Cleaning a BP revolver in the field?

With my 1958 NMA I would have clean the cylinder pin about every 3 to 4 cylinders. That pin gets dirty and locks up the cylinders.

Rosco, if you do this, you can run all day.








Mike

45 Dragoon said:

View attachment 949388

Rosco, if you do this, you can run all day.






Mike

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That looks like a quick, easy modification. I think I’ll try it.

I'm sure more than one fellow urinated on it to get it working again. Heck I heard similar stories about Garands at Bastogne.

If you’d rather not pee on it, a few squirts of Ballistol at cyl change will sort you out. A bushed or fluted arbor pin too.

The best solution is to use a Colt 1860.

Put a little GoJo hand cleaner over the loaded balls there will be no binding. GoJo melts black powder fouling on contact but there is one catch GoJo does not work on petroleum hard fouling so if you petroleum oil on your gun it won't work. I have also spit on the loaded chambers (notice I did not use the word spit and balls together) after loading as well as using a blow tube after firing off a cylinder or you could do 45's cool mod.

A quick wipe with the tail of your t-shirt would suffice.

Howdy

Can you give some details? It looks like you milled a flat onto the bottom of the pin? And you reduced the diameter for part of its length too? What about the grooves at the front? Helical grooves cut with a Dreml tool?

My plan exactly.

DocRock said:

If you’d rather not pee on it, a few squirts of Ballistol at cyl .. .

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roscoe said:

I was experimenting with my Pietra 1858, putting as many cylinders as I could downrange. It took 4 and a half cylinders before it became tough to pull the hammer back.

But what happens if the rebs just keep coming up the hill? Is there some quick clean I can do to make it serviceable? Can I just shoot some MAF cleaner through it? And what did they do in yon olden days?

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What type of powder are you shooting with?
MAF cleaner doesn't seem to have much if any lubricant in it at all.
See its toxic ingredients. --->>> http://docs.crcindustries.com/msds/5110.pdf

I use mineral oil that's sold as a laxative at Dollar and discount stores because it's cheap, lubricates, dissolves residue, protects against rust, used to swab the bore and can be used throughout the gun.
Even though it doesn't last as long as a grease or jelly, it has more uses.
Among the best that they had in the very early muzzle loading days was olive oil and animal tallow and greases.
By the time there were C&B revolvers and the civil war, the best lubricant was sperm whale oil.
And the best of the best was blackfish or pilot whale oil which would remain a fluid lubricant even at zero degrees.

Here's 2 consecutive pages about the early history of firearms lubricants that provide the details.
1. https://www.cherrybalmz.com/history-of-gun-lubricants-cfze
2. https://www.cherrybalmz.com/history-sperm-whale-oil

For a couple hundred years the universal black powder solvent has been water. For a field expedient cleaner to get the gun going again any source of water poured on the cylinder pin (or wiped in there with your shirt tail) would let you shoot some more. Obviously a lubricant would be preferred but if the guys in different colored uniforms than you are still coming the fine details can come later. (smile)

Dave

Try this:



It allowed me to fire all day without wiping the pin and using ballistic oil.

45 Dragoon said:

View attachment 949388

Rosco, if you do this, you can run all day. Mike

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Does the section of the cylinder pin with grooves interfere with inserting it into the cylinder at all?
Does the pin get hung up on the lip of the cylinder pin hole upon insertion to where it needs fidgeting to get it in?
Is the cut on the pin tapered, and why not leave some additional metal support on top for the cylinder to rest on and to help guide the cylinder?
Was the design based on experimentation or was the amount of the cut the result of a single attempt to solve the problem?

roscoe said:

Interesting. Can you provide some details?

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Driftwood Johnson said:

Howdy

Can you give some details? It looks like you milled a flat onto the bottom of the pin? And you reduced the diameter for part of its length too? What about the grooves at the front? Helical grooves cut with a Dreml tool?

Click to expand...

Yes, here is the skinny. The forward cut is in line with the cyl. face. It's shallow at the very top and gains depth as it progresses down the side. This mimics the fouling cut that the Colt arbor (originals) have and allows fouling to bypass the intersection of cylinder and pin/arbor. The helical cuts alow any fouling that doesn't "bypass" to migrate to the rear as the cylinder indexes through repeated cycles. Those cuts are also through what will be the forward bearing area for the cylinder so be careful.
To make the reduced area of the base pin, I make another cut about 1/8 - 1/4" behind the front one. Using that as a mark, I reduce the dia. of the pin using a drill motor and a 1" belt sander (redneck lathe), and stopping at the end of the flat that D.J. posted about. That flat is there to allow the pin to clear the lever screw, so you can pull it to drop the cyl., but retain the pin (I know you knew this but others may not).
The reduction of the pin comes from the ROA. Even though the ROA has a gas ring/bushing, they left the "reduced pin diameter". Probably from earlier thoughts of a fouling remedy.

So, it's a marriage of Colt's fouling cut with Rugers "reduced dia pin" using my helical cuts.


It seems to work rather well. The first CAS pair I did this to won a state championship.

Mike

While I was typing, Arcticap asked his question. To that, no problems with reinsertion. The dia reduction isn't very much and there's a slight bevel. Take a peak at an ROA for an idea.

45 Dragoon said:

Yes, here is the skinny. The forward cut is in line with the cyl. face. It's shallow at the very top and gains depth as it progresses down the side. This mimics the fouling cut that the Colt arbor (originals) have and allows fouling to bypass the intersection of cylinder and pin/arbor. The helical cuts alow any fouling that doesn't "bypass" to migrate to the rear as the cylinder indexes through repeated cycles. Those cuts are also through what will be the forward bearing area for the cylinder so be careful.
To make the reduced area of the base pin, I make another cut about 1/8 - 1/4" behind the front one. Using that as a mark, I reduce the dia. of the pin using a drill motor and a 1" belt sander (redneck lathe), and stopping at the end of the flat that D.J. posted about. That flat is there to allow the pin to clear the lever screw, so you can pull it to drop the cyl., but retain the pin (I know you knew this but others may not).
The reduction of the pin comes from the ROA. Even though the ROA has a gas ring/bushing, they left the "reduced pin diameter". Probably from earlier thoughts of a fouling remedy.

So, it's a marriage of Colt's fouling cut with Rugers "reduced dia pin" using my helical cuts.


It seems to work rather well. The first CAS pair I did this to won a state championship.

Mike

While I was typing, Arcticap asked his question. To that, no problems with reinsertion. The dia reduction isn't very much and there's a slight bevel. Take a peak at an ROA for an idea.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the very detailed description. One of the things I like the most about this sport is even after 160+ years we’re still finding ways to improve it.

45 Dragoon said:

While I was typing, Arcticap asked his question. To that, no problems with reinsertion. The dia reduction isn't very much and there's a slight bevel. Take a peak at an ROA for an idea.

Click to expand...

I see what you mean.
The Ruger base pin doesn't seem to be cut as much, isn't flat on the bottom and probably isn't made from the same steel.
The ROA base pin may be thinner to begin with because the ROA has a cylinder bushing.
The first two base pins below are originals.



Below are after-market ROA base pins made by Jack First.



This after-market base pin is made by gun-garage on eBay who says that it's made to tighter tolerances.

roscoe said:

Thanks, all - this has been super informative!

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I’d try ‘ol Blackie’s trick in the above video before wasting money on a new basepin or gunsmithing work that you don’t need.

About 15 minutes with a knife edge needle file (costs about $2) and your cylinder can go and go for an entire shooting session. Makes a huge difference.