends 15gr Pyrodex as a max load with their .36 cal. Probably 20gr would begin to batter (stress) the frame.

20 grains is plenty mild if your revolver is .44 cal. If its .36 then back off to 18. I use 25 grains of pyrodex P in my .44 brassers and so far I have had no problems.

Don

The frame and cylinders are basically the same, just the .44 frame is rebated and the cylinder and barrel of course are larger bore in size. If the frame can handle a .44 roundball at 20 grains then why would a .36 roundball at 20 grains harm the gun?

Lawyer influenced loading charts I tell ya.....
:td:

Cynthialee....YOU are On Your Toes girl ! ! ! !

For some odd reason my .36 cal colt brasser had recoil shield damage with 20 grains of powder. Prior to seeing that I made the same assumption you did Cinthia but now I load my .36 brasser with a little less powder.

Don

We often make the mistake of assuming larger calibers go with higher pressures but that isn't always the case.

it ain't so much about the caliber or the pressure. it's more about the backward thrust of the cylinder beatin' on the soft brass of the recoil shield on firin'.

The 36 cal has a smaller chamber than a 44 cal. The same powder charge in a 36 cal would have higher chamber pressure.

Mike 56 said:

The 36 cal has a smaller chamber than a 44 cal. The same powder charge in a 36 cal would have higher chamber pressure.

Click to expand...

:hatsoff:

Mike 56 said:

The 36 cal has a smaller chamber than a 44 cal. The same powder charge in a 36 cal would have MUCH higher chamber pressure.

Click to expand...

Fixed it for ya.

OP and Cynthialee - you might take a minute or so to look at this -
http://poconoshooting.com/blackpowderballistics.html

tac

It will. Trust me.
Brasser .36 MAX LOAD is 18-20gr and a brasser.44 MAX LOAD 25gr.
My son didn't listen and shot a .44 brasser Colt loose in less than 25 rounds.

Yes, 25 grains in a brass 44 is just right. I had a brass 44 1860 Army replica I bought from Gander Mountain back in 87. I'll swear I shot I'll bet a thousand rounds out of that thing in 12 years. When I gave it to a new shooter that gun was still tight as new. One odd thing about it was that it said "Armsport" on the box but the gun had absolutely no markings of any kind on it anywhere. No makers mark or proof marks or date code.

I wore out brass revolvers before in my youth loading them to high heaven and learned from it on that one.

The last one I wore out was actually a steel frame Pietta using 777. I only shot 2 cylinders with all the 777 I could get into it and seat the ball. I was thrilled at the 1100 fps I was getting until I broke it down for cleaning. The cylinder pin was wobbling in the frame.

Bob

Yah, 777 is hot stuff so I dial back the loads when using it. Swiss is hot stuff too so I'm careful with it as well and do not exceed max loads even dialing back a few grains.

Don