Pietta 1873 .357 Question

[Somerset Bar]

Hi guys, I've got one of these revolvers, with a bit of an issue... When in half ####, the cylynder lock engages and I can't rotate the cylinder to load or unload, I have to do it holding the hammer back just past the 1/4 (?) #### position.

So I'm wondering, I replaced a few parts in this gun (firing pin, bushing, springs etc) so I'm now fairly familiar with the gun, but which part has worn or is out of sync do you think? It's driving me nuts because it's a really fun gun to shoot, and it's sort of a stepping stone to getting a real colt

 

[fingers284]

Two things that are the most common causes of what you describe.

One of the wish bone ends of the locking bolt regulates the timing of the bolt locking up the cylinder when it slides of the hammer cog as you #### the gun. Either the cog on the hammer is wore down enough or the whish bone end of the bolt is wore off enough, that at the half #### position of the hammer, the bolt isn't being actuated enough. Usually the wishbone leg breaks somewhere along the shank but if the tip breaks off it can act as you describe.

The second thing that might be out of whack is the 1/2 #### notch in the hammer has been deformed from a shock or miss-use. The sear settles into the de-formed notch before the locking bolt is fully actuated Common cause is the gun being dropped while at half ####.

 

[Somerset Bar]

Two things that are the most common causes of what you describe.

One of the wish bone ends of the locking bolt regulates the timing of the bolt locking up the cylinder when it slides of the hammer cog as you #### the gun. Either the cog on the hammer is wore down enough or the whish bone end of the bolt is wore off enough, that at the half #### position of the hammer, the bolt isn't being actuated enough. Usually the wishbone leg breaks somewhere along the shank but if the tip breaks off it can act as you describe.

The second thing that might be out of whack is the 1/2 #### notch in the hammer has been deformed from a shock or miss-use. The sear settles into the de-formed notch before the locking bolt is fully actuated Common cause is the gun being dropped while at half ####.

Okay thanks. I'm going to pop it open again and see if I can witness what is going on, but wanted to know what to look for. This gun was used in cowboy action stuff and I assume...badly treated so what you describe is definitely possible. If I was just to replace parts, would it be bolt and hammer?

 

[BCRider]

If you are moving it back too far after the first click then this can happen. To see what is going on easily remove the base pin and cylinder. Then as you #### the hammer watch the bolt. It should draw down into the opening and latch there at the half #### click. But the next click that releases it is pretty soon after that. If your gun has a fairly soft half #### sound and feel you may be missing it and thinking that the stop release click is the half #### click. Or one option is that due to mismatches with the parts you swapped out that the click after the half #### is now too close.

 

[Somerset Bar]

If you are moving it back too far after the first click then this can happen. To see what is going on easily remove the base pin and cylinder. Then as you #### the hammer watch the bolt. It should draw down into the opening and latch there at the half #### click. But the next click that releases it is pretty soon after that. If your gun has a fairly soft half #### sound and feel you may be missing it and thinking that the stop release click is the half #### click. Or one option is that due to mismatches with the parts you swapped out that the click after the half #### is now too close.

It had this problem before the spring/pin swap, perhaps not as bad. It's definitely in the 1/2 #### position, the bolt retracts until 1mm before the happer hits half #### and it comes right back up to the locked position. I didn't really think I was replacing anything that would affect the gun detrimentally, the firing pin bushing had been hollowed out from what I assume was dry firing, and the firing pin 'pin' was mangled. That was a relatively easy fix... This one is a bit trickier, but I figure it's fixable. It shoots pretty good for an inexpensive gun (I only put out $250 for it)