Pietta problem

Help! A few weeks ago while visiting in Pennsylvania I stumbled into a Cabala's. (They don't exist in my part of the world.) After wondering around for hours like a kid in a candy store I exited with a Bargain Cave Pietta all steel '61 Navy...for just over $200. Back at home I did all the standard cleaning and polishing and am really impressed...or at least I was until I tried to shoot it.

I haven't messed with a cap and ball revolver in over 40 years but don't recall their being this picky back in the "good old days". About half of the first time hammer strikes failed to fire. Re-strikes were 100%. Pinched on #11 caps were a little bet better than the recommended #10's, but not enough to matter. The hammer strike seems fine so I'm blaming the nipples for now. They appear crude and malformed when compared to the ones my ancient (first year of production) TC Hawken.

My question is where can I find the dimensions of a properly shaped #10 nipple? I have a little lathe and am willing to experiment some. If no dimensions are available I'm certainly open to other suggestions.

Secondly, given the circumstances above, this revolver proved surprisingly accurate but was shooting to the left a bit. Are Pietta front sights dovetailed in? I simply can't tell by looking. So far I've resisted the temptation to do a little tapping.

Thanks,
Ed

I beleve the front sight is pressed in. as for the nipples. you can get new ones through them where you got the gun, or my store wholesale sports. or track of the wolf and dixie gun works. sound like the cap isn't fully seating. I'd try new nipples first.

I like to have nipples with a chamfer like depicted on the left nipple in this picture: (Thank you Track of the wolf)


This helps concentrate the strike force. As you see there are different configurations so specific dimensions are specific to your gun.

Two considerations: the hammer must strike the nipple in a parallel manner, if the hammer meets the nipple like \/, this just forces the primer compound to one side; strike like this ][ and the pressure forces the compound to go BOOM.
Secondly, old grease/oil at the hammer pivot will slow the strike. Clean the old goo out of the pivot and lube lightly with a light, quality gun oil. It may seem the hammer is fast, but that is to the human eye. The compound detonates by a SHARP impact, maximize the sharp impact and you maximize detonation.

When I bought mine from Cabela's (blued 1861 for $129) I picked up some #10's. It didn't want to fire just like yours.
I replaced the nipples on mine with #11's from Track. It's a lot easier for me to find #11 caps plus you don't have to worry about keeping caps separated. Now it fires every time.
My only complaint with it is the fired cap fragments tend to jam up the cylinder so I have to keep flipping it to the side to gets the frags to fall out.

HD

Just turn the current nipples down with a drill and a small file. Run the drill slowly and use the file, until the cap seats on the nipple easily without any "pushing" on the cap. They also should remove easily as well. When all six are easy replace the nipples with some anti-sieze on the threads to avoid rusting. "Doc"

CCI No. 10's are too small. CCI No.11's are too big. Remington 10's are just right for all my tally revolvers.

Bob

My Pietta 1851 from 2010 seems to be an oddball. It works great with CCI #10's, but Remington #10's fall off all the time.

I had my ASM 1851 out shooting and had no cap problems at all. I use Remington #10s that I purchased 13 years ago or so. They fit rather tight and I have to push them on but they do seat well when I do this. This last go around, I had no caps falling into the mechanism at all.

I'm picking up my Pietta 1851 from Cabelas soon and now I'm a little nervous.

Remington #10 caps work perfectly on my Pietta '51 and '60. In fact, they work perfectly on ALL my C&B revolvers. BTW, Remington #10 and #11 caps are the same size, but the #11's have a little longer skirt.