Navy Arms Pietta Smith carbine

I bought this carbine about 10 years ago while on a trip back east. I stopped in a small gun shop and it was in a rack behind the counter next to a bunch of modern guns so I had to check it out. The owner of the shop said he took it on a trade and he would make me a good deal as no one ever looked at it. Its in beautiful condition and look like it was never fired. anyway I've had it packed away and kinda forgot about it. I am gettin ready to start shootin it. A couple of questions I have are I read that some of these guns left the factory with bad rifling. The rifling in this one looks new and mirror bright. The date code is [BL] so I think1998? The serial # is 38xx. Could I tell by that? Has Pietta ever stated which guns were affected?

Some of the earlier guns definitely were made wrong. The barrels were actually installed backwards, what was supposed to be the muzzle ended up as the breech. This caused the bore to be tighter near the breech and looser at the muzzle. You can drive a lead bullet through from the breech end, if it gets looser as it nears the muzzle it is one of the bad ones. I think the serial number range of the bad ones is under 2000 or so, so you may be OK.

Thanks Trot, I haven't got any 50 cal bullets at the moment but might have an older mold. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I guess the only way to tell for sure is to shoot it.

Horse

I got some of the Lodgewood MFG brass cases. They work great. I have an original and was nervous to shoot it. It is in pretty poor condition. ( never bid on something in gunbroker when you have had to many adult beverages!!! ) I think I can only get may 25 grains of holy black into it.
https://www.lodgewood.com/Smith-Brass-Cartridge-Case_p_28.html

I like mine a lot. a later version and the bore is .501” with roughly .508” grooves. I’m sizing a variety of bullets to .509” and loading into the Pietta brass cartridge with 40 grains of 3f Swiss. It’s a very nice shooter and a hoot as a plinker…

My first Smith was one with the barrels done incorrectly. It was a Navy Arms and IIRC, it's serial numbers 1800 and under that are the problem children. I've had mine relined and it shoots ok now.

dave951 said:

My first Smith was one with the barrels done incorrectly. It was a Navy Arms and IIRC, it's serial numbers 1800 and under that are the problem children. I've had mine relined and it shoots ok now.

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Thanks Dave.

Horse said:

I bought this carbine about 10 years ago while on a trip back east. I stopped in a small gun shop and it was in a rack behind the counter next to a bunch of modern guns so I had to check it out. The owner of the shop said he took it on a trade and he would make me a good deal as no one ever looked at it. Its in beautiful condition and look like it was never fired. anyway I've had it packed away and kinda forgot about it. I am gettin ready to start shootin it. A couple of questions I have are I read that some of these guns left the factory with bad rifling. The rifling in this one looks new and mirror bright. The date code is [BL] so I think1998? The serial # is 38xx. Could I tell by that? Has Pietta ever stated which guns were affected?View attachment 160395

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I seem to recall that these at one time had a bore size problem, which was later corrected at the factory, but maybe an N-NSA guy would chime in. It looks great!

springfield art said:

I seem to recall that these at one time had a bore size problem, which was later corrected at the factory, but maybe an N-NSA guy would chime in. It looks great!

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Thanks SA I'm pretty sure this one is OK. Dave thinks the serial # cut off for the suspect oversize barrels is#1800 and this one is #38xx. I haven't shot it yet. Don't know if I will I've got a lot of irons in the fire.

I just picked one up yesterday. Interestingly, the hammer has 3 distinct positions. TWO positive clicks and holds past half cock...Is yours the same way?

-Edit- after some bench testing, I discovered that they were good audible "clicks", but not holding positively when the hammer was lightly bumped forward.

I don't know I don't have it handy enough to check it out. At the moment I have it in storage I'll dig it out when I get a chance and check it out and let you know.
Horse

Horse said:

I don't know I don't have it handy enough to check it out. At the moment I have it in storage I'll dig it out when I get a chance and check it out and let you know.
Horse

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I disassembled mine last night, and found what it was. I read that the early Pietta Smith's suffered from an atrocious trigger pull. Pietta's fix, or "fix" is a roll pin, driven into the tumbler, to lift the sear further out for a lighter trigger pull. This would be fine, I guess, if it worked correctly. The hammer on my rifle wasn't holding positively at either click past half cock. The first click was at the full cock notch, but not latching well enough. The second click was the roll pin going past the sear. Not latching positively either, and no bueno for the future sear wear pattern.

I filed the pin down flush, and voila, I have an atrocious trigger pull.

I will be building a shim and affixing it to the tumbler to correctly fix this issue.

Could also just remove material from the tumbler to accomplish the same thing. Easy does it.

also, there’s a gentleman on the n-ssa who makes a replacement spring for the Pietta Smith.