I took the Pietta Navy (and the Remington) to the range for a quick follow up.
I was using only Kik black powder, just to keep things simple. I loaded 20 grains of Kik cornmeal filler to bring the ball to a 1/8" of the top of the cylinder. I used a top grease of Crisco/beeswax/parafin.
I'm still having trouble with the caps, but that's a matter of getting some correct-sized ones.
And the gun still gets so foul by the end of the second cylinder that the hammer is hanging up. (this time after the third cylinder I cleaned it with hot water and a rag and relubed the arbor with olive oil.
Grouping much better--the foto below is the best but only three shots (under the rammer) -- the other three misfired twice and I finally just fired them off down range to get rid of them. It was mostly luck and I'd settle for groups twice that size which I got from other cylinders. The holes below the trigger guard are from the Remington.
When I started shooting the '51 Pietta a couple weeks ago, the wedge was just barely past flush on the far side. Now it's completely through and the lip on the wedge is up against the frame. It's finger tight like that though and doesn't shake loose. Would heavy shooting cause that change that fast?
