Ian
Notorious member
Been wanting one for a while and Bwana's ad rag showed up a few days ago reminding me they exist. Apparently Pietta screwed up their design in 2020 and Howell has discontinued these until, basically, Pietta gets their shtuff together (or the few left that C19 didn't wipe out figure out how things are supposed to fit).
Anyway, I got one of the last ones before it was too late and it is most excellent save it is too damned short. The notes say that 1.560" is max OAL and it's a little closer to 1.573", but I load my .45 Colt ammo to 1.600" (SAMMI maximum) because everything else I own in this chambering will handle that and more. Looks like I'll have to load some special mild and short ammo for this one, but that still beats having to boil and scrub it after every outing and trying to find #10 percussion caps in the middle of a record shortage. Had to do some work to the revolver (naturally). The bolt wouldn't release the cylinder because of manufacturing tolerances stacking the wrong way, so I had to heat and bend the left bolt tail down a little, harden it, and bring it back to a spring temper. It didn't take much bending at all to fix it.
Upside down and backwards but this angle showed it best.
The hand is a fuzz short for this cylinder, but the bolt locks in every case but very slow hammer cocking. I'll think about stretching it IF the cylinder system proves worthwhile at the range.
Anyway, I got one of the last ones before it was too late and it is most excellent save it is too damned short. The notes say that 1.560" is max OAL and it's a little closer to 1.573", but I load my .45 Colt ammo to 1.600" (SAMMI maximum) because everything else I own in this chambering will handle that and more. Looks like I'll have to load some special mild and short ammo for this one, but that still beats having to boil and scrub it after every outing and trying to find #10 percussion caps in the middle of a record shortage. Had to do some work to the revolver (naturally). The bolt wouldn't release the cylinder because of manufacturing tolerances stacking the wrong way, so I had to heat and bend the left bolt tail down a little, harden it, and bring it back to a spring temper. It didn't take much bending at all to fix it.
Upside down and backwards but this angle showed it best.
The hand is a fuzz short for this cylinder, but the bolt locks in every case but very slow hammer cocking. I'll think about stretching it IF the cylinder system proves worthwhile at the range.