Hang around old guys. Old guys know stuff.
Since I have been shooting black powder guns since the early 1950’s I guess than makes me an old guy. I date back to Du Pont in oval cans and shooting an original 1851 Colt Navy
And perhaps I learned some stuff from experience and questioning talented and proficient gun smiths.
It is considered by gunsmiths that modern replicas of pre1900 percussion hand guns are really a fully assembled kit. I cannot speak about cartridge guns but they seem to be a little better built. Both Uberti and Pietta guns need work to be reasonably reliable.
There are things that can be done to improve them, some are simple and some take more skill. The first thing is complete disassembly for cleaning and removal of the factory grease.
A set of hollow ground screwdrivers is a must. Brownell’s make a set of handle and bits for the Single Action Colt and they are perfect and not outrageously expensive.
The June and July 2008 copies of the Cowboy Chronicle of the Single Action Society archives has an excellent article by “Larson E. Pettifogger”. I believe the archives are available to non SAAS members at their web site.
Mike Beliveau at duelist1954 also has some good video instruction on improving reliability that is pretty much kitchen table work.
Easy things that can help is installing Slix-Shot nipples, a lighter mainspring, and a wire spring to replace the flat trigger and bolt spring. With a Uberti dropping a split (lock) washer in the arbor hole of the barrel should help correct the short arbor problem.
It depends on what you use the guns for. I am a SASS shooter and I want the gun to work perfectly five shots from each one very time. For general plinking, can rolling and fun shooting the occasional cap jam is a nuisance, for completion it is a disaster.
Finally get out the GOEX FFFG and learn what your gun likes. I do not like the so-called substitutes Pyrodex or 777, do not use them and do not recommend them.
That is personal. Two of my snubbies like APP better and rather than fight the problem I feed them Black MZ. All the others digest GOEX FFFg with excellent results.
However, a “man ought to do what he thinks best” to quote Hondo Lane
WB
Since I have been shooting black powder guns since the early 1950’s I guess than makes me an old guy. I date back to Du Pont in oval cans and shooting an original 1851 Colt Navy
And perhaps I learned some stuff from experience and questioning talented and proficient gun smiths.
It is considered by gunsmiths that modern replicas of pre1900 percussion hand guns are really a fully assembled kit. I cannot speak about cartridge guns but they seem to be a little better built. Both Uberti and Pietta guns need work to be reasonably reliable.
There are things that can be done to improve them, some are simple and some take more skill. The first thing is complete disassembly for cleaning and removal of the factory grease.
A set of hollow ground screwdrivers is a must. Brownell’s make a set of handle and bits for the Single Action Colt and they are perfect and not outrageously expensive.
The June and July 2008 copies of the Cowboy Chronicle of the Single Action Society archives has an excellent article by “Larson E. Pettifogger”. I believe the archives are available to non SAAS members at their web site.
Mike Beliveau at duelist1954 also has some good video instruction on improving reliability that is pretty much kitchen table work.
Easy things that can help is installing Slix-Shot nipples, a lighter mainspring, and a wire spring to replace the flat trigger and bolt spring. With a Uberti dropping a split (lock) washer in the arbor hole of the barrel should help correct the short arbor problem.
It depends on what you use the guns for. I am a SASS shooter and I want the gun to work perfectly five shots from each one very time. For general plinking, can rolling and fun shooting the occasional cap jam is a nuisance, for completion it is a disaster.
Finally get out the GOEX FFFG and learn what your gun likes. I do not like the so-called substitutes Pyrodex or 777, do not use them and do not recommend them.
That is personal. Two of my snubbies like APP better and rather than fight the problem I feed them Black MZ. All the others digest GOEX FFFg with excellent results.
However, a “man ought to do what he thinks best” to quote Hondo Lane
WB
