Hopkins and Allen XL 8 Takedown and Parts

[Johnm1]

I came across another XL 8 for a reasonable amount. Much worse condition but it was advertised as functioning and in time. It wasn't. Because my original didn't have any issues and no diagrams could be found, I never took it apart. Well, this one had to come apart as I couldn't remove the cylinder for cleaning. I'll follow uo in the gunsmithing forum with that issue and a hand spring issue.

This post is to display the parts and how they are arranged. First is a picture of the main parts. The screws on the ejector and latch are pretty buggered and I don't want damage them any further. So those remain on the revolver.



Here are the parts generally mounted on the outside of the revolver.



It is a very simple action with minimal parts. In this thread @Driftwood Johnson posted some very detailed pictures of a couple of his Merwin Hulbert's:

Hopkins & Allen XL No. 8 Army Half Cock Notch

I have posted about this pistol before. https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/hopkins-allen-xl-no-8-army.880718/ Function is nearly perfect except when in half cock the hammer will fall if the trigger is pulled. This is a solid frame and I have been hesitant to remove the lock works...

www.thehighroad.org

The MH's have a sideplate while the XL8 does not. Also, the MH's have a leaf spring attached to the grip frame for a trigger return while the XL8 has a short simple trigger return spring. But the hammer and hand look like they would interchange.

 

[Johnm1]

Some better (though not good) pictures of the assembled revolver. As I mentioned, this one is in rough shape. First I'll get it functional then I'll worry about what it looks like.





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[Johnm1]

Here is the hammer taken apart. It consists of thee hammer, hand, hand spring, and hand spring pin.


The hand spring is a flat spring acting on a flat on the hand spring pin. It is a poor design and I'm having a heck of a time generating enough spring force on the hand. Here is the slot in the hammer that the flat spring fits into



And here is the hand. Poor picture but notice the flat on its pin



That pin is tiny and was a bugger to get out the first time. Not real easy to get back in either.

Edit to add a picture of the hammer assembled

 

[Johnm1]

I’ve now taken apart/reassembled several times. The cylinder stop/bolt doesn’t care when it installed. But I find it easier to install the hammer before the trigger. It seems to take less fiddling to get things engaged properly with the hammer installed.

 

[woodnbow]

Those are interesting revolvers. I assume they were a budget priced alternative to Colt and S&W big bore guns?

 

[Johnm1]

Those are interesting revolvers. I assume they were a budget priced alternative to Colt and S&W big bore guns?

I'm really not sure how much they cost in comparison to a Colt or S&W. In the Forgotten Weapons video on the revolver Ian states that the cost was a factor in the failure of the revolver. He indicated that the decision the public had to make was to pay the same kind of money for a H&A or buy a colt or S&W. And because of H&A's reputation as a low cost manufacturer people chose the more well known brands based on reputation. But that doesn't really nail down the costs. We'd need a catalog to do that.