Last week, I ordered a Pietta-built copy of the Colt 1860 Army from the 'bargain page' at Summitgunbroker. It needed nipples and a wedge, which I'm guessing a previous owner lost before he could put much wear on it. I'll have about $160 in it (about half the price of a new one, shipped) by the time it's up & running.

Today I installed a set of #11 nipples, dog-robbed the wedge from my BIL's 1851 and gave it a test drive. Load was 30 grains of Triple Seven, Ox-Yoke over-powder wad and a Hornady swaged .454 RB lit by CCI caps.

Like most of these guns, it printed 8" high at 20 paces; but that is easily corrected and soon will be. With the hammer notch being a fine groove and the front sight being a larger, brass triangle, it was impossible to acquire anything like a consistent sight picture. But he 60's hand-filling grip, great pointing qualities and icicle-crisp 4# trigger almost rendered these shortcomings irrelevant. Hitting man sized targets to 50 paces is effortless, simply by pointing the bead at the belt-line and pressing the trigger. The gun ran slick and handled spent caps much better than the 1858 we were shooting alongside it today.

You can rest assured if I was kicking an old black mustang around the countryside between 1860 and 1873, there would be a brace of 60's at my side. Jesus, what a sixgun.

BR revolvers are more fun to shoot than most think.

The Colts are a lot easier to strip for cleaning than my ROA. Been thinking of getting another Colt replica.

I used a pair of 1860s for cowboy action shooting for a while and they did a lot better than the 1858. The open top is great for letting the spent caps fall free. I did get some funny l9ks at the convenience store buying cigarette paper! I made paper cartridges to speed the loading process.

Here's mine. It was passed down through my father's family and finally given to me by my father.

My great grandfather picked it up from a dead Yankee after a battle during the Civil War. He fought with Co. B, 40th Georgia Inf.

It's all original except for the barrel wedge which I bought from a gun dealer in Los Angeles. The original ".44 Spec."


I think I'll keep it.

L.W.

Too bad it cant talk and tell where it went and what it saw.

Thank you for sharing that fantastic example of history, LW.

Everybody needs a Walker



The Randall is a bit of an anachronism, but they seem to go together.

I've got an 1860, fun to shoot!

Mike

I've always been fond of the .36 Navy and found the Army grip to be a tad skinny in the hand. They do shoot good however.

A friend willed me 1 each Pietta 1860, 1851 and a 1849 replicas,love shooting them. MY Ruger Old Army gifted to me by Gunner is my favorite BP to shoot however, and I shoot it more than my modern cartridge guns. I would be quite comfortable carrying it as my SD arm! Then I still have a replica 1858 Remington and 1863 Pocket.

1860 Army is my favorite BP revolver, then the Remington. They are a hoot. Had a shoulder stock for mine too.

One of these days I really oughta acquire one of the smaller BP revos. The Walker is cool to shoot but a bit of an ordeal to carry

I need a BP revolver. Of course, I need a new clutch in the vehicle more right now (that was a lovely occurrence today), but I do need a BP revolver.

Here's mine!

I decided to address the 1860's propensity to shoot significantly high-right. If you didn't know anything about Pietta's case-hardening, you'd grab a new 3 corner Swiss file and start working on the hammer notch. Might as well rub a match-stick on it. So out comes the Dremel, sanding drum, reinforced cutting wheel and a coarse/fine Smith diamond hone. I worked for a flat top on the hammer at full cock, since this constitutes the rear sight. This was all done by estimation since there is no reliable way to measure the amount you've removed.

Once that was accomplished I used the original notch to cut a sighting groove with the cut-off wheel, barely wide enough to find the front sight in. The notch was intentionally cut a little left of center to correct the windage disagreement. More eyeball calibration LOL.

I had one more problem to solve; I'm still waiting on a wedge. I located a construction brace that was a few thousandths thicker than the wedge cut in the arbor, scribed the layout and roughed it out with a hacksaw. After a few trips back & forth from the belt sander, I soon had a wedge that fit with no discernible play.

The other thing I don't have yet is a revolver flask so I used an empty 357 case as a measure and loaded up six. I shot this target from 20 long paces sitting in my hunting chair with the gun rested over one knee. The first three shots are the ones a little high-right of the bullseye, with the front sight resting on the center black dot. I saw that highest right one and somehow convinced myself I needed to lower, resulting in another three shot group a little low & right. I do believe when I get OEM parts in the gun and a proper 30 grain measure, this old gun will really stack 'em.

The Colt 1860 revolvers always shot high, when a should stock was placed on the pistol it will shoot dead on. Why this is so I do not know.

I have a "Armi San Marco" 1860 colt I had the cylinders bore to .470 to match the bore diameter after having the barrel slugged. I have bullets cast at .475 from a custom mold.

Spectators at the range as amazed at the accuracy of the ole' colts.

Doc

She's old but still functions, wish I could say that when I"m 154 years old.