Pietta Starr Single Action .44 Caliber Revolver, Pistols & Revolvers, Black Powder, Shooting : Cabela's

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Pietta Starr Single Action .44 Caliber Revolver at Cabela's

s7_217649_999_01

Pietta Starr Single Action .44 Caliber Revolver

Regular Price:: $529.99

Qty: Item: IK-217649

Limited Stock

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Description Customer Reviews (1) Q & A

Pietta Starr Single Action .44 Caliber Revolver

A popular revolver with Union troops
Blued finish with case-hardened hammer and lever
Walnut grips

Originally designed by Starr as an improved and less expensive alternative to its double-action Model 1858. About 32,000 were made between 1863-1865, putting it third behind Colt and Remington in revolvers purchased by the U.S. government during the Civil War. It has a round, six-shot cylinder with nipples that partially protrude out the rear. Walnut grips. Blued finish with case-hardened hammer and lever. Round 8" barrel.
Overall length: 13-3/4".
Weight: 2 lbs. 12 oz.

Text Size: A A A

Overall Customer Rating:

3 out of 5

0 out of 1(0%)customers would recommend this product to a friend.

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Rating breakdown 1 review

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1 Star

Product ReviewsReview This Product

Overall Customer Rating:

3 out of 5

CAPBUSTER457

Location:Crete, Ne.

Age:56-65

Gender:Male

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

STARR SA REVOLVER: HAS PROBLEMS.

Date:October 13, 2011

I debated with myself for sometime on whether or not to purchase a Starr revolver as they are a bit expensive.
I wanted a Starr to round out my C&B collection as it is an unique pistol, so purchased the SA model from Cabela's.
The blue finish on the pistol is very good. There is no case hardening anywhere. Grips are of a dark, walnut colored wood.
At first glance this pistol appears huge, a side by side comparison with one of my Remington's shows that the Starr is no larger (both have 8 in. barrels). The appearance of being larger I think is
due to the odd pistol grip which protrudes outward and down from the pistol frame, giving the Starr a slightly longer grip.
My second impression of the Starr is that it is a rather ugly looking pistol. It was made for function,
not esthetics. The Starr also felt awkward in my hands at first.

The Starr presented several problems immediately.
1. I could not cock the hammer, both it and the cylinder were locked up tight.

2. The Starr is a "break top" revolver. A large knurled knob protrudes from the right side of the
frame, next to the hammer. This is the barre frame
retaining pin. This knob was stuck tight, had to use
a pair of padded jaw pliers to break it loose.
Removing this pin allows the barrel assembly to
pivot down, then you can remove the cylinder.

3. The cylinder has no thru & thru arbor pin. Instead a heavy bullet-shaped pin extends from the
open-chambers side of the cylinder, this pin mates with a hole in the lower barrel assembly.
A large circular protrusion extends from the nipple
side of the cylinder. This protrusion has six large lugs that engage with revolver's
rotation hand/pawl. This all fits into a large circular cutout in the inner recoil shield face.
The cylinder has 12 shallow, spindle-shaped bolt stop slots around its outer circumference, half of these slots are for locking the cylinder in battery, the others are "safety notches".

4. I could ot get the cylinder to freewheel with the hammer on half cock. The cylinder would only rotate the distance of two nipples, then lock up.
The bolt stop lub does retract, but it appears that the hand pawl does not retract far enough into its travel slot so that the tip of the hand still engages the cylinder rotation lugs, stopping it.
Don't know if this a fault of this particular pistol, or are they all like this?

5. The cylinder locks up if it is set at the safety notches (between nipples). Had to work the hammer and wiggle the cylinder to get it to rotate again.
6. The loading lever has a lot of side to side wobble
at its hinge point under the barrel.

RANGE REPORT:
1. Loaded all six chambers with 30 grains Pyrodex
P (3FG), about five grains of filler, greased wads and .454 round balls.
Loading was a problem, had to work hammer and wiggle cylinder to rotate loaded chambers under loading lever, even with hammer at half cock.
The compressed .454 round balls shaved nice lead rings around open chambers, indicating nice tight ball fits.

2. Had problems with finding good fitting caps on nipples. #10's & 11's. (CCI, Winchester, Remingtons). #10's all seemed a bit too small, #11's all seemed to be a bit too large. Settled on Winchester #11's. Had to pinch the caps to get tight
fits on the nipples. Didn't want a chance of cap flashover and possible chainfires as the nipples are not in safefty cutouts but project directly from the
cylinder.
3. Target set at 20 yards. I shot from a bench rest to gauge accuracy of the pistol. Starr shot high, about a foot above point of aim, that was expected.
Grouping was pretty wide, 6 - 8 inches.
Recoil was hard but not excessive. However the recoil did unlatch the loading lever several times.
Trigger break was crips and clean. The rear blade sight was hard to see because the sighting notch in the hammer is very shallow, giving a poor sight picture.
None of the caps fired the first time, they all fired on the second strike. Perhaps I have a weak hammer spring?
4. Reduced powder loads to 25 grains Pyro P.
Recoil was milder. Pistol still shot high but groups tightened up. After several cylinder loads I was consistently getting 3 -4 in. groups. Had no problems with cylinder binding due to powder fouling, greased wads also kept barrel bore pretty clean.
Starr grips are different than Colts, however the pistol did feel good in my hands and turned out to be a pretty good pointer.
5. After shooting I noticed that the cylinder bolt stop
was beginning to peen the outer circumfrence of the
cylinder, leaving a thin scratch line. This might indicate that the bolt stop is rising too soon while the cylinder is in travel. Don't know if I can fix that.
6. I may use a file to open the v-notch on the hammer to get a better sight picture. The wobbly loading lever needs a shim of some sort at its hinge point. Will look at putting a shim under the hammer spring to increase its tension.
7. I gave this Starr only three stars due to the many
mechanical problems. When if functions correctly it is a good shooter.
I would not recommend this pistol to anyone who is a new person to cap & ball shooting due to the previous problems mentioned.

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