[Pancho]

I'm still trying to make up my mind whether to buy a Colt or a Remington revolver. Which is easiest to change cylinders.

[Tommygunn]

The Remmie is considered best for that since you merely drop the loading lever and pull the arbor out while the gun is at half-cock.
Some Colts aren't too hard; they have that wedge that has to be moved and I have a couple where the wedge moves easily ... and several that the wedge requires a pretty good force -- like a plastic tipped hammer. It depends on the particular gun.
But unless the Remmie has been made with some weirdly tight tolerances which isn't impossible, it will be the easier.

[Tru Griff]

Have to agree with Tommygunn. Had a Remington and it was easy to change, no problem but the Colt Army I got requires more than my fingers to pull the wedge out. A wedge puller would do the trick if you just like the Colt more. Like he said a plastic tip hammer would work. A must have for tin benders but more expensive than a wedge puller. Wedge puller may leave a mark though, dont know for sure since hadnt purchased one yet. Someone here may know more on them.

[timothy75]

It depends on the gun. The Remington by design allows more fouling on the base pin than the Colt, which can require having to twist the cylinder and pull the pin at the same time. After a few cylinders with my 58 I often have to squirt windex on the pin and rotate the cylinder just to remove it. My colt walker however with its huge wedge and looser tolerances I can swap a cylinder in about 3 seconds. My 1860 however requires beating the wedge out and jerking very hard on the barrel just to get it off. So again it depends on the gun. Good luck

[RON in PA]

The fact of the matter, in my experience, is that the only c&b revolver with an easy to change cylinder is the Ruger OA. I've never handled or seen a Remington that didn't foul and was difficult to change. Colts aren't all that hard if you keep a small plastic hammer handy for the wedge.

[English Bob]

Never had problems with binding up on the Remy, maybe it's because I use plenty of lube in the cylinder mouths so it gets blown everwhere.

[sundance44s]

My experience with the Remmies is the more ya shoot them the slicker they get ..I only lube over 2 balls per cylinder and can shoot mine all day with no binding .

[RBak]

....I only lube over 2 balls per cylinder and can shoot mine all day with no binding.

:banghead:......Now why didn't I think of that??

I shoot a 1860 Colt, and I do "sometimes" have a problem getting the cylinder out.
As a rule, I don't care for lube, but I might be able to live with one or two cylinders. I will definately have to give this some experimenting.

Russ...

[DuncanSA]

You can shift the Colt wedge instantly by using the "patent Colt wedge remover". Get hold of some old type wooden clothes pegs - the type with 2 wooden bits and a spring in the middle.

Seperate the bits and throw away the spring and you have 2 "wedge removers". Use the thick end to depress the wedge spring and push it back and the thin end to shove it out of engagement with the cylinder bar.

When they wear out, replacements are easy to get. With any luck your wife won't even notice the loss of pegs in her laundry basket!

[Gaucho Gringo]

I use a cylinder loader to load my Remington. It takes me no more than 3 seconds to get the cylinder out to load and less than 5 to put back in. I like the cylinder loader as there is less mess when loading(no powder on the frame) and I think I get more accurate loads. My pin never has a chance to get fouled because it is self cleaning every time I remove the cylinder. For fun my son and I has a little race on loading the guns we were shooting. He was shooting my Taurus Gaucho. We both had shot our guns out of ammo and both started reloading at the same time. He beat me to ready to fire but not by much, all I had left to do was cap the cylinders. Although I don't know how good I would do with bullets flying by me, probably have powder all over the place and a couple of undercharged rounds. In that case give me a cartridge gun.

[Timthinker]

Having owned both Colt and Remington style caplocks, I can state the Remington is the way to go. Now, I am not saying that disassembling and reassembling my Colt was difficult, but it definitely took more time. In general, I tend to favor the Remington for strength and accuracy. The Colt generally wins in terms of balance.


Timthinker