Peter M. Eick
Member
Ok, this is starting to get irritating. I love my little diamondback, I have shot it over 45,000 times by my best estimates. I have had the gun for 25 odd years and it has been my family shooter for years prior to me branching out.
My Diamondback broke the Bolt screw off today. This is the 3rd time it has had to be repaired in about 5 years. The first time it was spring for the bolt, which was replaced by a local smith. The second time it was back to colt for a retiming, where they retimed it, replaced the hand and the latch bushing and rebound lever.
Today, I was just changing out the grips for another set and I dry fired the gun a few times to make sure it was in good shape and on the 3rd cock, I heard a little "tink" and then the action froze up. I knew this was bad, so I gently worked on it until I could get the action open.
Once I had it open, I carefully took off the side plate (yep, the hammer handle on the frame trick works perfectly!) and I find the bolt head floating around in the action. This is the first time I have ever taken a revolver apart, so I have to say I was dang nervous. It is pretty darn complex in there. So anyway, I fished the screw head out carefully and put the gun back together.
My bet is the local smith I used to fix the bolt spring over torqued the bolt screw and eventually it snapped off. Unfortunately the threads are still in the frame. This means someone is going to have a challenge getting the screw threads back out of the frame before they put a new screw back in.
So, I guess it is another trip up to Colt to get them to fix this one. Since Colt last saw this one, I only shot about 2000 rnds of mild reloads. I am certainly going to get this fixed because this was my first centerfire handgun and it has great sentimental value to me. BUT, do I park it and never shoot it when it comes back or can I shoot it and just rack it up to age.
Also since I am going to send it back to Colt (I assume that is the best spot) is there anything else I should have them look at? I just had it re-timed on 6/11/02 so I assume it is all in good shape.
Thanks for your advise and comments.
My Diamondback broke the Bolt screw off today. This is the 3rd time it has had to be repaired in about 5 years. The first time it was spring for the bolt, which was replaced by a local smith. The second time it was back to colt for a retiming, where they retimed it, replaced the hand and the latch bushing and rebound lever.
Today, I was just changing out the grips for another set and I dry fired the gun a few times to make sure it was in good shape and on the 3rd cock, I heard a little "tink" and then the action froze up. I knew this was bad, so I gently worked on it until I could get the action open.
Once I had it open, I carefully took off the side plate (yep, the hammer handle on the frame trick works perfectly!) and I find the bolt head floating around in the action. This is the first time I have ever taken a revolver apart, so I have to say I was dang nervous. It is pretty darn complex in there. So anyway, I fished the screw head out carefully and put the gun back together.
My bet is the local smith I used to fix the bolt spring over torqued the bolt screw and eventually it snapped off. Unfortunately the threads are still in the frame. This means someone is going to have a challenge getting the screw threads back out of the frame before they put a new screw back in.
So, I guess it is another trip up to Colt to get them to fix this one. Since Colt last saw this one, I only shot about 2000 rnds of mild reloads. I am certainly going to get this fixed because this was my first centerfire handgun and it has great sentimental value to me. BUT, do I park it and never shoot it when it comes back or can I shoot it and just rack it up to age.
Also since I am going to send it back to Colt (I assume that is the best spot) is there anything else I should have them look at? I just had it re-timed on 6/11/02 so I assume it is all in good shape.
Thanks for your advise and comments.