Specifications

• Manufacturer: Pietta
• Date of Manufacture: Unknown
• Caliber: 44
• Capacity: 6
• Overall Length: 13 1/2″
• Barrel Length: 8″
• Barrel Type: Octagonal
• Rifling: 1:30″, 7 groove, LH
• Groove Depth: .006″
• Chamber Diameters: .446″
• Chamber Depths: 1.280″ +/- .005″
• Sights: Rear adjustable, Front blade
• Weight: 2 lbs. 12 oz.
• Percussion Caps: #11
• Availability: New

Review

The Pietta 1858 Remington Army is not my favorite handgun. Mine doesn’t have that strong, distinctive four-click sound that Tuco was listening for in the gun shop. It has proven fragile in the working parts, especially the hand and the bolt stop. I have broken both shooting 20 grains of powder below a .451″ ball.

Blackie Thomas’ Mod for Cylinder Pin

The gun is accurate, but fouling tends to slow and halt operation sooner than my open tops or the Ruger Old Army. With my gallery loads, I can shoot indefinitely. Blackie Thomas’ YouTube Video: “The Percussion Revolver 1858 Mod” shows a mod which works very well to extend my operating time.

The trigger pull has improved, becoming lighter, with a more consistent, less scratchy feeling during take-up, but it took hundreds of shots to achieve this.

The Pietta is very easy to manage as far as percussion caps. They usually fall off the nipple as the revolver is cocked and there seems to be less chance of them falling into the works, unlike the Walker, which is notably much worse.

I have six different cylinders for the 1858, and five of them gave similar results, even though they vary in length from 2.017″ to 2.020″. The cylinder gap did increase from .009″ for the longest to .012″ for the shortest. The sixth cylinder was shorter than the rest and it caused chain fires. (My Experience with Chain Fires”).

Loads

At the range, I shot the .451″ round ball over 20 grains of Triple Seven. I didn’t keep track of the accuracy or velocity. When the ranges closed, I started shooting in my garage using as little as 2 1/2″ grains of Triple Seven FFF and achieved good results at 5 yards. (Recent results have shown a marked decline of results using 2 1/2-grain loads.) The .451″ ball was too big to force down to the bottom of the chamber, as I eschew the use of fillers in this type of shooting. The projectiles I used instead were .440″ and .445″ round balls. Recovered balls worked well, as did swaged conicals I derived from them: (“Swaging for Revolvers”).