The early Navy Arms (Peitta) Smiths, made in the early 1990s, had some issues. Many of the bores had to be lapped if not relined in order to shoot accurately. During production, the barrels had received heat treating before being rifled, and the metal was harder at either end of the breech than in the center of the bore, causing the cutter to bite more in the center than at the two ends. This meant that the bore was larger near the center than at either end, causing the bullets to strip out of the rifling as well as leading problems. Of the two Smiths I bought, the first one I bought (made in 1991) was better than the second (made in 2000). The last was like a hose pipe - no consistency. One round would go low, the next 10 inches higher. I had Bobby Hoyt to reline it, and after it would drill one ragged hole!
Although I experimented with various bullets, the Lyman 141139 seemed as good as any. When Rapine was in business, they made a similar bullet #515365 (365 grains) that for a time, the machinist helping out was producing oval bullets. But when I got the mould replaced, the new "round" bullets shot very tight using just 35 grains of FFFg. I used the brass reduced capacity tubes only because the black plastic tubes tend to stretch after use, when they don't get hung in the bore or you cannot get them to slide into the bore, period. Also tried the orange rubber tubes but the bullets kept falling out when handled on the firing line. With the Pietta Smith, you need to liberally lubricate the bore before shooting and between relays if shirmishing. Since you are shooting a "push" gun there is no sense in sizing a bullet from a .515 mould down to .512, and you can shoot the bulllets right out of the mould. Just insure that the edge of the bullet base is crisp and not rounded, as the latter may lead to uneven pressure. Again, the Smith responds best to consistency.
I use Hoppes No. 9 solvent to clean the bore and usually get the bore clean after less than 10 patches using a .50 cal jag rod. I would not recommend using hard lead unless you want leading at the muzzle. Plumber's lead is 95/5 is aboiut as pure as needed. The Pietta rifling is very shallow and responds best to pure lead bullets. Before buying the Navy Arms Smith, I had shot a Yeck replica Smith which had a greater depth rifling and could handle harder lead just as my Romano Spencer does, but the Yeck just didn't have the eye appeal of the Navy Arms product. Before going to the black reduced capacity plastic tubes, Mike Yeck had sold a while nylon plastic tube that was larger inside and could hold up to 45 grains. Folks wanting to shoot lighter charges often loaded cream of wheat or grits as a filler on top the charge to hold it at the base of the tube for consistent ignition For sighting, I use a 6 o'clock sight picture (top of the front sight blade at the bottom of the vee of the rear sight) for 50 yards, and 12 o'clock sight picture (top of the vee) for 100 yards. This way I can shoot the same load for either distance without making up special ammo to change the range. Back in the 1950s before anyone began making plastic tubes to fit the Smith, many early N-SSA skirmishers bought one metallic cartridge for the breech, and loaded the carbines as muzzle-loaders.
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