Breaking in a brass frame Pietta/ Remington

[w_houle]

I found that the cylinder is leaving an impression on the inside of the frame. How much is normal and how much is worrysome?

[sundance44s]

How much and what kind of powder are you useing ..what you are decribeing is the start of the frame streching of a brass framed Remmie .I had a brass frame 44 I shot alot for 3 years and never had any problems with it , but my loads were always 25 grs of goex 3f , or Pyrodex ....never 777 .

[w_houle]

Well I just fill up the cylinder until the I can see the powder and push the ball down as hard as I can until the ball will pass by the barrel jk 30gr goex 3f

[mykeal]

You are using what would be best described as a "heavy" load, and it is damaging the frame. Suggest you cut back to about 20 gr fffg if using Goex. Use either a lubed felt wad or corn meal to fill up the rest of the cylinder such that the loading lever is capable of forcing the ball into the powder/wad/cornmeal. Carefully measure each chamber's powder charge to be the same, and use the same amount of pressure to load the ball.

Shoot 5 shots from rest at about 15 yards using exactly the same point of aim regardless of where the balls strike the target.

Change targets, clean the bore and cylinder chambers and repeat the above with 22 gr fffg. Then repeat with 25 gr fffg.

If none of the groups is noticeably better than the others, then drop down to 17 gr, then 15. The load that produces the best group is the one you should be using, and it will very likely not damage the frame like the full, "heavy" load does. If you keep using that full load, you will eventually wear out the frame.

The above numbers need to be reduced by 15% by volume if you should switch to 777.

[w_houle]

I miss my old powder flask, I don't know how much I was loading but I would fill the tube on it and drop two of those in and then drop two wonder wads in and got a nice tight pack using .451 ball. But that was also my other Pietta. it loved .451 ball and this one hates them with a fiery passion. Also there are two dimples/ bulges forming, one on each side of the barrel, this looks like a lot of wear for only 40-50 rounds. FYI I didn't think of it 'til now but about 20 rounds were fired using 35gr Pyrodex P and 5 rounds of Goex @ 35gr triple F and actually the rest of the rounds were @ 32gr (long story, but the Idea is that I thought I was firing 30 instead of 32 so actually I don't know how accurate the other measurements are. They might be between 35 and 37gr.
I know I should pay more attention, I got that now. Really don't want the lecture but am sure I will get it anyway. It's OK I am sure Pietta makes more.

[mykeal]

they are not expensive.

[w_houle]

I think I am only going to get steel framed ones after I get this .36 colt repro 'cause I said I would. Just for information, whats the max load on a brass frame .36 colt 1860?

[mykeal]

Max load is whatever you can stuff into the chamber, which is what I understand you were shooting. The gun can stand that on a limited basis, but after some number of shots there will be damage.

However, I think you are asking for the "max load that won't damage the gun over a long period of time", which is a much more difficult question to answer. I don't know of anyone who has attempted to determine that. The damage is gradual, and one would have to set up some sort of subjective criteria for how much would be allowed before calling the test complete. Like any subjective criteria there would be wide variations in what different people would pick for different reasons.

The best answer might be to determine the most accurate load like I described above. I'd feel very comfortable shooting several hundreds, if not thousands, of rounds with that load without worring about damaging the gun. Frankly, I can't imagine why anyone would shoot anything else in a brass framed gun. If you just want a lot of smoke and boom buy a Walker and have at it; a brass frame .36 isn't the gun for that.

By the way, if you really have plastic deformation that gun is unsafe and should be retired.

[marcseatac]

The thing I always thought about the brass framed guns was that they are perfect for a person who doesn't shoot much and want's to be potentially armed. There are many people like this that couldn't tell you the last time they shot one of their guns.

These guns when new are just as deadly effective as any BP revolver.