Pietta 1851 navy 44 problem

[Ktheavner]

Received gun as Christmas present. This is my 1st blackpowder gun so I'm a newbee. The problem is when I fire the gun the cap breaks and falls down into the gun and jams the cylinder and it will not rotate. I'm using Remington #10 caps. Anyone have a suggestion? Thanks KT

 

[cynthialee]

OK the problem is when you advance the cylinder. Raise the muzzle and turn the pistol a bit to the side as you advance your cylinder to the next chamber. Do it with a bit of a pop and the spent caps go away from the gun.
Not a problem with just your Colt 1851. It is a problem with them all.

 

[azmntman]

I was searching for caps today and read a post says the caps designed to split and fall off when the hammer raised from the nipple? Dint know that.

Mt ROA will do the same thing, will try MS Cynthia's suggestion and see if I can avoid it.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Not sure I'm ready to believe they're designed to split though that is a common end for them. Long time back I posted a comment that might be relevant here. If you get a chance, watch some of the old B&W westerns for the switch to talkies era. Many of the old horse chase scenes will show the posse shoot, raise the pistol barrel to at least 45 degrees before dropping the gun down to let off another one. Many of these 'actors' had been working cowboys and were old enough to have directly contacted others old enough to have lived through the percussion era. Even all those years later, the shoot and lift was still being done. Cynthialee was right on.

 

[cynthialee]

Yeah the old black and white cowboy movie way of cocking your pistol before the next shot! That is what I am talking about. I do it with all BP revolvers as a matter of course. It looks kinda silly but there is almost always a reason things are done a certain way.

 

[Wes/Tex]

I first discoverd it one day on the Fayetteville, Texas town square. My old 1860 from Replica Arms dropped one in the action and we were doing a cowboy re-enactment...I dashed into the hardware store, borrowed a broom handle to tap out the wedge and take her down. One-two...cha-cha-cha, back together and a whack with the broom handle, tipped my hat with a "Thank you M'am" and out the door I went. To this day she's probably wondering, "What the hell was that?" Also found out that if you fire off a double shotgun under the banks over-hang, every alarm will go off and keep at it till the vice-pres. drags his hiney down on a Sat. to turn it off! :rotf:

 

[BowerR64]

If you look close at the caps they have little grooves cut in them so that they split. They split because the nipple is kinda coned. I think as it pushes the nipple down it splits just as it detonates.

I have a decent technique to flip the caps out only on the colts. The remingtons i just have to pay attention to them as i cycle to the next round.

The colt i just snap my wrist in a clockwise motion when im recocking it. it flips the cap out about 75% of the time.

I put a new front post on my 51 and used super glue to hold it on. Ive put about 50 rounds threw it since the new front post. Yesturday i was about to pack up i just fired 5 shots and was about to recock to the last round and i snapped my wrist and the cap went flying along with the front post.

I have more brass stock to make a new post bug DANG IT! i had this gun so dialed in. It was shooting so good with that front post now i gotta start all over.

But yeah work on snapping your wrist to eject the cap some times if falls down infront of the hammer some times it hangs up on the cylinder

 

[Ktheavner]

Thanks everyone for your input. I will give it a try when quits raining today.

 

[dc7x64]

You could also try some Slix-Shot nipples, they seem to cure some of the Colt problem.

 

[awebbersr]

They also flipped up the barrel to put the light powder charge back on the primer for a more thorough burn of the powder. :hmm:

 

[M. De Land]

I was looking over a new .44 model 51 Pietta today and notice what looks like a chamber slug in each of them to take up some powder capacity.
I could see the end of the nipple vent at the bottom of flash channel I would guess about about 3/16's to a 1/4 inch deep. Never noticed it until I got a light down the chamber today. It looks like an insert and was bright metal as opposed to the chamber wall which was blued.
It extends up the interior of the chamber to about the end of the bolt cuts on the cylinder exterior.
I was thinking on buying it before noticing this and now think I will wait on a .36 caliber. Mike D.

 

[AZbpBurner]

I was looking over a new .44 model 51 Pietta today and notice what looks like a chamber slug in each of them to take up some powder capacity.
I could see the end of the nipple vent at the bottom of flash channel I would guess about about 3/16's to a 1/4 inch deep. Never noticed it until I got a light down the chamber today. It looks like an insert and was bright metal as opposed to the chamber wall which was blued.
It extends up the interior of the chamber to about the end of the bolt cuts on the cylinder exterior.
I was thinking on buying it before noticing this and now think I will wait on a .36 caliber. Mike D.

Sounds suspicious to me - almost as if it was a customer return where someone had seated sleeves, then returned it. You may want to look at more than one to see if they all have the same "defect". I just looked at several Pietta cylinders, and all were bored without any change in diameter the entire length of the chamber.

 

[M. De Land]

Brand new gun never been fired off the dealer rack. Got to be a factory mod but just not sure how it was done. Not really sure what I was looking at as I've never seen one like it before.
I'd don't know, I'm totally in the dark about what I was looking at. I looked to see if they were installed from the nipple port but they're to big in diameter for that so either they're inserts or shallow bored chambers.
As I said they extend forward in the chamber to about the end of the bolt cuts on the exterior of the cylinder.
I did notice what looked like a counter bore cut just ahead of the insert in the chamber wall. Mike D.

 

[AZbpBurner]

Brand new gun never been fired off the dealer rack. Got to be a factory mod but just not sure how it was done. Not really sure what I was looking at as I've never seen one like it before.
I'd don't know, I'm totally in the dark about what I was looking at. I looked to see if they were installed from the nipple port but they're to big in diameter for that so either they're inserts or shallow bored chambers.
As I said they extend forward in the chamber to about the end of the bolt cuts on the exterior of the cylinder.
I did notice what looked like a counter bore cut just ahead of the insert in the chamber wall. Mike D.

If it's an unannounced factory mod of some kind, that makes it kinda' disturbing - likely some kind of press-fit sleeve that would only serve to reduce powder capacity and maybe depth of ball seating.

Hope it's not the "new" standard for manufacturing cylinders, since I plan on maybe getting another spare or 2 in the future, and don't see myself trying to remove a pressfit sleeve.

 

[Rick Son]

Have a gun smith weld it??Don't they put cap guards on them??

 

[M. De Land]

I have no idea about why it would be in there. It would be a good thing to take a bore light along when one goes to the gun store and take a look down the cylinder of these model 51 Pietta 44s.
Perhaps it's to limit the charge for safety reasons considering the 51 was designed to be a .36 caliber.
I don't know are they making model 51 brass frames in 44 cal? I suppose this could be a cylinder for a brass frame gun that got mixed up and put on a steel gun. Mike D.

 

[CaptainKirk]

Colts are pretty adept at 'cap-swallowing'. The technique mentioned by others of tipping the muzzle up and dropping the right side of the gun while cocking works...sometimes. I've found using Remington caps helps a lot too. They seem to spreadeagle and drop off better than other brands.