pietta 1858 new model cylinder issue

Just picked up a used pietta 1858 new model army and while tearing it down I noticed a strange lip inside 2 of the cylinders. Looks like the cylinder shifted and let the loading press flex inside the cylinder creating these shoulders. Any ever ran across this and what did you do? Is there a shade tree repair or just need to get a new cylinder.

Check your date code. If it was made prior to about 2000 the current cylinders won't work with the gun.

Better tend to that rust.

That's definitely not from loading, that looks pretty major. If the picture isn't lying, you need a cylinder. Wow. Sorry your new gun has issues, that takes the fun right out of it.

Find a replacement cylinder and move on. Things are not good with your present cylinder and won’t get any better no matter
What without a new replacement…

tgfrench said:

Just picked up a used pietta 1858 new model army and while tearing it down I noticed a strange lip inside 2 of the cylinders. Looks like the cylinder shifted and let the loading press flex inside the cylinder creating these shoulders. Any ever ran across this and what did you do? Is there a shade tree repair or just need to get a new cylinder.

Click to expand...

So it was like that when you bought it?

Looks like someone was doing something weird with it like hammering down wheel weight cast balls, conicals, or something

I hope you got that thing cheap because the person who sold that to you should buy you a cylinder.

tgfrench said:

Just picked up a used pietta 1858 new model army and while tearing it down I noticed a strange lip inside 2 of the cylinders. Looks like the cylinder shifted and let the loading press flex inside the cylinder creating these shoulders. Any ever ran across this and what did you do? Is there a shade tree repair or just need to get a new cylinder.

Click to expand...

That definitely looks odd. How do the adjacent chambers look, any problems there?

That's an extreme case of poor manufacturing practices. The width of the lip down inside the chamber makes me think it happened at the factory and not someone trying to improve their piece after market. Chambers could sometimes be reamed to inconsistent depths with tapered reamers. And that could produce chambers of inconsistent diameters. And, sometimes you would find a slight lip inside the chambers. But not that wide of a lip.

Can't tell from the picture...
Are the lips the same width going around the chambers, eccentric or concentric?
The width of the ligaments between the chamber mouths looks the same.

The step appears on only #1 and #3 cylinders. It looks worse than it feels. All of the openings looks evenly spaced and round.

Seems like if the area that the ball sits in is the correct diameter and is aligned with the bore at full cock, it would be ok. The area that the powder sits in isn't so important, although having the same volume in each would be good of course.

hawkeye2 said:

Check your date code. If it was made prior to about 2000 the current cylinders won't work with the gun.

Click to expand...

Too date all I have read this issue only relates to the uberti pistol.

I'm pretty sure it is Pietta that changed the bolt width at some point on their Remington pattern revolvers. As long as you change the bolt that fits whatever cyl you get, you'll be ok.

Mike

We eventually will get to the bottom of this

It is Pietta. I have one 1990s and 3 post 2000 and the later cylinders won't work in the earlier gun.

Stantheman86 said:

So it was like that when you bought it?

Looks like someone was doing something weird with it like hammering down wheel weight cast balls, conicals, or something

I hope you got that thing cheap because the person who sold that to you should buy you a cylinder.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure even the hardest lead alloy is softer than steel so I doubt that's the case, but you're definitely correct in that the seller owes them a cylinder. They definitely knew about that problem when they passed that one along!

Not even the hardest of projectile material would do that, this is most definitely a Machinist situation when they bored the cylinder I would think, Or you could just let the hammer rest on that cylinder after loading up.

tgfrench said:

The step appears on only #1 and #3 cylinders. It looks worse than it feels. All of the openings looks evenly spaced and round.

Click to expand...

Maybe someone did that on purpose?

As for the cylinders not fitting older models I just purchased a 1994 Pietta new model army, i also have a Pietta new model army made in 2022 and the cylinders fit perfectly. I also bought a new cylinder from Muzzleloaders.com and it fits both guns with no issues