cylinder issue 1861 navy colt

[jalex1941]

Hey guys, I recently finished assembling my 1862 navy colt and I noticed today when I was about to shoot it that when I put the hammer in full cock the cylinder will have some over travel, and that the cylinder will not lock when I turn it towards the right when it is fully cocked. I do not have much experience with black powder or single action revolvers so I am unsure if this is proper or not however, I feel that this should not be happening. Is there a way I can fix this ?

 

[BowerR64]

Do you have any pictures?

 

[Jim K]

No matter what kind of powder it uses, a revolver with a chambers that don't align with the barrel is bad news. I think you have something put together wrong, maybe the bolt (cylinder stop) or its spring.

Jim

 

[jalex1941]

I checked the instructions and re-assembled the pistol and it is still not locking, however it does lock when turned to the left but that may be caused by the hand spring assembly.

 

[Tommygunn]

The cylinder pawl may need a bit of (very) judicious work with a file.
Be careful; you can take metal off much easier than you can put it back.

 

[BowerR64]

Another guy posted an image of his revolver and some one on here pointed out right away that he had a timming issue.

He may have a simmilar problem

You could see on the other guys gun the cylinder locks were all peened up by the bolt

 

[kituwa]

First thing you need to do is take your cylinder out and check to see if there are burs in the bolt notches. If there is you can use a triangle shaped needle file and remove the burs.You dont want to take anything off the insides of the bolt notches, just any burs. With the needle file it would be pretty hard to remove much any way as you wont be able to get to much anyway. You may want to wrap some masking tap above and below the notches first so if you slip it wont scratch the cylinder. Next you will need to take the bolt out of the frame and chech with it to see if it fits in all the notches of the cylinder. If it doesnt, then put the bolt back in the frame and use a sharpie and color in the side of the bolt sticking out from the frame.If you look at the link i gave you on your other post you will see that it explains that and has a few pics of it. You need to see the pics to know witch side of the bolt that needs marking. The remove the bolt again and file it where the marker is like the link shows. It wont take much that you will need to remove.After that, put the bolt back into the frame along with the trigger, hammer and the bolt/trigger spring and the half of the grip frame that has the main spring on it. Now cock the gun slowly while watching the bolt. It should pop up just slightly before the hammer comes to full cock. If that all looks good the put the rest of the gun back together and try cocking again to see if it locks up now like it should. If not then let us know and one of us will try and talk you through the next steps with how to adjust your cylinder hand and possibly more on the bolt. It may sound complicated but its much harder to explain it than it is to do it, lol.

 

[IROCZ]

Check for a post by Dragoon45 (I think) great info on tuning cap and ball revolvers!

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

The first thing I would suspect is a broken or weak bolt spring.