Colt 1860 Army Avenging Angel

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electricfactory

electricfactory

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I've been toying with the idea of buying one of these for some time, usually I'm a day late and a dollar short. This time and inspired buy some of the posts lately decrying the lack of percussion guns on the market I decided to to give Jebediah Starr a call and wouldn't you know it, they had one of these left in their inventory. I bought and paid for it last week and it arrived today, two days in transit via Fed Ex Ground.
My immediate impressions are good although I feel some very light packing grease on the gun, specifically the grips. This is the first new Italian reproduction C&B revolver I've ever bought, preferring instead to buy pre-owned. Is there a degreasing procedure you guys use for wood grips. They aren't saturated but I'd just as soon remove it. By the way I'm so glad I bought the plow-handled version vs the birds head grip style. Now to find a good load.. anyone else have one of these ? Would appreciate your insights, user experiences etc.

N3tMzWPh.jpg

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I would pull the "4th screw" escutcheon(s) before shooting it. I have both a Pietta 1851 Navy .36 and an ASM 1860 Army .44 with those and find they tend to dig into my trigger finger.

Regards,

Jim
 
Cool. I'd be tempted to take a belt sander to the bottom rear of the grip and round it over a bit. Just on this "avenging angel" model.
 
Good idea. Also, I realy dislike the saftey disclaimers on either side of the barrel, for me even more distracting because the barrel is so short. I think I'm going to try the hardended-steel-rod approach and give burnishing a go. From everything I've read that seems to be the best and safest way to go vs a Dremel Tool. I just have to figure out exactly which size rod to buy where. What do you think- Amazon ? Home Depot ?

1KPerDay said:
Cool. I'd be tempted to take a belt sander to the bottom rear of the grip and round it over a bit. Just on this "avenging angel" model.
Click to expand...
 
Speaking of 4th screw escutcheons... I have a Colt 2nd Gen 1860 Army and those two screws will..not..budge. I've tried everything, treating the area with penetrating oil, no budge. At this point I'm afraid I'll destroy the screw head in the trying. I haven't shot this gun yet but I'd like to. I can feel in just handling the gun that screw will leave a mark.

expat_alaska said:
I would pull the "4th screw" escutcheon(s) before shooting it. I have both a Pietta 1851 Navy .36 and an ASM 1860 Army .44 with those and find they tend to dig into my trigger finger.

Regards,

Jim
Click to expand...
 
Hmmm....my 1860 has never left a mark. Some De-natured alcohol should clean up the grips. I've always liked 25 grains under a slug or ball in my 1860.
 
Thanks Ugly Sauce, are you using a felt wad over your load ?

Ugly Sauce said:
Hmmm....my 1860 has never left a mark. Some De-natured alcohol should clean up the grips. I've always liked 25 grains under a slug or ball in my 1860.
Click to expand...
 
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electricfactory said:
Speaking of 4th screw escutcheons... I have a Colt 2nd Gen 1860 Army and those two screws will..not..budge. I've tried everything, treating the area with penetrating oil, no budge. At this point I'm afraid I'll destroy the screw head in the trying. I haven't shot this gun yet but I'd like to. I can feel in just handling the gun that screw will leave a mark.
Click to expand...

When I worked for a living, I was frequently at the side of an old Polish-born plumber. He taught be to first tighten the pipe joint (using pipe wrenches) and then loosen the joint easily.

Now I know that pipe joint threads are tapered, but it has worked for me on straight threads. I have often put the offending piece in a vise, used a gunsmith screwdriver, proper bit, with an octagonal/hexagonal shaft, and put a crescent wrench on said shaft, applying turning pressure while hitting the end of the driver with a hammer. The threads on those escutcheons are very short and should move.

Jim
 
The extra screws don't bother me FWIW and I've shot mine quite a bit. I load 30 grains of black under a lubed felt wad and a .454" pure lead ball. I don't like using lube over the ball; it gets everywhere and IMO doesn't really do what people think it does, since it mostly gets blown off of the front of the cylinder by the previous shot. But lubed felt wads can be pricey. So.... *shrug*
 
electricfactory said:
Good idea. Also, I realy dislike the saftey disclaimers on either side of the barrel, for me even more distracting because the barrel is so short. I think I'm going to try the hardended-steel-rod approach and give burnishing a go. From everything I've read that seems to be the best and safest way to go vs a Dremel Tool. I just have to figure out exactly which size rod to buy where. What do you think- Amazon ? Home Depot ?
Click to expand...
I've HEARD that a socket set will work for this. Use sockets or the handle, if it's smooth enough. Let us know how it goes when you try burnishing. I'm curious about it myself.
 
electricfactory said:
Grip rounding at the bottoms, yes. Thanks 1KPerDay !
Click to expand...
FYI perhaps these might come in handy. the first is for a remington but maybe some of it will help.




Looks like maybe there's not a lot of metal on the Colt to work with at that bottom/rear corner. Maybe you could make it work though. Or try to find a "bird's head" grip frame?

 
As far a degreasing the metal parts I just used Dunk It. Left it in over night and it was fine. Though I was amazed at the amount of crud that came off a "new" gun. My grips were also "oily". I put them in the oven at about 150 for a couple of hours then wiped off the excess oil. There was quite a bit. Other than that, just using and cleaning it seemed to deal with any excess on grip.
DlQOAgd.jpg
 
electricfactory said:
Good idea. Also, I realy dislike the saftey disclaimers on either side of the barrel, for me even more distracting because the barrel is so short. I think I'm going to try the hardended-steel-rod approach and give burnishing a go. From everything I've read that seems to be the best and safest way to go vs a Dremel Tool. I just have to figure out exactly which size rod to buy where. What do you think- Amazon ? Home Depot ?
Click to expand...

Scrat said that he used a push rod from a Chevy 350 because it's very hard and smooth.
Most all Chevy big block engines use the same basic push rod which for a V8 measures 9.25" long X 7/16" diameter.
They're available at every auto part store and are fairly inexpensive.
Factory OEM push rods are more expensive than the aftermarket ones or it can abraid the barrel surface.

https://www.autozone.com/internal-e...u_QlQ6SpAr2pzP5RM1XaHeCvlRNco_1MaAusqEALw_wcB

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/SEP...ivHBW0VqGuQWzb9onw9A46V9RbSi43saAujvEALw_wcB&

tpelle mentioned using an extension from a 1/4" drive socket set, but it was a smaller diameter than the 1/2" hardened rod that strawhat used.
It was said that ideally the steel rod should be harder than the barrel steel.
 
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OK I have to show what a dummy I am. What you you using the hardened rods for? And what are you burnishing on the barrel?
 
If you look at the pic I posted you’ll see either side of the barrel has stamped words, a safety warning on one side and the company name on the other. Some, myself included prefer not to have these barrel stampings.
I will attempt to burnish the stampings off of the barrel, make them invisible, using a rod harder than the barrel. I’ve never done this before so I can’t speak to results. I’ve search for a vid showing someone doing this to a barrel engraving but so far no luck.

ThomasT said:
OK I have to show what a dummy I am. What you you using the hardened rods for? And what are you burnishing on the barrel?
Click to expand...
 
electricfactory said:
I will attempt to burnish the stampings off of the barrel, make them invisible, using a rod harder than the barrel. I’ve never done this before so I can’t speak to results. I’ve search for a vid showing someone doing this to a barrel engraving but so far no luck.
Click to expand...

It might be more difficult to burnish the flats than a round barrel.
Did you read up on peening at all?
Another consideration is the threading of the screw hole that's located close to the lettering that you want to remove.
And you'll probably lose the factory blue, and then a reblue may not match the rest of the gun either.

There are some posts on the threads about burnishing that shows how to peen using a ball peen hammer and other steps to complete the job.--->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-farb-project-phase-i-ii.632647/#post-7818550

And. --->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...delling-pietta-1860-army.699711/#post-8698543

About burnishing:
1. https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/burnishing.363628/#post-4503683
2. https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/new-pietta-1860.362522/#post-4490158
 
I used a 1/2 rod that was available to me from a neighbor who happened to be a machinist. He was able to drop it in a batch of stuff to be hardened and that is howI got it.

Clamp the barrel and lightly make some passes with the rod. You will be surprised how little pressure is needed to move the displaced metal back into the letters. Keep a magnifier handy and use it to check your progress. Once you are happy with your work, decide if you want to polish and reblue or if you want to antique it.

I, for one, have never seen the need to round off the grip frame on a Colt but, your gun, your choice.

Kevin
 
Thanks to all of you guys who weighed in on this thread, I decided to jump in the pool!
After a 6hr trial run I finally got both sides of the barrel clear and ready for final polishing tomorrow before a vinegar dunking followed by a cold blue/ brown finish. This was a lot harder than I anticipated, due no doubt to my inexperience. I started with just burnishing the panel with a ball peen hammer (right side) and that took 4hrs and two cramped hands!

The opposite side you see below ( saftey warning) I decided to combine burnishing, draw filing ( sort of) and a low grit sandpaper. This actually worked very well and only took 2hrs. I think one of the things which made it so difficult was the 3" barrel; three inches does not allow much maneuvering for draw fuiling so instead I used several small files to accomplish the same thing. I'll fine polish both sides with emory paper tomorrow and post progress pics.


umdjI7eh.jpg
 
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