Posted: 9/22/2013 8:01:51 PM EDT
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I have just recently decided to get into black powder shooting and, history aside, am as ignorant as a new born babe at this point. Yesterday I bought a Pietta Colt 1851 Navy Revolver in .44. I know that's not historically accurate, but I plan on buying other black powder revolvers that will be historically accurate in .44 and I want to stick to a single caliber.
I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet, but I am seeing a problem in just working the hammer at my desk. From resting on a cone/nipple, when I cock the hammer, the cylinder rotates to the next cone and then a little more. If I let the hammer down, it strikes the cylinder itself, not the cone, where a cap would be. %20Cylinder%201.JPG)
Rather than hit the cones, the Hammer lands on the section between them, shown here. (Not my gun) To make matters more odd, if I cock the hammer again, it then rotates the correct distance it was supposed to rotate to begin with, but from the wrong starting point. Meaning the hammer starts on one side of a cone and ends up on the other side. If I manually adjust the cylinder, the problem restarts. Has anyone had any experience with such an issue and were they able to resolve it? |
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Not being able to play with your revolver and just going off what I think I understand from your description I'm going to say the locking bolt is not engaging the cylinder. You should be ble to hear it snap up just before you get to full cock.
Remove the barrel from the gun. Remove the cylinder and cycle the action. Does the locking bolt snap up from the bottom of the frame? If it doesn't it could be ill fitting parts or a broken bolt/trigger spring. If it does snap up does it snap up before full cock. Does it engage the locking cutout in the cylinder? |
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It could be as simple as the flat leaf-type spring being broken and not engaging the bolt, which locks the cylinder in place when cocked. That's your most likely problem.
If that's not the case, check for a broken hand/spring assembly. But from what you described, the bolt-trigger spring being broken is most likely. The more you shoot your BP replica, the more of them you will break. When you order a replacement, order several to keep them on hand. |
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Quoted:
The 1851 can use wire bolt/trigger springs made for the 1873 clones. The wire springs are much more durable then the flat springs. Also, check and make sure the hand spring isn't broken as well. I'll have to try that. I checked to see if a wire replacement spring would work in one of my 1858 Remingtons last time I broke the trigger/bolt spring but it was too short. I'll try a wire replacement when I end up breaking the original spring on my Pietta 1851. I always keep some on hand so I can drop in a replacement in my 1873 replicas whenever they break, since they always do. I wish someone would come out with a wire replacement for the 1858 Remington. I can't even guess how many of the flat springs I've replaced over the past 25 years. |
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I don't hear anything click just before the hammer reaches full cock and the bolt doesn't seem to be raised enough. While the cylinder can never be turned counter clockwise, I can still rotate it clockwise, even when at full cock.
I'll look for wire spring replacements over flat springs as well, so thanks for the tip! And thanks to all y'all for helping to diagnose my problem. |
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Quoted:
I don't hear anything click just before the hammer reaches full cock and the bolt doesn't seem to be raised enough. While the cylinder can never be turned counter clockwise, I can still rotate it clockwise, even when at full cock. I'll look for wire spring replacements over flat springs as well, so thanks for the tip! And thanks to all y'all for helping to diagnose my problem. Just to ensure you do have a broken spring and something not just blocking the movement of the bolt, pull the triggerguard/grip assembly off to inspect it. If you need a replacement, you can get the Heinie brand wire spring for the 1873 at Brownell's HERE. |
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Okay, so a few updates and a couple of questions:
First, when taking apart my revolver to make sure I needed to buy a bolt-trigger spring I discovered that it didn't have a wire spring or a leaf spring. Instead, what it had was this little guy: If this thing is a legitimate part, I'm not seeing it on the list here: http://www.taylorsfirearms.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/1/8/1851-navy-pietta-schematic800x800_1.jpg Does anyone recognize it? Whatever it is, it wasn't doing the bolt-trigger spring's job very well so I ordered the wire spring one Hawgleg44 linked to and it just arrived today. Happy happy, joy joy, right? Sadly, not... I've tried to install it without success and it appears to be less than a millimeter too short. See how it just misses hooking the trigger? Now either I'm just a complete retard or rumors about this product being compatible with 1851 navy revolvers have been greatly exaggerated. I'm hoping I'm just an idiot and someone will be able to tell me how I'm not installing the spring correctly. Otherwise, I'll just have to give up on the wire spring and order the old leaf spring variety. |
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Neither can I when I open this page in Firefox, but Chrome works fine. I hate computers...
How's about this instead: Here are two wire springs. I bought the Heinie one, but is there any difference between it and the Wolff product? If the Wolff spring is slightly longer, then I just bought the wrong product. If not, then I don't know what to do. http://www.brownells.com/handgun-parts/trigger-group-parts/sear-parts/sear-springs/sear-bolt-springs-prod25464.aspx I know it primarily shows a leaf spring, but the page is also selling a wire spring. http://www.brownells.com/handgun-parts/trigger-group-parts/trigger-parts/trigger-springs/single-action-trigger-bolt-spring-prod6875.aspx |