New 1860 Army

Got my new Pietta 1860 Army from Midway today. Gun is excellent in terms of fit, finish and function, can’t wait to shoot it! Joins my 1847 Walker and 1858 Remington (both Ubertis), so this is my first Pietta.

Only issue is that I can’t get the barrel wedge out. It’s pretty firm in there and the ”latch” on the top of the right side is pretty tight, so it’s impossible to push the latch down and put enough force on the wedge itself to remove it. Any ideas? Unfortunately there are no gunsmiths around to get help from so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Try a slight tap with a nylon mallet, at a bit of downward angle at the top side of the wedge. It might compress the spring just enough and allow the wedge to move.

It’s complicated by the fact that the only part of the wedge on the right side of the barrel is the latch, the rest is flush with the barrel itself…

Track of the Wolf sells a brass punch that is flat that is designed to handle your problem.

If you get a good tap on that wedge with the edge of the mallet, it will pop loose. It won't take you much force to get that last bit of friction broken loose. That's what I do with my own Pietta 1860 Army when I get the wedge flush with the barrel as I remove it.

3 pound cross peen, slap the revolver in a nice big steel vise and commence to wail it till something gives!

Seriously tho. Ytake a cloths pin apart and use the slim wide portion against the wedge. Lay your revolver on a few layers of cloth towels and vigorously tap with meaning on the fat end of the cloths pin half. Enough times will coax your wedge out.

There is nothing that can get hurt as long as you have under your revolver a cushion to protect the off side and that spring is designed to squish when tapped.

Another thing you can lay your revolver on is a wash cloth draped over a roll of duct tape . This is a bit more sturdy and imparts more of a shock to the wedge when you are persuading it to let lose.

Good luck. After breaking it lose the first time ... it will get easier to remove.

So, @HassoBoxhead, have you solved the problem? I am offering for sale a Pietta 1860 that I bought new two years ago. I chewed up a lot of scraps of wood trying to dislodge the wedge. I finally bought a 1/4-inch round brass punch and ground the end flat but shaped to fit on the wedge. It still took three our four solid blows with a hammer to free the wedge. Pietta gets a low score from me for that hassle.

"3 pound cross peen, slap the revolver in a nice big steel vise and commence to wail it till something gives!"

Not only will it shake something loose it's a great first step in aging a revolver.

Did a good tap as suggested above with the edge of a rubber mallet and it did the trick!