gunmod

This is the story of my adventure into modifing a BAND NEW GUN...
It is the Pietta 1858 Remington 44 Cal. New Model Army with 5 1/2 in. barrel.
How it looked when I bought it..

The first thing I didn't like on the 5 1/2 inch barrel is the looks of the loading lever under the barrel.
So this is what I did using a Dremel tool, cut off blade, grinding wheel and buffer wheel with buffing compound.

I think it looks better and gives the gun a meaner look..

A big problem arose when I tried to use Conical bullets in this gun rather than Round Ball.. Seems Remington did not allow enough room for a Conical bullet to be rotated under the Loading lever plunger.. So for them to work, I had to remove some of the metal on the frame..

The area circled above was catching and stopping a Conical bullet from being rotated.

In this picture you can see the area after modification using a Dremel tool and small grinding stone, and buffing wheel with buffing compound. Now Conical Bullets are easily loaded..

Now comes the SCARY part... Remingtons New Model Army does not allow use of any other capper than a 20 cap Musket capper like this one that has a narrow feed point, see circled area.

Below is the 100 cap pistol capper I want to use as it holds a lot more caps and protects caps from bad weather. You can see it has a lot wider feed point , see circled area..

You can see in this picture why this is a problem with the Remington Cylinder below as it comes from the factory.

For me to use the capper I want, I will have to widen the access areas of every nipple on the 2 cylinders I have for this gun --- and make them look a like.. Whew, not looking forward to this part of the Modification.

OK, got the job done, doesn't look to bad.. I used a Dremel tool and a medium sized grinding stone that was just the size needed.. Followed it up with light sanding then Dremel tool buffing with compound.

So here was the over all plan from the start..

And here is the finished gun...

I used Cold Bluing on all the exposed areas I worked on..
Didn't quite match the black factory Blue job but did OK and Good Enough for me..

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