RK0855 Pietta M1851 NAVY STEEL FRAME REVOLVER KIT

I love this revolver! I used this as my 4-H project this year in shooting sports. It has a good fit and crispness to it. 11 caps work very well with it and i would recomend it to everyone.

Casting qualities are exceptionally nice for the low cost of the kit. Mine was out of time and in no way shape or form ready to shoot when received. There is a fair amount of work to shape the frame to look right but is worth it for the final results. The factory nipples are poor there aren't two alike and they are too long and not shaped right. Recommend they be replaced if you plan on shooting it much. The cylinder bores were out of round by .002 presumably from the rolled engraving on the cylinder outside. All the cylinders were hand reamed to 3/8 in and I use .380 round balls with 20 grains of Goex. After getting sighted in it has become one of my favorite pistols to take to the range.

It says this is a skill level one kit and I suppose it is. In truth, however, it is whatever skill level you want it to be. The kit I received was perfectly timed and did not look horrendously unfinished. I can envision someone tossing it into a holster, taking it the the range, firing off a cylinder full of rounds then going home and hanging it on the wall and calling it rustic in appearance. The loading lever, and hammer were case hardened and displayed decent color. The barrel was polished and blued far better than I expected. Far better than I could achieve buffing it and applying cold blue. The trigger guard and down strap, as well as the back strap are rough castings that will need taken down with a file or dremel to be perfectly to match the frame, progressive grip polishing and buffing. The frame itself is in the raw. No color case hardening or blueing. It was sanded or ground smooth up to the recoil shield which is very pebbled in texture. It will need extensive sanding to get it ready for a finish. The grips are shaped and fractionally oversize allowing them to be perfectly sanded to match the back strap and down strap of the trigger guard. I am very pleased with the kit I received. I will offer two words of advise. The first in DO NOT start beating on the barrel wedge to get it out! Depress the spring retainer and push on the wedge to pop it out. The second is DO NOT take your 49 cent screw drivers to it. Break down and get screw drivers that actually fit. I can only imagine how many people have destroyed their project bt not following these two rules of thumb then blaming it on the quality of the kit. Enjoy...I am.

i ordered one of these kits on monday and over all im happy with it the fit is good i had no trouble getting the wedge out like many others have but i also depressed the little spring instead of beating it out. the metal itself could be a little bit harder for example the screws..... they are way to soft and so far 2 of 6 screws have been damage because they are driven in to tight im not sure if i can even get them out..... the steel frame is cast and it looks really soft also all in all its a decent made revolver for the price unless you want to spend the time cleaning and shaping things up and taking the risk of damaging the screws you should choose something else or it could just be i got the muscle of the factory with 2 bad screws lol

Be aware that the frame does NOT come case hardened like the pre assembled examples do. It will be near impossible to replicate the proper color case hardened finish for the average amateur and bluing is likely the only option albeit an inaccurate one.