Jam on 1858 Remington

[DuncanSA]

I have encountered a strange jam on a 1858 Remington New Army that I purchased recently. The first time it occurred was accidental and it took me some time to duplicate it.

What happens is as follows, as you pull the hammer back it clicks firstly into the half-cock position for loading, thereafter you can pull the hammer all the way back to full-cock for firing. However if, as you pull the hammer back from half-cock, your thumb should slip after the point where the lock rises to rest against the cylinder the hammer will go forward to resume the half-cock position - with the exception that the lock now rests against the cylinder. If at this stage the cylinder moves slightly the lock will engage in its slot and I then have an immovable jam that can only be resolved by removing the cylinder.

I have attempted to duplicate this jam with my Uberti Colt and with a friend's Uberti Remingtom 58. In both weapons the hammer can be pulled fully back from the above position without any difficulty (my Remington is a Pietta).

I feel there must be some simple remedy but would like advice/comment. Obviously in the days when these weapons were used in combat a jam like this could be fatal.

 

[mykeal]

Possible cause of jam

Sounds to me like the fingers on the bolt arm need some fine adjusting. There is a cam on the side of the hammer that causes the bolt to rotate down (via pushing the bolt fingers forward/upward) when the hammer is drawn back to halfcock. When the hammer goes to full cock the fingers slide off the cam and the trigger/bolt spring pushes the bolt back up into the cylinder locking position. This is just slightly out of time in your case - the fingers slip off the cam just a bit too early, before the sear can drop into the hammer full cock notch.

I had this problem on an 1851 Colt some time ago; I slowly disassembled the action one step at a time while working the pieces until I saw the problem. Unfortunately, when I reassembled the parts the problem went away, so I'm not sure what to say with regard to where or how to adjust the bolt fingers. I suspect it was a small piece of flashing on either the bolt fingers or the cam on the hammer in my case, and if you're lucky you'll have a similar problem (and solution).

 

[Frenchie Pete]

With Pietta, you have to check all internal parts, on Uberti guns, each part is fitted quite perfectly, you have some work to do on Pietta sometimes, I had the same problem on a Remnie Pietta, I bought several spare parts, and fitted them, I checked by reassembling the gun, sometimes 10 times a day, until all is perfect.

 

[DuncanSA]

Remington problem

Thanks for the replies - I think the problem is the fingers on the bolt. There appear to be 2 fingers that bear against the hammer cam, one is shorter than the other and a small piece seems to have broken off the end, the other looks a bit worn also.

It would be great to simply go out and buy Pietta parts but in this part of the world (Cape Town, South Africa) no one seems to stock them and ordering from Italy or the USA is a long and expensive process. I am going to have a local machine shop make the part with longer fingers which I will slowly and carefully shorten, testing as I go. This is my first and last Pietta - compared to the lockwork on my Uberti Colt Pietta, is very rough and sloppy.

 

[DuncanSA]

Remington problem

Thanks for the replies - I think the problem is the fingers on the bolt. There appear to be 2 fingers that bear against the hammer cam, one is shorter than the other and a small piece seems to have broken off the end, the other looks a bit worn also.

It would be great to simply go out and buy Pietta parts but in this part of the world (Cape Town, South Africa) no one seems to stock them and ordering from Italy or the USA is a long and expensive process. I am going to have a local machine shop make the part with longer fingers which I will slowly and carefully shorten, testing as I go. This is my first and last Pietta - compared to the lockwork on my Uberti Colt, Pietta is very rough and sloppy.

 

[DuncanSA]

Duplicated post!

Dunno how that happened. I thought I was using the "preview" facility. Can a moderator please remove the first version and leave the second. Thanks.