I Don't Like my 1851 Colt

I took the 1851 Pietta out today, along with my old 1861 Uberti. They both work fine with the new Lee conicals, but the 1851 has an annoying problem: the cutout on the left to seat primers is shallow & it's difficult to get a primer started straight & seated - I don't have any problem with the 1861.

I did install a set of Treso Ampco nipples. Think I'll remove them & reinstall the Pietta originals to see if maybe they're a little shorter or at least easier to cap.

I use a Ted Cash snail capper on mine - works OK - or you could use one of his straight cappers?

Neither snail or straightline cappers will work. By hand, the cap cocks at enough of an angle it won't seat without jiggling it around.

I'd have to grind & reshape the snail, & the spring & nose end on the straight capper would need grinding down, too.

Original nipple on mine, same problem. I ground the capper nose way down that helps. What a PITN capping it with fingers,

I also use a wooden dowel to seat the caps. It is about 1/2" in dia. with the front sanded down to a size that will fit in the cyl. cutout.

I also have a dowel for seating caps, but the problem is the frame cutout is angled such that the cap won't seat straight. The 1861 Colt has a better aligned frame cutout plus a groove that allows caps to start straight onto the nipple.

Reshaping a Ted Cash straight capper still won't fit, and the Snail capper would need an entire redesign to make it fit - simple filing to reshape won't remove enough metal to make it narrow enough to work. It may be OK for my Dragoon or ROA, but otherwise was money ill spent.

The 1851 looks nice, I'm finishing up the grips, since Pietta forgot to oil or shellac, or varnish after staining the wood. It won't see as much use as I had intended when I bought it, since the struggle to seat caps isn't worth the excess time it takes; I can be shooting a 1861, 1851 .36 cal, or any number of .44's with zero frustration instead.

Maybe the Uberti 1851 is built correctly, but as for the Pietta 1851 :td: , I wouldn't recommend one - especially for a new shooter who would lose interest while spending more time capping than shooting.

Take your gun to a smithy. I had my blast shield milled out to better accept the caps. Also for that nameless stuff that you can't mention (conversion cylinder with a loading gate) oops I mentioned it. Or what you can do is just go buy yourself a Confederate Dance Brothers, it has no recoil shield so easy peesy to cap, I know because I have one.

I had to do the same thing with my snail caper too, it wouldn't fit into the space to cap a nipple.

I just bought a Pietta 1851 too. After reading your post I thought, "uh-oh." I grabbed my pistol and sure enough my straight line capper wouldn't fit no matter how I tried. However, if I place the pistol on half-cock and point it in a safe direction (my nearest neighbor is nine miles away) I can easily cap using the straight line capper by going under the hammer. I had to run the cap out as far as it would go without falling off the capper but I don't view that as a problem.

I just did a little careful filing on the end of the capper and it works fine.

My snail capper works just fine on mine.

Choctaw said:

I just bought a Pietta 1851 too. After reading your post I thought, "uh-oh." I grabbed my pistol and sure enough my straight line capper wouldn't fit no matter how I tried. However, if I place the pistol on half-cock and point it in a safe direction (my nearest neighbor is nine miles away) I can easily cap using the straight line capper by going under the hammer. I had to run the cap out as far as it would go without falling off the capper but I don't view that as a problem.

Click to expand...

There's always a simple solution! I looked at seating a cap via the hammer cutout, but never tried - just did & 2 of my Traditions (?) cappers work great for seating caps that way. My Ted Cash Cappers still need the little tabs at the ends of the capper trimmed down, but I'll be they will work too! The snail is still a loser - way too wide & no way to thin it down enough without wrecking it. It should work on the ROA and Dragoon, though.

Gotta go get my grips out of the truck - refinishing them & truck seat baking with the 113º afternoon temp today, they should be hard & dry by now.

I'm glad that worked for you. Which nipples do you have on your pistol? I still have the Pietta nipples on mine. I'm wondering if that will make a difference using this capping method.

I removed the newly installed Ampco nipples and reinstalled the original Pietta set. It appears that the Ampco's would cap just as easily, though.

I decided to install the #11 Ampco nipples in my .44 cal revolvers, and keep all my .36's using #10 caps.

I just cap the pistol with my fingers and then set them tight with a dowel. Cappers are a PITA for revolvers.

I do the same but use a cut down chop stick to seat the cap. It also works well when removing the wedge. :metoo:

On my pistol you can't cap with fingers because there is simply no room. My other Piettas are easy to cap with fingers. I guess it is just this production run?

How about a dowel with a recess for the cap?

Nope, no room. I'll just continue using the capper in the hammer channel. It's fast and easy.

The cutout on the right side of the frame isn't cut out deep enough allow placing a cap square on the nipple. You need to try to press it in at an angle & it is about impossible to either seat it or remove it without force.

Choctaw's suggestion to use the hammer cut out works great & a straightline capper works smooth and easy :hatsoff: