I just got my sweet 2020 production Pietta London Navy .36 back from gunsmith Charlie Hahn. He helped accurize the gun by reaming the cylinders to .374” to match my barrel groove diameter. From the factory, the chambers were quite a bit undersized only sizing the balls to .370”. He also added an 11° forcing cone to improve the nearly non-existent one the gun had and he crowned the muzzle. Initial groupings are a great improvement:
This is a public land shooting range here in Southern Nevada and sadly it’s quite trashed. I always make sure to police the area and pick up any trash I can from others. Unfortunate for sure how some treat these lands! But back on subject the target above is at 20 yards. The load for today was pretty well a full power one of 22 grains Old Eynsford 3Fg with my homemade wads (more on those below) and .380 swaged balls from Long Hunter. Here they are:
This was the first group of the day from a clean bore and it measured 2”. Not bad! At the same range the gun was grouping closer to 3” or more before the accuracy work by Mr. Hahn.
This later 6 o’clock group on the target measures 1” and the group above 1.5”. Not bad at all at 20 yards with a near full load. I need to open up the rear sight some and the gun will eventually need to be corrected for windage once I do plenty more load developments. Good to know though for defensive carry use my Navy is grouping nicely!
I used Mike Beliveau’s recipe and method for making wads found in his excellent video bellow. Years ago I did this exact method and was super impressed with the wads and I am as well this time:
These are made with the very high quality, dense pure hard wool felt available from the folks at Durafelt. It’s about twice as dense as any factory wads I’ve ever tried. Mike’s recipe of 1/2 parts beeswax to lamb’s tallow (which can be found on Dixie Gun Works or U.S. Wellness Meats) is just superb. These wads are phenomenal!! I find they keep the fouling absolutely soft and almost “fluffy”. You can look down the bore and see the fluffy fouling, not hard baked on stuff. Wipes away easily! Back at home I could literally clean the bore completely with just three patches. One wet with moose’s milk, one dry, and one lubed with Ballistol. The snug dry patch was COMPLETELY CLEAN of residue! The fact my Navy now sizes balls to fill out the barrel grooves completely also helps with fouling.
Also I tried out some new Slix-Shot nipples on the gun. I was using Treso nipples with good results, but my large stockpile of Remington #10 caps didn’t fit as snug on them as I liked. The Slix-Shots are specifically designed for Remy 10s and they fit nice and snug. The unique ported design also reduced cap fragmentation notably. Most caps fell right off through the cap window or they stayed flat against the nipple and were largely complete and not blown apart. They work great!!
I also am experimenting with the Polish Capper. I am a bit on the fence about it. It works fairly well, but on my particular gun it’s a very tight fit and the “nozzle” of the capper has to be lined up and removed perfectly otherwise the cap isn’t seated properly. There is quite a lot of brass on the nozzle and I think a little judicious filing should make for an easier fit. I understand many have great success with this European capper but with the slight variations in guns some are probably a little more fussy with it.
I’m having a blast with this Pietta! Stay tuned for more results and load developments. I also plan to do a post on the stopping power and history of the .36 Navy caliber with maybe a ballistics gel test once the weather cools down here. This little Navy has been 100% perfectly reliable over 200+ rounds fired and the quality of the action and internal parts is the best I’ve ever seen on any Pietta to date. They really seem to have their act together now. A little more attention on the barrels and chambers and maybe a little cosmetic improvements and they’d have an absolute winner.
Take care gang!
-Smokey
This is a public land shooting range here in Southern Nevada and sadly it’s quite trashed. I always make sure to police the area and pick up any trash I can from others. Unfortunate for sure how some treat these lands! But back on subject the target above is at 20 yards. The load for today was pretty well a full power one of 22 grains Old Eynsford 3Fg with my homemade wads (more on those below) and .380 swaged balls from Long Hunter. Here they are:
This was the first group of the day from a clean bore and it measured 2”. Not bad! At the same range the gun was grouping closer to 3” or more before the accuracy work by Mr. Hahn.
This later 6 o’clock group on the target measures 1” and the group above 1.5”. Not bad at all at 20 yards with a near full load. I need to open up the rear sight some and the gun will eventually need to be corrected for windage once I do plenty more load developments. Good to know though for defensive carry use my Navy is grouping nicely!
I used Mike Beliveau’s recipe and method for making wads found in his excellent video bellow. Years ago I did this exact method and was super impressed with the wads and I am as well this time:
These are made with the very high quality, dense pure hard wool felt available from the folks at Durafelt. It’s about twice as dense as any factory wads I’ve ever tried. Mike’s recipe of 1/2 parts beeswax to lamb’s tallow (which can be found on Dixie Gun Works or U.S. Wellness Meats) is just superb. These wads are phenomenal!! I find they keep the fouling absolutely soft and almost “fluffy”. You can look down the bore and see the fluffy fouling, not hard baked on stuff. Wipes away easily! Back at home I could literally clean the bore completely with just three patches. One wet with moose’s milk, one dry, and one lubed with Ballistol. The snug dry patch was COMPLETELY CLEAN of residue! The fact my Navy now sizes balls to fill out the barrel grooves completely also helps with fouling.
Also I tried out some new Slix-Shot nipples on the gun. I was using Treso nipples with good results, but my large stockpile of Remington #10 caps didn’t fit as snug on them as I liked. The Slix-Shots are specifically designed for Remy 10s and they fit nice and snug. The unique ported design also reduced cap fragmentation notably. Most caps fell right off through the cap window or they stayed flat against the nipple and were largely complete and not blown apart. They work great!!
I also am experimenting with the Polish Capper. I am a bit on the fence about it. It works fairly well, but on my particular gun it’s a very tight fit and the “nozzle” of the capper has to be lined up and removed perfectly otherwise the cap isn’t seated properly. There is quite a lot of brass on the nozzle and I think a little judicious filing should make for an easier fit. I understand many have great success with this European capper but with the slight variations in guns some are probably a little more fussy with it.
I’m having a blast with this Pietta! Stay tuned for more results and load developments. I also plan to do a post on the stopping power and history of the .36 Navy caliber with maybe a ballistics gel test once the weather cools down here. This little Navy has been 100% perfectly reliable over 200+ rounds fired and the quality of the action and internal parts is the best I’ve ever seen on any Pietta to date. They really seem to have their act together now. A little more attention on the barrels and chambers and maybe a little cosmetic improvements and they’d have an absolute winner.
Take care gang!
-Smokey
