45-70 Ranger
Member
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2010
- Messages
- 337
Hey guys,
About a month or so ago I happened upon a super clean .51 Navy Steel frame by ASM. A 1998 production and looked like it had only been fired a few and then cleaned up and then ignored. I was happy as a lark when I got it home and fired 6 rounds just to make me happy. It worked well then.
A few days ago I decided to take her out for some serious evaluation on my range. 130 Lee conicals and about 18 gr. of BP gave some good results. Hit high, and about 2" left at 10 yds. Nice feel though
. Cleaned her up and then switched to T7 for more testing.
Well, with the same conicals and a load of about 15 gr. of T7 it was shooting ok group wise, same high and left, but the loading lever dropped several times! I was stunned. Never have I had a revolver that did this. I've had over the past 45 years dozens of C&B's and never seen this happen.
Looking closely at the spring pressure on the catch, it appeard to be the same as many others I've had. The lug was cut a might light and I opened it up about .003" to allow for a deeper grab on the lug from the latch. This was no help. Still drops with a moderate load.
The lever is straight. The catch is sharp without burrs. But the lug, although it appears to be at a perfect right angle, must be bent forward a tiny bit and thus the catch is not going deep enough to hold the lever in place. Normally I'd put a little heat to the lug and tap it back a bit to correct the problem. But I can't tell really how deep the dovetail is cut in the barrel and it it is simply pressed into place or silver soldered as well. I doubt that ASM ever silver soldered a lug, but some others I've worked on in the past were.
I guess my "good deal" was not so good after all as far as getting a weapon that I didn't need to do much to huh? I can hear Rosanna Rodannadanna saying "Ya know it just goes to show.....It's always something.":banghead:
Wade
About a month or so ago I happened upon a super clean .51 Navy Steel frame by ASM. A 1998 production and looked like it had only been fired a few and then cleaned up and then ignored. I was happy as a lark when I got it home and fired 6 rounds just to make me happy. It worked well then.
A few days ago I decided to take her out for some serious evaluation on my range. 130 Lee conicals and about 18 gr. of BP gave some good results. Hit high, and about 2" left at 10 yds. Nice feel though
. Cleaned her up and then switched to T7 for more testing.Well, with the same conicals and a load of about 15 gr. of T7 it was shooting ok group wise, same high and left, but the loading lever dropped several times! I was stunned. Never have I had a revolver that did this. I've had over the past 45 years dozens of C&B's and never seen this happen.
Looking closely at the spring pressure on the catch, it appeard to be the same as many others I've had. The lug was cut a might light and I opened it up about .003" to allow for a deeper grab on the lug from the latch. This was no help. Still drops with a moderate load.
The lever is straight. The catch is sharp without burrs. But the lug, although it appears to be at a perfect right angle, must be bent forward a tiny bit and thus the catch is not going deep enough to hold the lever in place. Normally I'd put a little heat to the lug and tap it back a bit to correct the problem. But I can't tell really how deep the dovetail is cut in the barrel and it it is simply pressed into place or silver soldered as well. I doubt that ASM ever silver soldered a lug, but some others I've worked on in the past were.
I guess my "good deal" was not so good after all as far as getting a weapon that I didn't need to do much to huh? I can hear Rosanna Rodannadanna saying "Ya know it just goes to show.....It's always something.":banghead:
Wade
