Cleaning a brand new uberti

[tra27]

Hey,

There must be lot of talk of cleaning blackpowder guns so sorry if i'm spamming. I finally got my Uberti 1858 and should i disassemble and clean it completely before first use. Or is just wiping it with the cylinder off enough? Should i re-lubricate it before first use? I'm propably shooting it after two weeks.

 

[Crawdad1]

That's what I do for a brand new revolver. Tear it down, clean it, oil and reassemble. But have you taken one of these things apart before?

 

[tra27]

No i haven't. I've watched a few videos of it and i have taken rifles and shotguns regurally apart. It seems simple enough.

 

[Crawdad1]

You're good to go then. Only a few working parts and they are very simple.

 

[Tommygunn]

Pay attention to cleaning the inside of the barrel out pretty well.
The oil Uberti uses is for preservation not lubrication, and either way, the inside of the barrel ought to be particularly clean. Ain't rocket science but it is good to be aware of.
But you sound like you have things well in hand -- if you can take a shotgun apart a Remington '58 ought to be a cinch.

 

[tra27]

Yeah i've noticed that. The oil is plentiful and seems to be in the bore no matter how many times i scrape it.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

Whenever I buy a firearm, cartridge or C&B, that I plan to only shoot with Black Powder, I take it apart completely, and use a strong solvent such as lacquer thinner or paint thinner to completely remove ALL the factory oil. Then I relubricate everything with Ballistol. I apply a thin coat of Ballistol to all the interior surfaces to prevent rust. I also very lightly coat the bore and chambers with Ballistol.

Of course if it is a C&B revolver I wipe the chambers dry and fire caps on the nipples before loading it with Powder. I don't wipe off the Ballistol with a cartridge gun.

 

[Skinny 1950]

By disassemble do you mean taking the screws out of the frame and having all the trigger and hand springs and stuff fall out?

 

[Crawdad1]

Yep, first thing I do is gut the frame, clean the individual parts, usually just wipe them off, re-oil and reassemble.

 

[BCRider]

Brake cleaner is also a great degreaser.

The issue is that a lot of petroleum based oils will form a nasty tar like crud when mixed with black powder fouling. So it's a great idea to flush it ALL away and start with the proper oil on the whole gun.

It's also a good time to find and tune up the screwdrivers you'll be using so they fit the screw slots correctly.

And watch it with the tightening torque. Just because it takes a gorilla like twist to break a screw loose on a gun from the factory does not mean that this is an indication of the proper torque to use for re-tightening it. Small screws are tightened in inch-lbs of force. So things like the trigger guard screw is correctly tightened with only the thumb and index finger on the screw driver handle. Same with the trigger and bolt screw in the frame. And the hammer screw gets a light full handed pinch. If any of the screws work loose during shooting then you need only a slight little bit more torque for next time.

It's better to sneak up on the required torque in this manner than to tighten too much and too often. It'll really ease up the wear and tear on the threads over the long term when you only use "enough" to hold things together until the next cleaning tear down.

Enjoy the new gun. It's a really nice pattern of gun for shooting.

 

[tra27]

Is it possible to over tighten the hammer spring screw. The one that isn't flush with the grip. I was wondering that if i tighten it too tight, does it make my hammer too stiff?

And great tips! Thank you all! [emoji5]

 

[BCRider]

The hammer spring tensioning screw will bottom the head out when you've set it correctly. Tightening further will not result in anything other than beating up and possibly stripping the threads.

And while it is not intended to be an adjustment I recently left my own Remington tensioning screws deliberately 3 turns loose to try and get a lighter cocking hammer for using my guns in cowboy action shooting. The experiment was a total success. So now I'm thinking of either shortening the screws or making up and using spacer collars on the screws. I like the collar idea since it's a non permanent modification.

The lighter tension on the hammers didn't present any issues for igniting the caps if they were seated correctly. And it SURE made a big difference on the force needed on recocking for each shot. And that showed up as a faster handgun rate of fire in the stages.

If you opt for leaving the screws set a bit loose just be sure you take note of how many turns out you leave them loose and check after a day of shooting to ensure the screw doesn't creep on you. They didn't for me and I shot each gun 30 times over the course of the day.

 

[Hellgate]

Take it apart over a big pan or tray so if a teeny tiny hand screw falls it lands where you can find it. Ask me how I know. You will need a padded vise to hold the grip frame while you take a drift and tap out the mainspring which WILL go flying but that's one you'll find. Also on Remingtons, after you remove the hammer screw you need to push the hammer down below the frame to remove the tiny hand screw and hand. THEN you can lift the hammer out of the frame. A Colt is different in that regard. I also remove any burrs seen and grease all contact points & surfaces.

 

[BCRider]

I like using a lighter coloured retired hand or bath towel for this sort of thing. It's a little kinder to the finish on the gun than a metal cookie tray and the soft surface avoids things bouncing or rolling very far. And the light colour avoids things hiding in otherwise plain view.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

By disassemble do you mean taking the screws out of the frame and having all the trigger and hand springs and stuff fall out?

Well, it isn't a Cap & Ball gun, it's a 2nd Gen Colt SAA. But the idea is the same. I completely disassemble any revolver that I intend to devote to Black Powder. I degrease everything with a strong solvent such as lacquer thinner or paint thinner. Then I lightly oil everything with Ballistol and reassemble it.

 

[susieqz]

excuse me, guys. i've been looking at a singe 10, because i never had a revolver. that pic shows too many parts for me to wanna take something like that apart.
would i have to do that with a new little 22lr revolver?

 

[Crawdad1]

excuse me, guys. i've been looking at a singe 10, because i never had a revolver. that pic shows too many parts for me to wanna take something like that apart.
would i have to do that with a new little 22lr revolver?

We're just talking about black powder revolvers. The oiled parts in a brand new revolver can crud up while using black powder and to stop this from happening you should gut them and clean that oil off the internal parts before shooting it.

 

[susieqz]

thank you. sorry to butt in, but i needed to know.

 

[44 Dave]

An bp revolver is going to have about 8 less pieces, no loading gate assembly, cylinder bushing, (Colt) one piece grips, attached arbor, (Rem) one piece frame,and only one screw for the trigger guard.

 

[frontiergander]

birchwood casey gun scrubber is a mans best friend. Along with Barricade.

 

[tra27]

Taking it apart was the easy part. [emoji16] Don't reckon cleaning be that hard either.

Will see how the reassembly goes. [emoji6]

 

[tra27]

Howdy

Whenever I buy a firearm, cartridge or C&B, that I plan to only shoot with Black Powder, I take it apart completely, and use a strong solvent such as lacquer thinner or paint thinner to completely remove ALL the factory oil. Then I relubricate everything with Ballistol. I apply a thin coat of Ballistol to all the interior surfaces to prevent rust. I also very lightly coat the bore and chambers with Ballistol.

Of course if it is a C&B revolver I wipe the chambers dry and fire caps on the nipples before loading it with Powder. I don't wipe off the Ballistol with a cartridge gun.

So paint thinner wont damage the finish on the gun?

 

[BCRider]

I would not wash down the wood grip scales with it but none of the common paint thinners or solvents sold in paint stores will bother the blued finish or the colour case hardening colours.

This includes low odor paint thinner, mineral spirits, acetone or even laquer thinner,

 

[tra27]

Word of caution! It seems ultrasonic cleaner combined with dish wash liquid does hurt the bluing. [emoji20] [emoji20]

Im just glad the whole frame doesn't fit in it. I'm not sure what caused it but reading the label, it might be citrid acid?

Edit: actually now that i've seasoned the parts in oven, parts seem as black as before. Still i think the most outer bluing was stripped. Wont do that again. Doesn't bluing protect agains rusting?

 

[Crawdad1]

Why are you cleaning the outside of the revolver? Just gut it, wipe the INTERNAL parts down, oil and reassemble. You could just use a rag to wipe down the outside.