Smith Beginner Questions

[oscarlovel]

I'm planning on loading some cartridges today and trying out my Pietta Smith for the first time. Plan is to use 30-35 grains of 3FG with filler and a Rapine 515365 bullet in the black plastic cases. I'm wondering if I will need to raise the front sight on this carbine. It seems fairly high already from the factory, but thought someone here could enlighten me. I would appreciate any thoughts or recommendations. Thanks.

[Southron Sr.]

First things First! Work on developing the most accurate load for your carbine. Try various charges of black powder to find the exact charge that gives you the smallest group.

After that is done, then adjust your sights so the bullets go exactly where you airm the sights.
GOOD LUCK!

P.S. Cream of Wheat as a "filler?" You must be from the Nawth! Patriotic Southerners use only GRITS as a "filler" in their Smith loads!

[oscarlovel]

Grits or corn meal only. Where in the world did you get the idea that I would ever use COW. Heaven forbid!!!LOL!!

[R. McAuley 3014V]

One thing you might want to add to your kit is the large Lyman mould handles. They come in very handy for pulling the empty plastic Smith tubes out of the chamber after you have fired. It's either this or you can just stand on the firing line and throw rocks at the targets when you have a tube stuck in the chamber. Been there one too many times, and that's why I went back to a muzzle-stuffer. Now, instead of shooting 20 rounds in three minutes and counting half as many hits, it's one shot, one hit! I still have my Smith, but I like my Richmond carbine so much better.

[pastore]

One thing you might want to add to your kit is the large Lyman mould handles. They come in very handy for pulling the empty plastic Smith tubes out of the chamber after you have fired. It's either this or you can just stand on the firing line and throw rocks at the targets when you have a tube stuck in the chamber. Been there one too many times, and that's why I went back to a muzzle-stuffer. Now, instead of shooting 20 rounds in three minutes and counting half as many hits, it's one shot, one hit! I still have my Smith, but I like my Richmond carbine so much better.


I have been shoting a Smith since 1971. I have NEVER had a plastic tube stick in the chamber.

[Ron/The Old Reb]

"just stand on the firing line and throw rocks at the targets when you have a tube stuck in the chamber."

Buy a new lube pad. Go to Wal-Mart and get a spry can of silicone. Spray the lube pad with the silicone. After you have loaded the plastic tubs roll them back and forth on the lube pad. I have been doing this for a number of years and never get a stuck tub. :idea:

[John Holland]

My experience has been the same as Fletcher's. In the late 1960's I used Yeck's white plastic tubes and switched to the black neoprene when they became available. I've never had either tube stick in the chamber. That was over 30 years service of an original Smith which I retired in favor of a Maynard about 10 years ago.

JDH
44th NY

[Eggman]

The black plastic tubes expand after repeated use. When you sit down to relaod them, notice I said RELOAD them, check each tube for fit in the rear end of your carbine first. Not only have I had a case not want to come out during competition, more than that I have had them not want to go in, in which cased I disgustedly pitched them to the ground. My load is 35 grains 3F with a traditional Smith bullet and mucho Crisco grease (applied around the bullet ogive just before shooting). Very very consistent. I raised my front sight quite a bit for 50yd zero. I raise the ramp with a small washer placed upon/around the sight mounting screw for the 100 yrd distance. Look for a proper replacement for your clean out screw early.

[R. McAuley 3014V]

Perhaps I should have clarified that the “sticking” problem (and also the refusal problems in loading) were only encountered with the black plastic tubes and a Pietta Smith. There were no such problems were ever encountered when I was shooting an original Smith or my Yeck Smith (which I shot for 20 years) using the white plastic tubes. I used the white tubes up until I bought my first Navy Arms Smith in 2000 principally because my supply of white tubes had dwindled to fewer than 100 (that had not already split along the side), and upon the fact that the white tubes became rather scarce. Although I even considered having the Yeck’s chamber bored out to accept the larger black plastic tubes, I decided instead to buy a second Navy Arms Smith and simply elected to retire the Yeck. Probably not the best decision I’ve made but I do enjoy using the Richmond carbine because it uses exactly the same load as my ’55 rifle, and is much more consistent (not just throw lead downrange). I never had any problems with the Smith's accuracy, when it behaved.

By the way John, I quite enjoyed shooting a Maynard, and started out using one of the Harpers Ferry Maynard (1977-78). Then at the first Aberdeen skirmish (1980), held at Emory Morgan’s back forty (in 100-plus degree heat), I was shooting Joe Howard’s original Smith next to one of the former 6th Alabama Raccoon Roughs who was shooting a new Shiloh Sharps. As I would break a round, and he’d break a round, I had probably not fired more than maybe three or four shots when the Rough suddenly turned to me in disgust, and exclaimed how he couldn’t concentrate on his shooting as long as I was shooting a Smith (along with a few expletives omitted here), then he stormed off the line without finishing his target. It was then when I realized the true advantage of shooting a Smith! :D

[John Holland]

Richard,

You are right about the problems with the black neoprene tubes in a Pietta Smith. The problem is with the Pietta, not the tube.

John

[Ken Hansgen, 11094]

I have a Pietta Smith but with a Hoyt reline. Using the black plastic tubes, I have had a few that were too big to chamber & others that were difficult to extract. Began carrying a pair of plyers to the line in my haversack for this reason. Have not had this problem recently, tho', since I have become much more choosy about sorting out the old, worn-out tubes. Am anxious now to try the new/old fashioned kinda hard rubber tubes from Steve Balla.

P.S. Shouldn't his thread be in the Shooting Tech's etc. section, tho'?

[Jim Leinicke 7368V]

Ken-
Do you have contact information on Steve Bala and these new tubes of which you speak? If there is a new Smith tube out there, I would like to try it. Like some of the other guys here, I was/am fond of the old Yeck white tubes, but am now down to less than 50 of the precious things.

Jim Leinicke
114th Illinois

[John Holland]

Jim,

The link is over on the "Wanted/For Sale" page under "Rubber Smith Tubes".

JDH

[Southron Sr.]

If I were to have problems with tubes sticking in my Smith chamber, I would polish the chamber by removing the barrel/forearm assembly from the action. Then I would set the barrel/forearm assembly up in a drill press and using a Dremel Tool felt buffer tip and Jeweler's Rouge, polish out the chamber.

That should solve the stuck cases problem.

[R. McAuley 3014V]

Since my last post on this topic, I purchased one of Joe Plakis’ Smith Plastic tube sizers, and have re-sized several of my black plastic tubes. In the process, I have found that apparently one particular batch of 50 black plastic tubes bought from Rebel Trader on sutler’s row were not only “oversized” but the diameter of the inside so tight, the outside of the tube swelled to be too large for the chamber when loaded, making it almost impossible to load or to remove the tubes after firing.

Not that I know what diameter chamber Pietta used for their production “standard”, my Smith’s chamber measures 0.658-inch diameter. But while re-sizing my tubes, I also found that quite a number of black tubes are “undersized” and would pass through the sizer with no effort, and I have set these aside until I can evaluate them independently, as they may provide the answer to my earlier woes.

Although I bought 100 of Steve Bala’s orange rubber tubes, I found the mouths of those tubes to be too large for my .513 bullet, and the bullet falls out just in handling them followed by the powder charge. So I have got to find some method to shrink them to fit or stick to my black tubes or brass ones. I have at least 100 brass cases but these have a capacity of only 23 or 28 grains, and I used 32 grains with a 310 grain Rapine 515320 wadcutter. I may try the .519 bullet I use with my Spencer (it’s Larry Romano’s 395-grain bullet), and may try to drill out more metal from the brass tubes to increase their capacity.

[rachbobo]

For what it's worth ,a year ago I bought a bag of plastic tubes from a sutler only to find that they were oversized or so I thought. I had to use a pair of pliers to pull them out even without firing a round.
It turns out that my original Smith has a tight chamber so there was nothing wrong with the tubes.
I made a mandrel and chucked it up in my lathe. I slid a tube over it and with a few strokes with a wide flat file I reduced them in diameter and they work fine now.
If you don't have a lathe you can use a 1/2 inch drill to spin them.

Bill Cheek
Cockade Rifles