Chronical articles

[enyaw]

Since the articles by the illustrius and commendable Pettifogger were displayed in the post below about "tight 1860 cylinder" , I read some of it. I noticed something worth bringing up about some of the info contained.
There's some mis-information in Pettifoggers article about tuning concerning the "bolt of a new Pietta" Army Colt.
I've posted about the Pietta and a problem it comes out of the box with for years now but.....not for a good long while now. I thought the info would be passing around the net so repitition wouldn't be needed by me.
If part of the articles Pettifogger put in the Chronical aren't proper it may cause a little problem fer folks wanting to tune a new Pietta or.....fix a problem they come out of the box with.
I could shed some light on this and it could save folks some grief with their new Piettas or even used ones.
If anyone wants me to try to clarify some of this about tuning the cap&ballers (Pietta bolt)they can let me know.
No sense in typing it out if no one here wants to read it. There is something a person ought to do "first" when taking a new Pietta out of it's box. Not doing it will cause problems right away. Doing it will save some grief.
The initial step is easy to do.
Tuning the guns bolt next step is a little more complicated but not more than an average cap&baller shooter can bear.
I don't know if this type info should be in this area or the "Smithy" area.
Is the "Smithy" area where the "Kitchen Table Gunsmiths" that work Cap&Ball Revolvers like me should go?

[Bill Akins]

Enyaw wrote:
No sense in typing it out if no one here wants to read it.

I'd like to read that Enyaw. Thanks for offering.


.

[Hardcase]

I say post it - I read everything in the forum, so between me and Bill, that's two!

[Fingers McGee]

I'll make it 3

[Hawg]

Go for it. That's 4

[Smokin_Gun]

Let 'er rip Enyaw ... I think I have an article on them in my files,... but I know about it ya told me years ago...and it be true too.
Post it Enyaw... maybe it can be made a sticky so you don't have to keep repeating it.

[enyaw]

I had a double post here so I X'd it out.

[enyaw]

The Piettas I've seen have a problem right out of the box. The culprit is the ridgid bolt spring and the soft cylinder steel and the bolt timing.
The pics of a bolt in the article show marks on each side of the cylinder notches that the author seems to imply are made from a slightly oversize bolt head.
The slight over size bolt head wouldn't make those marks and would be camoflaged by the shown marks made by another reason. The over size bolt heads by a few .001's the Piettas can come with couldn't make marks as shown in the pic.
The marks shown are the result of the bolt timing being "off" and letting the bolt hit over lapped right on the soft edge of the cylinder notch(on the ramp lead in side). That placement of where the bolt head hits coupled with the overly stiff bolt spring damages the cylinder edge by peening it down and moving metal into the notch. That begins to happen with the very first hammer pull of the action.
The mark on the off side(high side of the cylinder notch) of the cylinder notch is made by another timing flaw that makes the hand try to turn the cylinder before the bolt head is on it's way out of the notch enough.
Those two large damage areas to the edges of the cylinder notches camoflage the slight damge that is done by the bolt head being .003-4 in. too wide.
I always advise ,with a new Pietta, to not pull the hammer even once before.....the grips and trigger guard are removed and.....the trigger bolt spring "screw" is loosen from tight at least a good three quarters of a turn.
That minimizes that bad peen damage that squashes down the ramp side cylinder notch edge.
A person could work the action now (as less as possible)to see for sure where the bolt hits on the cylinder and see and "Feel" if there is a hang up to the action by the hand turning the cylinder before the bolt head is out of the cylinder notches enough.
The bolt "not out of the notch enough" as the hand begins to turn the cylinder will have the edge of the bolt head act as a broach to relieve an area for the bolt to get free of the notch. The bolt will remove metal from the high side of the cylinder notch so the bolt can make room for itself to let the cylinder turn. That's logical since the hand is turning the cylinder before the bolt head is far enough out of the cylinders notches.
Anywhoooo......the best thing to do if the bolt isn't getting out of the cylinder notch before the hand turns the cylinder is to temporarily stop working the action. Once you see that shiney spot on the high side of the cylinder notch you know the bolt is beginning to broach metal from the notch edge. Taking metal from that side of the cylinder notch isn't a good thing. That's the important side of the notch that wacks the bolt head to stop the heavy cylinder everytime the action is worked.
You don't have to "see" the shiney spot the bolt begins to make by broaching metal from that side of the cylinder notch. It can be felt by working the action. Feels like a "hang up". Sometimes it's a hang up to the point the action is froze and the hammer doesn't draw back much at all.
Anywhoooo....the problem has been identified as the timing "off" TWO WAYS. One....the bolt head isn't out of the cylinder notch before the hand turns the cylinder which damages the high side of the cylinder notch and two.....the bolt is hitting the cylinder with an over lapping of the notch edge causing damage to the edge.
That's what the pic in the articles is showing. You wouldn't know yet that the bolt is about .004 inch too big for the cylinder notch but that is usually happening also.
Therefore there are FOUR problems to contend with concerning a brand new gun as it comes from the box. That isn't saying the alignment of the chambers to the bore is right either. That can't be checked yet since the bolt head is too big for the cylinder notches.
There's the bolt not getting out of the cylinder notch before the hand turns the cylinder,the bolt hitting late and damaging the cylinders notch edges,the overly stiff trigger bolt spring on the bolt side of it, and the oversize bolt width not letting the bolt into the cylinder notches fully.
Where to start to correct these problems? Earlier I advised to loosen the trigger bolt spring screw to minimize damage to the cylinder and work the action after the springs screw is loosened as little as possible to determine the other problems are or are not there.
The best place to start is to thin the bolt head side of the trigger bolt spring to lighten the impact of the bolt head into the cylinder. Change to a Hienie wire spring or lighten (stoning or dremel)the bolt side of the original spring or....leave the spring "as is" and learn to simply adjust the springs screw to lighten the bolt head impact into the soft cylinder. Loosening the screw will lighten the trigger pull some also so......get used to a lighter trigger or.....bend the spring on the trigger side down to get more tension on the trigger or ......use a broken trigger bolt spring that has the bolt part broken off so the trigger can be double springed. The one sided spring with the bolt part broken off set on top the spring already there. Grind that spring so it doesn't put more tension on the bolt side of the complete spring under it. The extra top spring may need thinned to fit in there. I usually don't bother with bolstering the trigger side of the trigger bolt spring if I simply adjust the trigger bolt spring screw to make less tension on the bolt since I don't mind a slightly lighter trigger. Bending the trigger side of the spring down to get more tension on the trigger side works for me. Side note.....loosening the trigger bolt spring screw to get less tension on the bolt doesn't let the spring screw get any looser from working the action.Why? The spring still puts tension on the screw and keeps the screw from loosening further.
Next problem to solve is easy enough. The timing of the bolt hitting on the cylinder notch edge is actually the bolts leg "riding the hammers cam too long" before it breaks free and lets the bolt hit back to the cylinder. The bolt returns to the cylinder "late" and hits too close to the cylinders notch edge.Usually as the pic in the article shows the bolt hits the notch edge with some bolt head hanging over the edge. Bad. Real bad for a gun with a very soft steel cylinder. The pic shows the bolt has peened down the notch edge. The notch edge that is already low because of the ramp or "lead in" having been milled there taking some notch edge away.
The fix,as I bet plenty of you Hombres already know, is to shorten the bolts leg that rides the cam so the bolt can get free of the cam and hit back to the cylinder sooner and in the proper timing. That is....bolt hitting away from the notch edge with....a full bolt head width hitting in the ramp and away from the edge of the cylinder notch. A space of,maybe a 32nd inch or a 16th inch away from the edge of the cylinder notch. That way if the wear on the gun still makes a peen in the soft cylinder the peen won't be changing the width of the cylinder notch.
You simply have to have patience and take a small amount off the end of the bolt leg that rides the hammer cam and put the bolt back in the gun and work the action to see where the bolt now hits the cylinder ramp. Over and over and over till you inch the position of the bolt into the place it should hit the cylinders ramp. When you take any off the bolts leg slightly get ride of any sharp corners by slightly rounding the sharp edges. Keep the "off" you cut with a stone or diamond file(no Dremel here) perpendicular to the line of the boltleg. Don't take "off"at an angle oryou're doing a beveland that bevelin the wrong direction can mess up the timing. Also the metal not taken off perpendicular to the line of the leg bolt can make less than the full flush contact of the end of the bolt leg on the cam and wear grooves in the cam.
You might be thinking....sounds logical but....how can I see where the bolt is hitting on the cylinder ramp before the notch edge?
If you want to see where the bolt hits the cylinder ramp simply put a thin smear of grease on the ramp and the impresion in the grease shows where the bolt hits the ramp. Perfect way to see what you can't actually see. Make an impression in the grease in the notches ramp.
Once you have the bolt hitting the cyinder notch ramp "away" from the notch edge you're done with that part of the tune up.
I'll cover the "bolt not getting out of the notch before the hand turns the cylinder" and "the oversize bolt head width" later.

[enyaw]

I'll make this short and sweet since my previous post that was "long and detailed" got blimped out and lost.
Get the bolt out the the cylinder notch before the hand turns the cylinder..... take metal off the underside of the bolt on the right of the screw hole(gun upside down) till the bolt leg is closer to the hammer cam. That lets the bolt work ahead of the hand and corrects the timing.
Excess bolt head ends up in the frame window(cylinder removed).
Take the excess off the bolt head till the bolt head is at the bottom of the cylinder notch and the underneath of the bolt rests on the frame inside(gun upside down). Underneath the bolt resting on the frame includes the little tab sticking off the bolt to the far right of the bolt screw(gun upside down).
Take the slant off the top of the bolt when you take the excess off the bolt head.. Not needed and hampers the COLT since the ramp milled in already makes the ramp side notch edge low or shallow. The slanted bolt head top is a REMINGTON trait since it has no ramps. The slant makes the leading edge of the bolt hit the far side notch edge. Makes or insures the bolt edge is low entering notch space to hit the far side notch edge and stop the cylinder of a Remington.
The COLT has the ramps or lead-ins to the cylinder notches to insure the bolts leading edge is low and hits the far side cylinder notch edge and stops the cylinder everytime. Make the top of the bolt head perpendicular with the sides of the bolt. Leave the curvature of course. The slant to the top of the bolt head isn't there due to the off center of the bolt as the article of Pettifogger states. That slant Pietta puts there for some reason is "all wrong" for a Colt. Just an extra way to insure the bolt stops the cylinder. Much less slant can work but no slant is best for a Colt.
First before the bolt head excess is taken off the alignment has to be checked. Checked before any metal is taken off the sides of the bolt head parallel with the sides of the bolt.....no bevels. Metal taken off the sides of the bolt are taken off whichever side keeps or corrects the alignment of the chambers to the bore.
Therefore before taking any off(that .003-4 in. that the bolt is too wide for the cylinder notch)the sides of the bolt to make the bolt the right size for the cylinder notches the alignment of the chambers in relation to the bore has to be checked.
Since the bolt head has excess sticking out the bolt window it will not hurt to put a slight bevel,temporarily, to the sides (edges)of the bolt head evenly on each side.
That lets the bolt catch and be centered in the cylinder notch so the alignment can be checked. Checked with a small flashlight looking down the muzzle end.
That can tell you which way the cylinder has to go to align or that it's already aligned correctly with the chambers to the bore. Taking some metal off one side of the oversize bolt head or the other moves the cylinder some to better correct alignment of chambers to bore.
It's not true you always take metal off the one side as the article stated.
Not actually proper to take metal off the sides of the bolt even with the frame as the article pic shows. When the bolt is sticking up with no cylinder there the bolt head sticks up further than when the cylinder is in the gun on a lot of guns usually anyway.
Metal taken off the sides of the bolt to get the bolt head in the cylinder notches should be taken off only a hair more than what goes in the cylinder notch. A step put in the bolt head sides from removing metal to size it for the cylinder notch too low and even with the frame can catch the underside of the frame and lock the bolt there. Only take off what goes into the cylinder notch or a hair more than that. Try not to leave a step there. Taper it back into the full width of the bolt.
I think I coverd it all. Man, loosing my whole "right to the end" previous post was a real bummer. I think I covered it well enough to give a good idea about it.

[enyaw]

I guess I should have saved my breath,so to speak, since there are no replies here.
Anywhoooooo....I guess I could just leave a message that a person getting a new Pietta Colt should loosen the trigger bolt spring screw and shorten the one bolt leg,at least, before working the action and damaging the cylinder right off the bat .........with a new Pietta Colt gun. The pic in the article shows the damage done by the stiff spring and the timing being off in a coupla ways. Not by the few .001's the bolt is too wide. Thhe timing issues I mentionn hide or over lay the damage that would be done from the few .001's the bolt is too wide.Itdamages but the timing problem and the stiff bolt spring hide the over size bolt head damage.
Timing off as in.....bolt hits too late and peens down the edge of the cylinder notch and the bolt isn't out of the cylinder when the hand begins to turn the cylinder and that causes the bolt edge to damge the other side of the notch.
All the new Pietta Colts seem to be machined and timed that way to cause damage to the cylinder notches with the very first working of the action.
Pietta could make some small adjustments to the bolt so it would get out of the cylinder notches earlier and not hit the edge of the cylinder notch for being timed to hit back to the cylinder late and the bolt could be made to fit the cylinder notches instead of being a few .001's in. too wide and the bolt side of the trigger bolt spring could be made lighter to minimize damget o the soft cylinder steel. The cylinders could stand to be hardened up some too.
Anywhooooo...just thought making note of some things needing corrected may help people some. May give someone the idea to make more articles somewhere about this stuff that would be good fer people to be aware of.
Anywhooooo....I've gotten new Pietta Colts and like them for they have many good aspects. I've tuned my own and helped others do it to theirs.
When I run across a Pard needin some help with one I usually lend a hand somehow. I've hepled more than a few fix their cap&baller revolvers. It's my hobby and I enjoy it. Enjoy shootin the guns too. I've got it down pat by now.
I can make a Colt ,that supposedly can't do it as the folk tales or myths say,shoot on par with a Remington type cap&baller. If the Colt comes with a decent barrel I can make it shoot on par with many cartridge revolvers within the shorter range of a round ball. It's something enjoyable to aspire to .....tuning and accurizing a Colt cap&baller revolver. There seems to be no end to the combinations of quirps the cap&ballers throw at a ,"Kitchen Table Gunsmith".
I've gotta go and may not be here again any time soon. I have work to do and typing takes too much of my time.
I have a Walker revolver with it's original cylinder drilled and chamberd for 44 Special and the barrel sleeved to 44 Special and a conversion plate that's been done by a gunsmith "all wrong" and needs replaced or re-made.
I'm gonna fix er up and shoot the bejezzers out of it. Blackpowder only since the cylinder is the original one. Walker cylinders can be drilled and chambered for 44 Special or 44 Colt and not have the cylinder notches too thin in the bottoms supposedly. That's what they say anywhoooooo...... I'll test it out.
The cylinder throats end up large for a 44 size bullet but.....round balls can be loaded into cases and forcing cones can be modified to direct a ball to the center of the bore when there's an oversize cylinder throat. Anywhooooo...that would be a whole nuther thread I guess. I wander too much. Too old I guess. I also have a coupla Walker barrels I plan on smooth boring to use 460S&W cases and the Kirst Konverter to make a "Bird Shot shootin Walker" fer rabbit huntin. That all takes time in the shop.
Later.

[Hardcase]

Holy cow, enyaw, that's a ton of material to digest. I gave it a quick scan, but since I'm at work, I can't compare what you've written with what's happening on my guns, but what you wrote makes sense to me.

It's a lot of reading (and obviously a lot of writing, too!), but I think that it will be well worth a second, much closer look when I get home this evening.

[DG45]

I'm pretty new to BP pistols although I've been loading and shooting BP shotshells for a while, but I have two BP pistols. One is a Pietta replica of a1851 Colt Navy with a brass frame.

I've read your posts on this thread enyaw and its that obvious you know what you're talking about but I'm not sure how much of the fix you outline I'd be able to do myself except loosen the screw.

What would you estimate it would cost to have a a gunsmith (or a machinist ?) trim and shave the bolt as you suggest?

[Fingers McGee]

Thanks for the treatise Enyaw. I've printed it out and put it in my "reference" binder. Makes sense.

[tpelle]

Thanks for the write-up. I copied it into MSWord and cleaned it up, and have it archived.

I just finished (maybe) working a Pietta bolt (pre-write-up, unfortunately) and will re-read this a few times to see if I screwed up anywhere.

Luckily mine doesn't seem to have the issue that you described with the bolt not clearing the notches when the hand starts to rotate the cylinder. On mine you can draw the hammer back very slightly, the bolt clears the notches before the cylinder moves, and you can rotate the cylinder freely to align the safety pin with the hammer notch. Mine is brand-new 2011 1860 Army, and benefits from all of Pietta's new CNC technology.

The only issue I may have is with the cylinder being in alignment when it's locked in place. Don't have any pin gauges, so I'm not exactly sure how to check this in a foolproof way. Maybe try to turn down a wooden dowel to make a hillbilly pin gauge?

[mykeal]

I made a 'northern hillbilly' pin gauge by slugging the barrel with an oversize lead slug, then epoxying it onto a wooden dowel. It slides down the barrel very nicely and if the chamber is not aligned, it stops.

However, it only works if the chambers are properly sized with respect to the bore....

[DG45]

I'm not a gunsmith, or even a very handy guy, and this may be a fallacy, but I'd think that if if a cap & ball revolver's bottom cylinder lined up perfectly with the guns loading piston, the top cylinder would automatically align with the barrel. Particularly a Colt replica, with an arbor through the center of the cylinder. Then you've got not just a piston fitting in the bottom cylinder, you've got an arbor fitting through the center of the cylinder too. Therefore the barrel must automatically align too. True?

What I've been thinking is that as long as the loading piston fits perfectly in the bottom cylinder of my Pietta Colt replica, my barrel is in alignment, and the day that loading piston doesn't slide in perfectly, I've got a buggered cylinder notch or deformed bolt or something that's causing the cylinder to slip out of alignment with the barrel, and my gun needs repair.

[Smokin_Gun]

Thanks Enyaw, I put all three in my BP Notes File with the rest of our Notes/Books we've shared over the Years.
I gotta move all these and this years pics over to my external Hard Drive to protect them in the event of well, you know ;O)
Well done ...

[mykeal]

if a cap & ball revolver's bottom cylinder lined up perfectly with the guns loading piston, the top cylinder would automatically align with the barrel.

Ah, how I wish that were true.

Very often, in fact, almost all the time nowadays, that's 'good enough'. But perfectly, no. You'd be surprised at how often those chambers are not perfectly indexed around the cylinder. It isn't so much a matter of the bolt/notch alignment, although that can be a problem, as it is where the chambers are positioned. Sometimes you can actually see the misalignment by shining a strong light on the cylinder surface and just looking down the barrel - you'll see a crescent 'moon' at the breech end of the bore. And that little crescent will be different sizes on different chambers.

Does it matter? Most of the time, no. The chamber is probably undersized anyway, putting out a ball that's too small for the bore. But every once in a long while, you get a real stinker. Something to check when you buy a gun.

[enyaw]

It's great to see some replies here. Thanks guys. Gives me some satisfaction to thunk I may help someone.
Someone mentioned maybe not being able to do some stuff besides turn the screw....I thunk most anyone can do these things and not have special tools or anything. Going ahead and trying things a person would most likely find "it ain't too hard".
Alignment......with a cap&baller the chambers are a little under sized and that makes it easy to take a little mag light and peer down the barrel to where the cylinder meets the breech end. A person can get the hang of looking at each groove with each chamber locked in battery.Turn the gun this way and that and the grooves show up.
If there's a small bevel to your chambers mouths and the gun is aligned well you'll see tiny line of black in each groove. The same amount of black from the bevel reflects light ddifferent than the flat face of the cylnder.
If the guns out of alignment in the chambers to bore you'll see black in some and some silver in others. The silver is the flat face of the cylinder reflecting the light. If there's silver in several it looks like,"The Silver Moon of Misalignment". That's the bad one and needs fixin.
Anywhooooo....you look in each groove down by the forcing cone to see if there's a thin black in each from an aligned chamber to bore with a bevel to the chamber mouths and the stock undersized chambers.
If you see silver in one or more grooves that's the flat face of the cylinder reflecting so you are seeing a groove that's blocked by that amount of silver flat face and the little bit of black from the bevel reflecting light different than the flat face of the cylinder and the tiny bit of black from the undersized chambers.
When you see a lot of "silver moon ofmisalignment" the gun won't shoot well and needs fixed and.....a cap&baller that aligns well shoots pretty danged good. It makes a difference fer sure.
If you thunk you see the tiny bit of black or the silver then...make sure you look straight down the barrel without tilting it to see if it's there because you tilted the barrel or not. Looking straight down means you see the very bottom of the chamber thats like a round circle and place that in the center of the barrels bore so you're then looking straight down to recheck what you may have seen.
It's just a matter of learning to look down at the juntion oof the cylinder face and the very end of the breech end of the barreland scrutinize what is in or not in each groove of the rifling. Optimum with a cap&baller is to see a tiny bit of black equal in each groove...becuase the chambers are undersized.
If you get that damage from the bolt timing and size issues the Pietta can have from the box...your alignment will suffer fer sure.
If you have to correct the alignment and don't want to get a new cylinder then....
You use the bolt to move the cylinder one way or the other. You may have to start with a new slightly oversize bolt and ,like in the above suggections, put a tiny bevel to the top edges to barely and carefully center the bolt catching the cylinder notches and then go from there working one side or the other of the bolt aligning the chambers to the bore while sizing it(the bolt head) to the cylinders notches.
Other times more drastic measures like putting shims with a hole for the bolt screw to go thru between the frame and the side of the bolt or make one of those things I call a "bolt bolster part" from apieceof steel to be placed on the trigger side of the bolt to fit in that space in front of the bolt screw to hold the bolt in position. A notch cut to the front of that piece rides on the bolts screw there and a small bit of the parts notch goes under the bolts screw to hold the part there and the other end conforms to the curved shape of the milled recess in the frame. The spring goes right over it no problem. Some guns have that part in them from the factory. Not the cap&ballers though. You need to file it out of a piece of steel and fit it. That part can be used to hold a bolt in an aligned position or be used as a "bolt bolster" just to help the bolt take the abuse of ,"CowBoy Shootin".
Anywhooooo...if anyone is intimidated by trying any of these "Kitchen Table Gunsmithing" tricks of the trade don't be. If you mess up a bolt or whatever they can be replaced cheap enough. It's all really easy mechanics the average Joe can master easily.....and......there's plenty of qualified "Master Kitchen Table Gunsmiths" to put questions to that can ease a person thru a process. There's plenty of talented mechanically inclined people here on this forum that ...ifin they wanted to they could be typin out the same stuff I like to do to help others.
I'd like to see an article ,like in the Chronical, about shaving the under side of a Pietta bolt to get the bolt head side up thru the bolt window further in the frame to "get the bolt leg closer to the hammers cam to affect the timing to....... get the bolt to work ahead of the hand to get the bolt out of the cylinders notches before the hand tries to turn the cylinder. Then the subsequent working down of the bolt head to size the bolt to the cylinder notches as the alignment is being corrected or kept right if it's already right if the boltdid fit the notches to tell.........and how to check before hand if the ill sized bolt is already in the right configuration to align the chambers well if iit did fit the notches of the cylnder.
Anywhooooo a pictorial explaination ,like Pettifogger does in articles, of this proceedure to an,"out of the box", Pietta Colt to set the bolt timing and head size proper and all before the cylinder gets damaged would be a big help to people wanting to do it......and people wanting to save their money for something else besides new cylinders and........to relieve people of the heart break of getting a new Colt Pietta (or any other manufacturers) gun and working the action and enjoying that only to find a damaged cylinder around the cylinder notches right off the bat.

[enyaw]

It's great to see some replies here. Thanks guys. Gives me some satisfaction to thunk I may help someone.
Someone mentioned maybe not being able to do some stuff besides turn the screw....I thunk most anyone can do these things and not have special tools or anything. Going ahead and trying things a person would most likely find "it ain't too hard".
Alignment......with a cap&baller the chambers are a little under sized and that makes it easy to take a little mag light and peer down the barrel to where the cylinder meets the breech end. A person can get the hang of looking at each groove with each chamber locked in battery.Turn the gun this way and that and the grooves show up.
If there's a small bevel to your chambers mouths and the gun is aligned well you'll see tiny line of black in each groove. The same amount of black from the bevel reflects light ddifferent than the flat face of the cylnder.
If the guns out of alignment in the chambers to bore you'll see black in some and some silver in others. The silver is the flat face of the cylinder reflecting the light. If there's silver in several it looks like,"The Silver Moon of Misalignment". That's the bad one and needs fixin.
Anywhooooo....you look in each groove down by the forcing cone to see if there's a thin black in each from an aligned chamber to bore with a bevel to the chamber mouths and the stock undersized chambers.
If you see silver in one or more grooves that's the flat face of the cylinder reflecting so you are seeing a groove that's blocked by that amount of silver flat face and the little bit of black from the bevel reflecting light different than the flat face of the cylinder and the tiny bit of black from the undersized chambers.
When you see a lot of "silver moon ofmisalignment" the gun won't shoot well and needs fixed and.....a cap&baller that aligns well shoots pretty danged good. It makes a difference fer sure.
If you thunk you see the tiny bit of black or the silver then...make sure you look straight down the barrel without tilting it to see if it's there because you tilted the barrel or not. Looking straight down means you see the very bottom of the chamber thats like a round circle and place that in the center of the barrels bore so you're then looking straight down to recheck what you may have seen.
It's just a matter of learning to look down at the juntion oof the cylinder face and the very end of the breech end of the barreland scrutinize what is in or not in each groove of the rifling. Optimum with a cap&baller is to see a tiny bit of black equal in each groove...becuase the chambers are undersized.
If you get that damage from the bolt timing and size issues the Pietta can have from the box...your alignment will suffer fer sure.
If you have to correct the alignment and don't want to get a new cylinder then....
You use the bolt to move the cylinder one way or the other. You may have to start with a new slightly oversize bolt and ,like in the above suggections, put a tiny bevel to the top edges to barely and carefully center the bolt catching the cylinder notches and then go from there working one side or the other of the bolt aligning the chambers to the bore while sizing it(the bolt head) to the cylinders notches.
Other times more drastic measures like putting shims with a hole for the bolt screw to go thru between the frame and the side of the bolt or make one of those things I call a "bolt bolster part" from apieceof steel to be placed on the trigger side of the bolt to fit in that space in front of the bolt screw to hold the bolt in position. A notch cut to the front of that piece rides on the bolts screw there and a small bit of the parts notch goes under the bolts screw to hold the part there and the other end conforms to the curved shape of the milled recess in the frame. The spring goes right over it no problem. Some guns have that part in them from the factory. Not the cap&ballers though. You need to file it out of a piece of steel and fit it. That part can be used to hold a bolt in an aligned position or be used as a "bolt bolster" just to help the bolt take the abuse of ,"CowBoy Shootin".
Anywhooooo...if anyone is intimidated by trying any of these "Kitchen Table Gunsmithing" tricks of the trade don't be. If you mess up a bolt or whatever they can be replaced cheap enough. It's all really easy mechanics the average Joe can master easily.....and......there's plenty of qualified "Master Kitchen Table Gunsmiths" to put questions to that can ease a person thru a process. There's plenty of talented mechanically inclined people here on this forum that ...ifin they wanted to they could be typin out the same stuff I like to do to help others.
I'd like to see an article ,like in the Chronical, about shaving the under side of a Pietta bolt to get the bolt head side up thru the bolt window further in the frame to "get the bolt leg closer to the hammers cam to affect the timing to....... get the bolt to work ahead of the hand to get the bolt out of the cylinders notches before the hand tries to turn the cylinder. Then the subsequent working down of the bolt head to size the bolt to the cylinder notches as the alignment is being corrected or kept right if it's already right if the boltdid fit the notches to tell.........and how to check before hand if the ill sized bolt is already in the right configuration to align the chambers well if iit did fit the notches of the cylnder.
Anywhooooo a pictorial explaination ,like Pettifogger does in articles, of this proceedure to an,"out of the box", Pietta Colt to set the bolt timing and head size proper and all before the cylinder gets damaged would be a big help to people wanting to do it......and people wanting to save their money for something else besides new cylinders and........to relieve people of the heart break of getting a new Colt Pietta (or any other manufacturers) gun and working the action and enjoying that only to find a damaged cylinder around the cylinder notches right off the bat.
Sorry if I type badly or miss correcting something. My puter doesn't work right and I can't type worth a darn.

[DG45]

Don't worry about your typing skills enyaw, it's your gunsmithing skill and your message that's important. I for one, appreciate your efforts, and I'm sure that there are many others who do too. I imagine that for every reply or post you see on this thread, there are 100 other people who've read or will read) what you wrote and a lot of them have learned something. I think a lot of people don't read anything until they've got a problem. Then they use the search feature of the forum, and pull up everything they can about their particular problem. So your advice today may help somebody 10 years from now. Keep up the good work enyaw. If I might offer one small suggestion, an illustrating photo or two might be beneficial. You can always use the Edit function to go back in and add one. (You just have to be signed in to use the Edit function.) Thanks again, DG