Pietta Dance Brothers Revolvers

Last week I ordered two Pietta Dance Brothers percussion revolvers from Jedidiah Starr Trading Co. in Michigan. I paid extra for two day FEDEX shipping and got them on Wednesday.

One is a gift to my father from my brother and I for his 80th birthday, while the second revolver was for me.

Both guns have "CC" in a box date code stamped on the frame. That translates to 2008, which means they have been sitting in stock for over a decade, which I found surprising.

The Pietta Dance revolver is a replica of guns built by the Dance Brothers in Brazos, Texas for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Only about 500 were made, mostly in .44 caliber. Some were in .36 caliber.

Original Dance revolvers were between the Colt Navy and Dragoon in size. As you can see from my pictures, stylistically, it resembles a Dragoon with the octagon-to-round barrel and straight cylinder.

Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons put out a nice video about the history of the Dance revolvers:

Mike Beliveau has a video in which he shoots a Pietta replica.

The most notable feature of the Dance revolver is that it lacks recoil shields on the sides of the frame, behind the cylinder. There are a couple of theories why the originals were made that way. One is that Dance felt that by omitting them the chance of cap jams was lessened. Another is that the frames were cut from iron or steel boilerplate, which was only thick enough for the frame without the shields.

The fit and finish of the Piettas is decent but not as good as my 1992-vintage Uberti 1851 Navy. I took down both of them. Removing the wedges took quite a bit of effort with a hammer and drift punch. After removal, I deburred the wedges and arbor slots.

I did a full, detail strip of both guns because they felt a bit gritty. Takedown is like any other Colt-type percussion revolver. While the guns were apart I took the opportunity to debur the internal parts, clean everything, and relubricated with Ballistol.

I lubricated the cylinder arbors and wedges with Bumblin Bear Grease from October Country. (I bought the jar of BBG on a lark a couple years ago. It works great but I'm not sure it's worth the price compared to Track of the Wolf's Mink Oil Tallow.)

With the mechanisms cleaned out and properly lubricated the guns cock smoothly.

The triggers have some creep but aren't too heavy.

The front sights are thankfully more like an 1860 Army than an 1851 Navy. The lever latch engagement is solid. The lever did not drop under recoil on my first range trip.

Last night I went along with Dad to his indoor range where we both shot mine.

I really like the gun, it’s a good shooter. This target is 18 shots, 1 handed at 7 yards. For ammunition we used combustile paper cartridges I'd made up ahead of time. The load was Hornady .454 ball on top of 25 grains of Swiss 3Fg, with no lube or wad. (The benefit of lube is to keep fouling soft in the bore. Chainfires are due to improperly fitting or missing caps.)

The lack of recoil shields makes it easy to cap and to see if you still have unfired chambers left. I'll note that if you do get a chainfire you'll likely get caps back in your face. Wear eye protection with one of these!

Dad’s cylinder was the last of the night, making 24 shots through the gun. By the end the gun was feeling a bit crusty and the cylinder didn't want to rotate without some manual assistance. I field stripped it for a quick clean before heading home (I'll do full clean today) and you could not see rifling. The fouling felt hard.

The gun has almost no barrel/cylinder gap so the arbor doesn’t get too badly fouled. I did wipe off the cylinder face and put a few drops of moose milk behind the cylinder, because it was getting sluggish.

I shot the first two cylinders with RWS 1075+ caps, the third with Remington No.10s, and the final with CCI No.11s. All worked fine but check this out:

Those are two RWS caps. I’ve never seen caps perforated in this way. Normally they bust wide open. The CCI and Remington caps fragmented normally.

Dad brought along a Nagant revolver with some 1978-vintage Soviet surplus ammunition. I put a cylinder through it. I find it remarkable that the Imperial Russian Army replaced the Smith & Wesson No.3 Russian with this clunker. Even the single action trigger pull is atrocious -- heavy and creepy. Given the choice, I'd take any one of my full sized cap and ball revolvers over the Nagant for anything other than punching holes in paper, including self defense.

After leaving the range, Dad came over for a bit of bourbon and conversation. All in all, a pretty darn good night.

Battery Operated Fuel Pump

We are forecast to get up to over a foot of snow and sleet here in Southeastern Pennsylvania. I just got inside from opening the locks to my sheds so they don't freeze shut, and putting gas in my snow blower. I keep gas in military surplus jerrycans.

This battery operated pump works really well for transferring gasoline from a can into the fuel tank of a generator, snow blower, or whatever without making a mess. I bought one in October and have used it a few times now. I wish I had one years ago.

Directions for Loading Colt's Pistols

 This is a photo of the instruction sheet that came with Colt percussion revolvers in the 19th Century:

Click on the image for a full size picture.

Some things worth pointing out:

1. Colonel Colt referred to them as "pistols." Internet know-it-alls who insist that you shouldn't refer to revolvers as pistols, please take note.

2. "N.B." at the beginning of the second paragraph is an abbreviation for Nota Bene, Latin for Note Well. This is no longer a commonly used phrase and I've seen questions about it elsewhere.

3. N.B. ;) that you can safely load them with as much powder will fit under the projectile.

4. There is no mention of using wads or grease to prevent chain fires. As long as you are using a properly oversized ball or bullet, it will seal the chamber and you cannot get a chain fire due to flash over at the front of the cylinder. Chain fires are due to flashover at the rear of the cylinder, from loose or ill-fitting caps.

Euroarms Hand Spring Replacement

Today I put a new hand spring in my Euroarms Remington. I made it from a bobby pin and then soft soldered it in place, after widening the slot in the hand using a cutoff wheel in my Dremel tool.

Using soft solder will allow me to replace it if this one breaks.

I got the gun back together after much cussing — the hammer spring in it is really strong — and it seems to function ok.

When putting the gun away I noticed I had a small envelope in the box. I opened it up and found a set of spare screws. I must have ordered them at one time but totally forgot about them. Since Euroarms parts are now unobtanium, this was a really nice surprise.

I didn't get to the range today as I was hoping yesterday -- household chores took precedence. Hopefully the weather will be good for shooting next weekend.

Made Some .36 Caliber Paper Cartridges

I drove up to Dixon’s Muzzleloading Shop today. Their rifle and revolver selections were really picked over and they had no 3Fg left in stock (although a truck with BP is supposed to arrive on Monday). The only caps they had in stock were RWS 1075s, which were being rationed to one tin per day per customer.

One item they had was an Uberti Paterson revolver. It was the model with no loading lever. Unfortunately, the price tag was flipped over and I couldn’t see what they were asking for it. The store was busy so I didn’t bother them about it.

I ended up buying 15 grain and 20 grain powder flask spouts, a spout to fit the new plastic Goex powder cans, the current issue of Muzzleloader magazine, and the 2021 Dixie Gun Works catalog, plus two 100 count bags of Rush Creek .380 round balls.

After getting home I made up 50 cartridges for my Uberti Colt 1851 Navy. I’ve had a can of Hodgdon Triple 7 for a few years and decided to use up some of it. T7 supposedly loses potency after you open the can. However, it’s about 10 - 15% more potent than Goex to start with. When I’ve shot it in the past it’s been very easy to clean up afterwards.

For these cartridges, I used Zig Zag rolling papers for the tubes, with end caps from the Guns of the West kit I got recently.

One downside to this method of paper cartridge construction is that when using cast balls, it's difficult to ensure that the sprue remains facing upward when you drop it in. I expect accuracy to be fine for plinking or short range target shooting. For hunting or match shooting, swaged balls would be more consistent.

Black Powder Shooting Supplies are Now Getting Scarce

Last week I ordered 5 boxes of Hornady .454 round balls from Track of the Wolf. I got my order today, but only 1 box, with the rest cancelled, with a note that they cannot backorder balls.

So I checked out Midway. Hornady .454s are gone, no backorder. They did have Speer in stock so I ordered 10 boxes at $9.99 each.

That should keep me set for a while. I have a Lee .454 ball mold but it's either oversize or the alloy I used last time has some tin in it, because the balls dropped at .456 - .457. That's OK for my Ruger Old Army but unnecessarily hard to load in my Remingtons and Rogers & Spencer.

The online sources for black powder that I've checked have been depleted. I still have a decent supply from a bulk order from several years back.

Percussion caps have also been difficult to buy in the past couple of months. I was able to get a 2,500 count box of RWS #107+ caps last week from Midway, so I'm set for a while. Midway is now out of stock for all caps.

I'm still waiting to receive the percussion cap maker that I ordered at the start of the month from 22LRreloader.com.

Springtime for Biden

 With apologies to Mel Brooks...

America was having trouble

What a sad, sad story

Needed a new leader

To restore its former glory

Where, oh where was he?

Where could that man be?

We looked around

And then we found

The man for you and me

And now it's

Springtime for Biden and America

The US is happy and gay

We're marching to a faster pace

Look out

We'll help save China's face

Springtime for Biden and America

Winter for Trump and Pence

Springtime for Biden and America

Come on, Americans

Go into your dance

No more MAGA

And that's why they call me Kamala

Don't be stupid, be a smarty

Come and join the Democratic party

Springtime for Biden and America

Prancing the new step today

Bombs falling from the skies again

China is on the rise again

Springtime for Biden and America

Drones are striking once more

Springtime for Biden and America

Means that soon we'll be going

We've got to be going

You know we'll be going to war

Ran Out of Balls

 (Insert Beavis and Butt Head laughter.)

I had such a good time shooting my Euroarms Remington with combustible paper cartridges yesterday that I decided to make up another batch tonight. I also picked up some MTM Case-Guard plastic ammo boxes for .44 Mag./.45 Colt. I use them for .44-40 and .38-40 but they work well for the .44 paper cartridges.

The two flattened blobs on the right are what a dead soft .454 ball looks like after impacting a steel gong from about 10 yards. I managed to salvage a few, which will be recycled into the casting pot.

The twist over the ball gives me a handle to pull them out. Unfortunately, I ran out of balls. I put 60 rounds through through the Euroarms yesterday,  36 paper cartridges plus 24 rounds of loose powder and ball, so I only had 40 balls left. Somewhere in my midden is a bag of 100 .454 balls but heck if I can find it.

I also tried casting some .454 last year in a Lee mold but when I shot them in my Euroarms Rogers & Spencer they were hard to load. I mic'ed them afterwards and they came out at .456 - .457, so I think there might have been a bit of tin in the alloy. I'm going to use up the rest of that lead by casting bullets for .44 WCF, then try the mold again with known dead soft lead.

Anyway, I have 500 Hornady .454 balls on the way from Track of the Wolf, although I need to give one box to my brother, who gave me this box.

I'm hoping to make a trip to Dixon's Muzzleloading Shop in the next week or two. It's worth the hour drive just to look around and hopefully I can pick up a pound or two of Olde Eynsford or Swiss 3Fg.

Combustible Cartridge Range Report and a Problem

I shot the paper cartridges yesterday and also got to try some RWS 1075+ caps. Both worked great. Loading using the cartridges is much faster than with loose powder and ball. I'd smeared a bit of Bore Butter on the ball end of each cartridge last night and that helped keep fouling soft.

I had three varieties of cartridges:

1. Some made with the papers included with the Guns of the West kit, paper trimmed to length and glued to the ball.

2. Some with the same paper left full length and then twisted over the ball.

3. Some made from Zig Zag rolling paper, left full length and then twisted over the ball.

The cartridges with the full length papers twisted over the ball were easier to make and more robust. Going forward that's how I will make combustible cartridges. The Zig Zag papers aren't quite as wide as I want for .44 cartridges but should work well for .36s.

The paper did not completely combust but this did not impede subsequent shots.

The RWS caps were very hot and fragmented quite a bit. I did not get any cap jams with them. I also tried some CCI No.11 caps, which resulted in a few cap jams.

For the last cylinder of the day I used plastic ring caps sold for use with toy cap guns. They also worked fine with loose powder and ball (by that point I was out of cartridges). A few had to be pried off the nipples after firing, however.

Towards the end of the day I noticed that the hand was flopping back and forth in its slot, instead of being spring loaded. It's not uncommon for hand springs on the Italian Remington replicas to break, so that what I thought happened.

Today I detail stripped the gun for the first time and it looks like there never was a hand spring. WTF?

There should be a flat spring in that slot. The picture below shows a spare parts kit for Pietta 1858 Remingtons. The hand is to the left of the hammer.

My Euroarms revolver was made by Armi San Paolo, who went out of business in the early 2000s. Replacement parts are largely unobtanium.

After doing some research it looks like I can make a new hand spring from a bobby pin, so I bummed one from my daughter.

I'll post a follow up after I'm able to do some 'smithing.

Combustible Paper Cartridges for Cap and Ball Revolvers

 During the 1850s and '60s, percussion revolvers were often loaded using combustible cartridges. This was especially true during the Civil War when both sides bought millions of them for issue to their armies. Originally, Colt's cartridges were made from foil but this proved troublesome and they switched to nitrated gut or paper.

Before the cartridges were constructed the gut or paper was soaked in a strong solution of potassium nitrate (KN03) AKA saltpeter. This helped ensure that the cartridge casing would burn as completely as possible.

Cartridges for .36 caliber Navy revolvers usually contained around 17 grains of powder and a ~145 grain conical. Those for .44 Army revolvers carried around 25 grains of powder and a 200 - 260 grain conical bullet.

However, loose powder and ball were also widely used. Revolvers sold on the civilian market often came with a mold which could cast one bullet and one ball. Powder was carried in and dispensed from a flask with a spout that could measure the right charge.

Usually the entire cartridge was loaded into the revolver chamber without first tearing it open to dump in the powder, or pricking the base through the nipple. This wasn't necessary for a couple reasons. First, on percussion revolvers the flash channel from the nipple is right at the base of the chamber so the flash from the cap will be strong. Second, the cartridges were tapered. When it was rammed home it ruptured and powder was exposted to the flash.

Several years ago I experimented with combustible cartridges made from cigarette rolling papers and they worked pretty well. I recently saw the kits sold by Guns of the Old West and available on Etsy. They include a forming mandrel, funnel/powder measure, a forming die, rolling papers, pre-cut cartridge bases, a glue stick, and a tube of bullet lube (50/50 beeswax and lamb's tallow), all in a nice plastic case. The mandrels, dies, and funnel are 3D printed.

I ordered a kit for making cartridges for my .36 and .44 caliber revolvers, and some extra papers. They arrived about a week later and I put together two dozen .44 caliber cartridges the other day.

The rounds I made are loaded with a Hornady .454 round ball on top of about 25 grains of 3Fg black powder.

The seller didn't include any instructions but he has a good video on YouTube demonstrating how to make the cartridges.

Basically, you make a tapered paper tube around the mandrel, glue on a base using the forming die, and cut the tube to length. After the glue dries you pour a measured amount of powder in and glue in your ball or bullet. The .44 mandrel has a 25 grain measure built in, while the .36 has a 17 grain measure.

I also tried using an empty .303 British case for a mandrel and found it easier to roll tight tubes on it. A 7.62x54R empty should work as well. The outside diameter near the base is perfect for a .454 ball. I then transferred the tube to the mandrel from the kit and used that to add the cap and trim to length.

Some pictures, first, some of the envelopes/cases while the glue dried:

I used a loading block to hold them:

Until I shoot them I'm keeping them in a small cardboard box.

I made some others using a slightly different technique. Instead of trimming the ball end I left it uncut and just twisted them over the top. I put a little glue on the excess material and then twisted it shut.

This is not period correct but has some advantages:

1. It’s less work.
2. It’s less mess.
3. There is enough room for a lube cookie or wad. I tried putting a wad in one but it’s too large and couldn’t get it to go in straight. A smaller diameter wad would work.
4. I could bump the charge to 30 grains.
5. The twist over the ball holds the projectile more securely, as I just proved to myself when I tried smearing some Bore Butter on the cartridges.

I'm planning to shoot them tomorrow in this Euroarms Remington Army.

Cheap Spot Lighting for Work Areas

Ever since I added a workbench to my home office, I've enjoyed tinkering with things inside, rather than out in my shop, where it's not climate controlled. The workbench has an LED light strip mounted on the bottom of the shelf that's attached to the backboard, but it doesn't give me good direct overhead lighting.

So, I found some inexpensive, LED sewing machine lights on Amazon. The referral link sends you to Amazon for a set of two. See below, top center.

The lights have a magnetic base. I have this one stuck to the metal top shelf, but the set also comes with two adhesive-backed metal disks that you can use to mount them to non-magnetic surfaces. The lights run off standard 120VAC.

I'm planning to use the other one on my milling machine.