Uberti 49 Pocket

[Navy Six]

Last week I mentioned the results I got with a Uberti 62 Pocket Navy. Basically, a cut down Colt SAA mainspring and Slix Shot nipples solved my problem. Trying the same approach with a Uberti 49 Pocket, I installed a similar mainspring but did't have another set of Slix Shots handy--you have to turn down the shoulder diameter a bit on the Slix Shots to fit the Pocket cylinders. Shooting a load of 13grs 3F Olde Enysford, .323 round ball & Rem #10 caps, I had one cap suck after another for 15 rounds along with one failure of the cap to fire. Kicking myself for not waiting to procure the Slix Shots and curious about the one failure to fire, I glanced at the now empty cylinder. With the hammer down it appeared there was a more than normal gap between the hammer face and nipple. I backed each nipple out about one turn and tried again. Surprisingly, I fired this thing for 20 more rounds without the slightist issue! I am at a loss to explain this. Did the apparently excessive gap, prior to turning out the stock Uberti nipples, give the exploded cap a "running start" at blowing back the hammer?
 The other surprise was how this thing shot. At 8 yards both windage & elevation were right on the money and I was able to get about a 3 in. group. Thats about as good as I can shoot this thing with that tiny front sight. I still plan to install either Tresso or Slix Shot nipples, but at least now I have two Pocket Models that actually work.

[pony express]

Just for something else to wonder about, I used to shoot a couple of unmodified Pietta 1860s for my main match guns. And they were pretty reliable. But one morning, getting ready to go-I discovered a broken hammer spring on one. Then I discovered that the spring from my Uberti Pocket Police fit just fine. And reliability was good also-but the same spring in the Pocket Police had problems with hammer blowback, eating caps, etc. Maybe the greater mass of the 1860 hammer helps it resist blowback?