Gadget
A new repro SMith? Or an original? I always recommend the originals. As they cost about the same as a repro and are far better.
Gadget
A new repro SMith? Or an original? I always recommend the originals. As they cost about the same as a repro and are far better.
Lou Lou Lou Ruggiero
Tammany Regt-42nd NYVI
A most fascinating thread, technically and philosophically. All of us old timers have faced the dilemma of "what do you do??" when unexpected gremlins show up from a recent gun purchase. Solutions generally involve various of cans of worms.
MR. GADGET
NRA LIFE BENEFACTOR MEMBER
Rowan Artillery
N-SSA National Provost Guard
Just remember!
When a pot needs stirring, someone needs to do it...
Agreed, that?s why I recommend originals. Repro tumblers need to be reshaped. Flash channels have to be lined because of casting not being forged solid. Cheaper to buy original and get it shooting
Lou Lou Lou Ruggiero
Tammany Regt-42nd NYVI
I'm probably going to buy a nice original Smith from a teammate as soon as I scrape the pennies together, but it's going to cost $2100.
I got the repro Smith for $1195, shipped. Cost another $265 to have it fixed, so total cost was $1460. Definitely getting up there into original territory.
Hard to find nice-looking original Smiths for less than $2K though.
There is a very fine one on Gunbroker right now with a buy-now price of $2500:
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/875721027
Here is a pretty good looking one for buy-now of $1800:
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/875721015
Steve
Steve Sheldon
Commander
4th Louisiana Delta Rifles
NRA Certified Muzzleloading Instructor
Well my Pietta Smith is a tack driver. It took years before I got it this way. Here's my take on this Smith quest.
Forget the original unless you are also a collector. The Pietta will do everything you want it to do if you understand ----------
the Pietta has very shallow rifling that fouls quickly. This is THE problem with the Pietta Smith. The fouling is a combination of black powder fouling and leading from commonly used long, shallow groove bullets scraping off too much lead as they travel down the barrel.
This is solved by a combination of low friction bullet and gobs of lube. You need a bullet with HUGE grease grooves.
Here is the bullet (Lee .50 320).
Good luck.
Last edited by Eggman; 08-06-2020 at 12:25 PM.
I agree the grooves in my Pietta Smith look very shallow compared to say, my Sharps.
Steve
Steve Sheldon
Commander
4th Louisiana Delta Rifles
NRA Certified Muzzleloading Instructor
Some of the folks reading this may not be all that familiar with this type of bullet. They evolved out of the muzzleloading craze of the 70s. A large portion of the guns those days came from Italy. And like the Pietta, they were invariably shallow rifled. Nearly everybody buying these guns wanted to use them hunting, and did not like the slow loading patched round ball. Thus came these bullets -- the top ring (here about .515) grabs the rifling all by itself while the rest of the bullet aligns nicely with the bore. When well greased they load nicely in the front stuffers. They also load nicely in the Pietta Smith.
Have reread this thread. There's no doubt in my mind that once the population of Pietta Smith shooters have read it they will soon be soaring with the eagles!
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