Cabela's 1860 Army Questions

[monroef]

Hello,

I have a few questions about a pistol I bought from Cabelas a couple of days ago. The only other BP pistol I have is an Uberti Walker that has been pretty much trouble free.

On the Cabela's (Pietta), the wedge goes through the barrel and cylinder pin and is flush on the other side. It was EXTREMELY hard to get out. On the Walker the wedge goes through the pistol and protrudes about 1/4 to 3/8 inch making it easy to tap with a screwdriver handle to disassemble. Is the Army pistol supposed to be this way? It basically takes a punch to get it out, because the wedge is flush with the side of the barrel.

The second question relates to the first in that it is impossible to drive the wedge any deeper than flush on the off side of the pistol. This would be handy in that it would make it easier to get out and also allow me to tighten the barrel to cylinder gap in the Army pistol as it seems excessive. I have read that it is best to drive the wedge in until cylinder rotation stiffens and then back it off until it turns freely. Is this correct? In the new Cabela's pistol it is impossible to narrow the barrel/cylinder gap because the wedge will simply not drive in any further.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mec]

you are probably ok unless the bc gap is overly large or you have a lot of end shake - back and forth movement of the cylinder. If it just isn't doing the job, you may have to do some file work or stoning on it. Some people are reporting that it is not just hard, but impossible to get the wedge out of their current Piettas.

 

[monroef]

Stoning and end shake

Hey mec,

Thanks for the reply. When you say end shake you mean the front of the cylinder moving back and forth taking the chamber out of alignment with the bore, right? There is not much of this with the wide bc gap, but the cylinder will move from front to back on the cylinder pin. When cocked the gap looks pretty good, but the cylinder can be moved back under spring pressure (the bolt spring maybe?) to make the gap wider.

 

[Joe Meyer]

Well, I have Cabelas 1858 and have never had any trouble with it.

 

[Hawken50]

i have a 51 navy from cabelas and have the same problem. i just keep a brass punch in my cleaning kit that's been ground down to fit in the wedge hole. i don't know about stoning down the wedge itself but i wouldn't think it would be a problem. it's my understanding that the whole purpose of using a wedge is because as it wears it can be inserted farther in to keep the gun tight. thus, i would assume you'd just be helping it wear a little faster.

 

[monroef]

Barrel to Cylinder gap

Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess my main concern now is how to tighten up that BC gap. Are there any common problems that cause the barrel assembly to not tighten up on the frame? I have looked at the barrel assembly and the frame and I can't tell if it is the barrel/frame binding or that the wedge is too tall to be driven into it slot far enough so that it can push the barrel back to tighten up the gap.

 

[mec]

When the cylinder moves back and forth on the arbor, that's end float or end shake. When you cock your gun the hand is shoving the cylinder forward and decreasing the end shake unless you really apply backward pressure. The wedge is supposed to actually act like a wedge and draw the parts together as you push it in. If it has a taper to it, it should do that. Get it in too far and the gun might not have enough play to work right-not far enough and you get end shake.. Some side play and a little bit of end float is to be expected.