Pietta 1858 New Model Army .44

[Blighty]

Picked this up for very little. Looks barely used.

Question is this. What do I need to make this thing run?

Looking for sage advice regarding what reloading kit I need and what I don’t.

Already picked up a couple of boxes of Hornady balls.

Still need to apply for permission to hold black powder.

[Graham M]

I have one of those and the first thing you want to do is make up a batch of "Bore butter". This will stop the fouling from gumming up the cylinder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLh9MvI-PAM

[dromia]

All you need is powder, caps and balls.

There is no need for any form of grease, semolina, wads and such like.

Grease only makes the fouling worse, just wipe down after each cylinder with a damp cloth, baby wipes or such like.

Sam Colt never advocated grease of any sort with his revolvers all he loaded with was powder, cap and ball. 'Twas how it was done back in the day.

Choosing a good moist powder is also key, cheap powders like Krankies nutty slack for instance cakes hard and quickly and should be avoided.

Swiss is my black powder of choice.

Do a search this has been covered on here many times afore.

You will need to slightly lube the cylinder pin though as it is a moving part, I recommend water pump grease.

The only other thing you will need is some way of measuring and dispensing the powder, many ranges now require muzzle loaders to be loaded with pre-measured charges.

I use https://www.ballmoulds.com/product/powder-dispenser/ in conjunction with [url][https://www.ballmoulds.com/product/powd ... -pick//url]

[Graham M]

Bore butter isn't grease Adam it's a mixture of beeswax and olive oil. The Pietta copy of the Remington 1858 is notorious for gumming up as it doesn't have the grooves cut into the cylinder spindle. There was a thread on here not too long ago about this very thing and it was agreed that this was a common fault with this gun. Anything with petroleum based oils and grease are a no-no as they simply cause the fouling to go rock hard. The bore butter acts as a brilliant lube and keeps the fouling nice and soft.
I was a sceptic as well until I tried it.

[Graham M]

Get some of these to put your powder in as they are easy to carry and if you weigh the charge first it is easy to load up on the range without worrying about measuring out charges as you are shooting.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CP6XBXWB/ ... F9kZXRhaWw

[dromia]

Aye I know what bore butter is, it is still a grease just not petroleum based.

Petroleum based grease is fine on the cylinder stub as it isn't exposed to the hot gasses in the same way that it would be if in a chamber so doesn't cake. Water pump grease is a high temperature grease and doesn't cake even when loaded in a chamber not that I am advocating doing that.

Even in the Piettas I haven't found binding a problem unless you are using poor quality powder.