[broknprism]

I have a NIB Colt 2nd Gen 2nd Model Dragoon. The timing seems fine, and cycling the action hasn't produced a drag line. I do have to cock it with mild authority to achieve that, but my concern is that the cylinder - when the hammer is at rest - wobbles at the back, more than what would seem acceptable even for an 1848 design. It's stable at the front, but moves from side to side at the rear, touching or almost touching the hammer sides with about the same amount of play on left and right. I can easily see the movement. When the hammer is cocked, it's less pronounced, but still there. (The bolt is dropped after the hammer falls, right...? Can't watch it cycle like you can on an SAA)

Since the bolt notch is at the rear, is the bolt not wide enough? The slot in the frame may preclude solving this with a new bolt, but I'll take it down tonight and measure the bolt width.

Or is the cylinder hole through which the arbor passes to blame? How can it move so much (1/64th, maybe 1/32nd)? Might shimming it somehow alleviate this? If wrapping a little foil around the arbor makes it better, is it likely the cylinder?

Thanks for any help. The gun is beautiful and otherwise perfect (and cost $700!) so I'd like to solve this little issue.

[Fingers McGee]

Is the wobble linear side to side, or rotational? Linear might indicat a too large arbor bore in the cylinder or too small arbor diameter. Rotational might indicate bolt/bolt cut size differential or the bolt bolt window is too large. Your best bet is to take it down & do some measuring, and go from there.

If the arbor/arbor bore size differential is the problem, a litle foil wrapped around the arbor isnt going to fix the problem, even temporarily.

[mykeal]

If the back is loose while the front is not it's linear (side to side or up and down), not rotational.

Measure the arbor bore in the cylinder at the front and back with vernier calipers; they should be the same within (about) 0.002". Take the same measurement on the arbor pin.

I'm not sure there is a problem with the free play you've described, at least as far as safe and proper function of the revolver is concerned. Perhaps I misunderstand, but it seems the front of the cylinder lines up properly with the forcing cone, and the hammer will strike the caps reliably. I agree this is not something you'd expect to find in a $700 revolver (I have $150 revolvers that don't have the problem!), and if Colt were a viable resource I'd return it for warranty work, but corrective action seems difficult and expensive so I'd be inclined to live with it. This assumes I understand the problem, of course.

[broknprism]

You assumed correctly Mykeal! : )

Yes, it's side-to-side movement at the back only. The front stays pretty much lined up on the bore, and when the hammer is back and everything is in battery, the back wobble is reduced. It's more than I would have expected, but the fact is I didn't really know what to expect from a 31-yr old reproduction of a 161-yr old design. Maybe some looseness is engineered in, I don't know. The cylinder locks up tight, the hammer lines up fine, it drops on the nipple with authority, and the chamber mouth stays lined up on the bore, so I'm probably making much ado about not much.

I found and bought a new-condition cylinder for it, so I'll report back in a week or so whether the problem went away.

Thanks for the ideas!

[BHP FAN]

Sounds as though the ''window'' the cylinder stop or ''bolt'' comes up through the frame is a little large.This is actually ok.If it were tight,you'd have problems with timing.Agunsmith would add a little braze to the hole,then re-file it open to precisely fit the stop/bolt.My fix is to use thicker cylinder pin grease [those tiny bottles of M16 grease work] it doesnt really matter though,as mykeal already said,as long as it pops caps and the cylinder lines up with the barrel,you should be good to go.