Reichsrevolver Cylinder issue

T

Thiopento

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Hello,

I'm having a problem with my reichs revolver, when its pointed upward or sometimes even forward when the hammer is cocked it won't rotate the cylinder. I took it apart and attached is a picture and what I think is the problem, the hand attached to the hammer that moves the cylinder when the hammer is cocked falls back with gravity when the gun is pointed up and doesn't do its job of moving the cylinder. Does anyone know why its doing this? I can't find any obvious breaks or broken parts anywhere-

Cheers!

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Thiopento said:
Hello,

I'm having a problem with my reichs revolver, when its pointed upward or sometimes even forward when the hammer is cocked it won't rotate the cylinder. I took it apart and attached is a picture and what I think is the problem, the hand attached to the hammer that moves the cylinder when the hammer is cocked falls back with gravity when the gun is pointed up and doesn't do its job of moving the cylinder. Does anyone know why its doing this? I can't find any obvious breaks or broken parts anywhere-

Cheers!
Click to expand...

It appears you need a hand spring, there is no spring there to put tension on the hand so when you aim the gun upwards, gravity pulls it down and it will not engage the cylinder ratchets. I don't see any bits of it anywhere, you are missing it completely and will be required to either find a replacement, "not likely, but try numrich" or make a new one/get a gunsmith to.

If I remember correctly, there is a inlet on the inside of the side plate you took off, the handspring needs to go in there.
 
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Reichsrevolver hand springs are inside the hammer - not built into the hand like on other guns. The pivot pin attached to the hand has a flat in it that a flat spring bears on and keeps pressed down.

You can see the cutout for the hand spring in the front of the hammer here. The spring in turn is held in place and tensioned by a cross pin. Rather an eloquent system actually - a lot sturdier than the standard piddly little spring sticking out of the hand that bends/snaps/rusts out.

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Have the same issue with my Reich, tryna source the part presently or find a gunsmith/machinist who can fabricate that spring. I have an intact one from a friends reich for specs but i am having a hard time finding anyone who can do the job (shouldn't be that tough, its a simple flat bar piece with a little loop notch in it). PM me OP and maybe we can work on this together.
 
I've actually just sent an email to the guy I bought my M79 from. I can't get mine to go to 1\2 #### and the safety lever wont go when the gun is in full ####. Anybody have any suggestions? I've opened it up and looked and lubed--nothing obvious showing. To load it right now, the hammer drags against the cartridges.
 
If it'll go to full #### but won't catch at half then either your half #### notch is worn/cracked away (it happens when fudds don't know how a half #### works and force things, or the sear managed to contact the half #### while the hammer's falling), or there's something up with your sear or springs. A clear high-res picture of the spot like thiopento's in a new thread should help find the problem. You can see from Thiopento's picture that the half #### is clearly a deep notch to trap the sear while the full #### is a relatively fine edge further to the right.

The safety only works with the hammer down - it blocks the hammer from being cocked, hence why it doesn't work with the hammer cocked.

The hammer's meant to be in half #### for loading, so whatever your half #### problem is also results in the hammer dragging when loading.

If I've screwed up somewhere my apologies - I'm going from memory, haven't looked at a reichsrevolver's internals in months.



Finally - be wary of operating the gun without the side plate on - there's a fair degree of pressure on those cross pins in the frame that support the trigger and hammer - I have seen them both crack and fail being tested without the side plate on. Probably from past fatigue, but without the side plate to support the pin on both ends they certainly can break/shear then you're way further up the creek than when you started :p
 
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H Wally said:
If it'll go to full #### but won't catch at half then either your half #### notch is worn/cracked away (it happens when fudds don't know how a half #### works and force things, or the sear managed to contact the half #### while the hammer's falling), or there's something up with your sear or springs. A clear high-res picture of the spot like thiopento's in a new thread should help find the problem. You can see from Thiopento's picture that the half #### is clearly a deep notch to trap the sear while the full #### is a relatively fine edge further to the right.

The safety only works with the hammer down - it blocks the hammer from being cocked, hence why it doesn't work with the hammer cocked.

The hammer's meant to be in half #### for loading, so whatever your half #### problem is also results in the hammer dragging when loading.

If I've screwed up somewhere my apologies - I'm going from memory, haven't looked at a reichsrevolver's internals in months.



Finally - be wary of operating the gun without the side plate on - there's a fair degree of pressure on those cross pins in the frame that support the trigger and hammer - I have seen them both crack and fail being tested without the side plate on. Probably from past fatigue, but without the side plate to support the pin on both ends they certainly can break/shear then you're way further up the creek than when you started :p
Click to expand...

Thanks Wally, after posting I took the side plate off again and stared at the picture and the internals. What I've come up with is that everything does work but the 1/2 #### position doesn't hold the hammer back as far as I thought it should, wear on the sear and/or hammer I suppose, next time out we'll see if it will load without dragging. If not, a little build up on the sear or in the hammer notch could remedy the situation. Thanks again!
 
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