C&B Gunsmiths - Repair, Tuning and Conversion Work

Just took my Army out, 40 rounds and no misfires! Before the tune, I couldn’t get through a whole cylinder without at least one cap failing to fire.


And I don’t usually shoot like this but I thought it was relevant to the test.



Great job Outlaw Kid!

Oh wow!! Thank you for posting the results! Were you actually able to fan the gun without issue?! Im very glad you liked my work! Makes me feel like im top of the world knowing proof of my work is floating around showing good results! How does your trigger pull feel? Is it lighter than before? I tried to tune it to something you might like. Should be light and have no drag or play, should immediately respond to your command. Hopefully the cap post and sheild are doing you good too.

Apparently I can’t figure out how to attach a video, but it shoots great. Trigger is a little light though, for my purposes.

I was able to see the videos. One was of you shooting a whole cylinder and the other was you fanning a cylinder. Did you remove the links to the videos? Im sorry the trigger isnt to your liking...did you want me to try and make it "stiffer"? Its actually lighter feeling because the insides were smoothed and wire springs added...but even without wire springs if the insides are polished right and bolt leg thinned and cam polished etc the trigger will end up feeling light because the excessive force of overbuilt parts keeps it stiff and hides any imperfections...like the companies keep them stiff and hard to forcefully push through to all the imperfections. Atleast thats my theory.

Going to try to post the video

Wooo! Awesome! Thanks!

Just sent a few guns to the outlaw kid.
Can’t wait to see how they come out. One has some major problems so we will see.

Now the bad news.......I thought three guns would be enough for me but I just started looking into Confederate pistols and I’m now going to need three more. Then I will be done. I promise

Russell13 said:

...Then I will be done. I promise

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I'm pretty sure you know this already, but I'll let you know the truth to help you keep your sanity.
You won't be done until you have so many C&B revolvers that you can't reasonably even shoot all of them any more. You'll want to, and have intentions to, but there will be just too many to shoot and eventually you will almost stop acquiring more.

Mr.malachi speaks to truth. Just wait until you start experimenting with lube mixes and cleaning concoctions and the space they take up. Then you might even get into making your own powder and trying different charcoals and methods..again...more space will be taken up. So...get yourself some storage room and some large bins now.

Mr.russell13, you had also asked what other confederate guns...forgot to mention the spiller and burr. But id still go for a Griswold and Gunnison, or a Leech and Rigdon. Dance and Brothers is good too, but im a huge fan of .36 cals and there arent any current companies making a .36 cal dance and bros. that im aware of.

I want all the “reb” pistols but I think the Dance Bros is my favorite. Has such a distinct look. I wonder why they made it in .44? I thought most confederate revolvers were .36.

Russell13 said:

Now the bad news.......I thought three guns would be enough for me but I just started looking into Confederate pistols and I’m now going to need three more. Then I will be done. I promise

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Yeah, riiiiiiight! Just take the BP Revolvers Anonymous Oath!

I am very interested in repro Confederate revolvers and have a few Piettas. CNC-machined (post ~2000) Pietta 1851 Navy .36 "type" revolvers are like the Legos of the BP revolver world and, with very few parts exceptions, parts interchange with (usually) no fitting. I have taken the liberty of creating what Pietta refuses to market. (FG is factory gun, NFG is non-factory gun.) Barrels and cylinders I obtained from VTI and Taylor's.

Mine:

Augusta Machine Works (GA): 1851 Navy with a 12-stop-slot smooth cylinder. NFG. I had my machinist next-door-neighbor mill 6 extra stop slots/approaches on 2 plain cylinders with no rear safety pins (historically correct) that I got a few years ago from a guy on a BP forum for $25 each; my neighbor charged me $100 to do both cylinders.



Leech & Rigdon (GA): 1851 Navy with a smooth cylinder and part round/part octagon barrel. NFG. I procured some nice wood for it from a friend, which is much better than the Pietta factory quarter-sawn straight grained original.



Rigdon & Ansley (GA): NFG. The other plain 12-stop-slot cylinder with a part round/part octagon barrel.

Griswold & Gunnison: FG. This one is a CN/2015 model that is not found lately on a regular basis.



In my quest for a Dance .36 I was almost ready to use my Leech & Rigdon revolver as a donor (milling off the recoil shields) until I came upon this one.

After Dr. Jim L. Davis died in September 2019, most (if not all) of his RPRCA collection was sold to October Country (Idaho), who then put them up for sale at very low (almost absurdly low) prices, most likely because OC did not know what they had procured. Many folks took notice and a lot of the collection was sold very quickly in December 2019/January 2020.

My prize: Pietta 1862 Dance Firearms Company - Angleton Texas. FG. This was part of a Pietta special run commissioned by Tony Gajewsky in 1995. It is SN C00013 out of a total of 35 so-marked Angleton revolvers. Quite rare as I have only found 2 other revolvers from this run.



If you wish to investigate further, I put together a thread on another forum several months ago based upon Dr. Jim L. Davis' postings over 10 years ago. He was the founder of RPRCA (Replica Percussion Revolver Collector Association). It concerns Pietta Dance (1996) and Uberti Dance (1985) revolvers. Both were one-year runs. Both featured squareback trigger guards so as not to have them mistaken for originals.

https://blackpowdersmoke.com/revolvers/index.php/topic,560.0.html

My avatar: Dance .36 and Rigdon & Ansley .36. I do not apologize for the Confederate Battle Flag as it was part of that era.



Also, pay close attention to anything arcticap and Fingers post. I consider them to be the historians on this forum. Many years of experience and knowledge. They have probably forgotten more than I know.

Regards,

Jim

Woah ...before you take mr.expat_alaskas advice about FingersMcgee...know this: his posts are full of great info...but the pictures he posts will drive you further into addiction. Theyll make you want to buy a more of an extensive collection. The guy probably has a gun for every day of the year.

TheOutlawKid said:

Woah ...before you take mr.expat_alaska's advice about Fingers Mcgee...know this: his posts are full of great info...but the pictures he posts will drive you further into addiction. They'll make you want to buy a more of an extensive collection. The guy probably has a gun for every day of the year.

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And that is what it is all about in my mind. Thanks for the post Kid!

Regards,

Jim

My guns are almost finished. It took more time to ship them then it did for Theoutlawkid to fix them. Can’t wait to show you guys how they came out.

Thank you mr.russell13, hope my work will meet your expectations. Gotta admit ..you were right, they took some work due to some major issues but nothing that cant be fixed with a little elbow grease. Hopefully you will get the guns and try them out and feel a difference in their handling and performance.

You guys wanna here the sweetest sound in the world?


That’s my 1851 navy, the one that’s had so many problems. The one I took to a local gunsmith to fix and he made me a spacer that made the cylinder gap the size of a dime and still didn’t fire the caps.
Just got it back from Theoutlawkid and it ran through the caps like nothing. I couldn’t believe it.
I will be doing a full review on the work after I take it to the range and make some smoke. I was just so happy the caps went off I had to share this.

Mr.russell13, Thanks for the feedback!! This navy was quite the mess...had a large gap that i could fit a dime through and that was with the wedge screw removed and the wedge bottomed out! It needed some serious work along with the insides being really stiff and gritty. Its a 1990's Uberti. So i had adjusted the arbor and cylinder/barrel spacing and the wedge depth so that it clears just past the wedge clip and its very firm..yet if it loosens up a bit it has plenty of wedge real estate space so that it can be re-tightened up again. I smoothed the internals, removed the flat stamped steel seer spring (bolt/trigger spring) and added wire torsion springs, polished and adjusted cam height, added a cap post to prevent cap jams, added a hammer sheild to keep out fouling and any cap fragments that may get passed the cap post and try to fall down the hammer slot and into the gun, and i changed out the mainspring....its a stock main spring but feels like a light aftermarket spring....thats because unnecessary tension inside the gun has been removed. Im glad you enjoy...hopefully it meets your expectations when you actually shoot it. I also provided some of my custom designed .36 cal conical bullets and different lube disks to try out. Hopefully i get you to start shooting conicals!

Went to the range today. Guns ran perfect, this was the first time I really got to shoot my colt navy. I like it, it’s a great little gun. The action and trigger are so smooth now. Feels great to shoot, I couldn’t be happier with it. I tried a few different caps on it and found the Remington #10 seem to work the best. But it worked with CCI 11’s and Remington 11. Was running 15 grains of powder, think I’ll jump it up next time and get closer to 20.
The walker worked well also, but the thing burns up powder so fast. 40 gains a shot adds up quick. I took a shot at a clay target and missed hitting the wood frame. The ball just destroyed the wood frame. It definitely has some power. The new gap set made it shoot time after time. Tried conicals for the first time, they’re cool but I’m pretty new to shooting these guns so I can’t attest to the accuracy. I also tried using the home made wads of the felt wads that I normally get from Cabelas. They seem to work better and keep the bore cleaner. I took a few videos I’ll put up later.

I would like to say a very big thank you to Theoutlawkid. He did a great job with the guns. Especially the Navy, it was a mess and now it is one of my favorites. If anyone wants some work done I would highly recommend him. Great work, done fast and we even text each other the entire time. He let me know when the gun got there, what he was doing to it and when he shipped it out. Also have me a bunch of info about the different powders, lubes , and things to try. I can’t thank him enough

Breaking clays

Nice! Those were some very accurate shots! Were you using the conicals i sent you in that video? I thank you for the kind words and compliments! Always good to hear when i was able to make a gun more enjoyable for someone. Especially a gun that seemed so far gone. Glad its a straight shooter too!

TheOutlawKid said:

Nice! Those were some very accurate shots! Were you using the conicals i sent you in that video? I thank you for the kind words and compliments! Always good to hear when i was able to make a gun more enjoyable for someone. Especially a gun that seemed so far gone. Glad its a straight shooter too!

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Yes. That was with some of the conicals you sent me. Worked great

Russell13 said:

Just sent a few guns to the outlaw kid.
Can’t wait to see how they come out. One has some major problems so we will see.

Now the bad news.......I thought three guns would be enough for me but I just started looking into Confederate pistols and I’m now going to need three more. Then I will be done. I promise

Click to expand...

This is my last gun is the world's biggest lie. I used to say that my sweety would just laugh. Back in those days, we were raising five kids and I was working waaay too much. She encouraged my gun hobby as a way for me to go out and have some fun. Just wait you will buying molds, casting pot, making caps, making powder. there is really no end to it. The Confederate gun that interests me is the Spiller and Burr that is a Confederate copy of a Beals Whitely that was built to compete Colt 51 Navy. Beals destined the gun Whitely manufactured it for him. To get a government contract Beals destined a 44cal belt pistol that he had Remington manufacture you know it as Remington NMA.

Dont even get me started on bullet molds...just wait till he discovers accuratemolds.com and starts dreaming up and designing his own custom bullets..then it gets even more addictive when you shoot your bullet design and it shoots better than roundball...it will encourage you to design and order more molds.. As a matter of fact the conical hes shooting so accurately at clays in the video are one of my accuratemolds designs. Its a take on the old .36 cal colt cartridge works bullet only instead of a pointed nose it has a fat wide meplate and a wider lube groove. Its weighs in at 140 grains and only .5 inches in height and its one accurate hard hitting conical bullet.