NAA blackpowder mini revolver disassembly warning!!

[Busyhands94]

i recently found that the cylinder on my NAA .22 Magnum cap n' ball wasn't indexing, popped off the main screw and the side plate and discovered the handspring was missing. so i ordered a new hand spring along with a few hundred rounds. i like to think of myself as a very good problem solver and a decent gunsmith, but my gosh putting that new hand spring in was one of the hardest things. it looks like the folks over at North American Arms use watchmaking tools to make the parts that go into these fine revolvers. it's VERY VERY precise. there are parts in there that look like an armpit hair they are so small.

after about two hours of sweating, having to take the side plate off and try again, i finally got it. it felt like i was going to have a stroke. i found to get these guns back together you can assemble it but leave the mainspring out, then position the mainspring onto the back of the hammer (that needs to be in the fired position) and then use some pliers to put the other end of the mainspring back onto the ledge that it sits on. then you just test it for function and put the grips back on. the main screw is a funny little thing, being that it actually is threaded backward. you rotate it clockwise to unscrew it. so it's lefty tighty righty loosey.

i advise that unless you are good with these tiny mechanical wonders, that you don't take them apart unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing. NEVER NEVER NEVER will i take mine apart again.

well i just got it back together, it was very hard and not fun at all. and if you can disassemble/reassemble one with your wits intact, then you're a good gunsmith. anyway, just a little public service announcement. i hope others can learn from my mistakes and not take their mini revolvers apart.

so now i have a working revolver and a few hundred rounds, as well as a 58' remmy coming to me in the mail tomorrow! life is good! i will be taking a woman (my mum's friend) out shooting on Wednesday, she will be firing a gun for the very first time! so, this pistol will really come in handy! and with a little luck she might even get hooked and join the blackpowder shooting community!

Stay safe and God bless America, and thank you to all who are serving and have served in law enforcement and the military!

Sincerely, Levi

 

[arcticap]

At least if you should run into any more difficulty NAA offers factory repairs for their guns. And if not for yourself, then you'll probably be fixing them for other folks before too long.

 

[Busyhands94]

i know that they offer repairs, but i don't want to not have to risk sending it through the mail, i cherish that gun and wouldn't want to let go of it. it's my handgun of choice. i also figured if i were to send it i would have to pay shipping, and i can't afford that right now. my dad wanted to go shooting so we were ordering some bullets, and i asked if we could order that new spring so we did! basically the spring looks like an armpit hair, and i dropped it onto a dark brown carpet the first time. but the one i replaced it with wasn't blued so i used a blue towel over my work area.

i figure that since i love guns, and working with my hands i should seek a career as a gunsmith. i mean i am already doing a job for a close friend, this Sunday at church he gave me a job restoring some shotguns that got rusted including the 20 gauge Remington 870 i shot my very first duck with. i have done quite a few smithing projects and so far i love gunsmithing, but i HATE working with revolvers, i have HUGE fingers that make working with tiny parts incredibly hard to do. however when you fix a problem with a gun, and make it go boom again it's a feeling that you can't get tired of! restoring something rusted and in bad shape and making it beautiful again, gives me enormous amounts of pride. Doing something American and doing something that makes the gun grabbers cringe, priceless. i think i want to specialize in blackpowder guns, they are my favorite to work on!

 

[Jaymo]

I lost 3 hand springs for my NAA .22 LR and still never got it to go back together. Can't get the hand spring to stay in.
I never would have disassembled mine, except that it got so full of pocket lint that it wouldn't function anymore.
Maybe I need to look for it and try again.
I had seriously considered using a tiny fraction of a drop of CA glue to hold the back of the hand spring in place in order to get it back together.

Blackpowder Gunsmithing, by the late Ralph Walker, is a book that I think you would like, Busyhands94.

 

[Busyhands94]

make sure you have all the parts, get a hand spring, then take your hammer and put the index spring and index pin in place. make the cylinder hand rotate out all the way, put the hand spring in, then rotate the hand in inward like the blade of a folding knife. use your thumb to keep it in place. put the hammer and all the little parts attached to it into the frame. hold the hammer in place carefully, then put the side plate on. put the main-screw in and turn it left to tighten it. make sure it is nice and tight. then, use a flashlight to look into the bottom of the frame where the grips go. then, put the mainspring into the notch in there that it is supposed to rest in. use some pliers to put the mainspring into the bottom of the frame where it belongs. it sounds simple but it's one heck of a challenge.

i will check out that book! thank you for the recommendation!

 

[arcticap]

i think i want to specialize in blackpowder guns, they are my favorite to work on!

Don't count anything out. With Ruger just a hop, skip and jump away from you in Arizona and having a booming business, you never know where you could end up. Don't think for a minute that all of the people that have careers building whatever guns they make anywhere don't take a lot of pride in their work. And there's many manufacturers and shops nation wide that specialized in building all kinds of guns. Once you're fully trained and break into the business, you should consider working where your skills would earn the most money and provide you with the highest standard of living.
That's not to say that black powder can't be profitable. But sometimes there's other factors to consider like how to earn a steady income, maintain a decent enough standard of living to provide for a family, good working conditions and a life long benefit package that includes retirement. A lot of black powder enthusiasts only do it part time to supplement their income or as a hobby.