Repairing Black Powder Revolver

[Skinny 1950]

I bought a used Pietta 1851 .44 Cal revolver and after cycling the action many times the cylinder lock and trigger spring broke...this delayed my trip to the range but gave me a chance to order molds for .44 Cal and .36 Cal 1851 Colt reproductions. My Uberti 1851 .36 which is new had to be sent back under warranty the .44 Pietta is well used so I decided to try and fix it myself. This picture shows what it looks like totally disassembled except the loading lever.

The parts that I ordered from Marstar arrived today so I started to reassemble the gun using all the new parts...Hammer,hand and spring,cylinder lock,trigger and the spring that broke (shown in picture next to new one). The hand with spring is way to long and it indexed the cylinder way past where it should stop, so I used the original. The cylinder lock needed considerable filing in order to get it to work and even the new spring for the cylinder lock and trigger needed to be filed off in order to fit. The replacement hammer would not go back far enough to #### so I had to take the whole gun apart again and file the back strap a bit. All this took about 2 1/2 hours and I may have to tweak a few things yet but it was worth the effort. The picture below is what it looked like before I even bought it.

 

[smellie]

Iron-frame '51: you bought the right gun.

There is a very real sense of accomplishment which comes from attacking a problem such as this and setting it right by yourself. Sure beats throwing money at a gunsmith.

Likely you will learn to appreciate your guns far more than the guy who runs to the gun shop every time something isn't quite perfect.

Hand-fitting parts, as you are doing with this baby, is an art in itself. Many people don't have the patience to learn it.

Have fun!
.

 

[BCRider]

To fit all the options the new parts have to start out slightly oversized. Fitting them is just a required part of the installation.

Ideally you'd work the cylider stop (called a "bolt" in Coltspeak apparently) so that it stops the cylinder in line with the bore such that a brass barrel plug fits down through the barrel and passes into the cylinder with no misalignment. Once that is done you can then trim the hand such that it indexes and holds the cylinder in place such that there is just barely no movement at all but that there isn't any tension. At the same time as this point is reached the hammer would need to have clicked down to be caught by the sear. All this would require some pretty fancy fitting to achieve a fit where the cylinder is locked up and held accurately in alignment with the barrel bore at the same time that the hammer is cocked ready to fire.

 

[Skinny 1950]

Repairs complete ...Range Report

Finished putting the gun back together and took it to the range on Saturday and Sunday.put 100 rounds through it. There are still some timing errors but it is safe to shoot. Here is what it looks like now.

From a bench rest with sandbags the gun was hitting high and to the left (6 holes inside of area 1) The other 6 shots were with a corrected aim point. It has fixed sights so I guess I will have to aim low and to the left.