Need a little help from 1860 army and navy owners

[Pancho]

I want to know the width in inches of the face of your 1860 army and 1861 navies. It's too goofy to explain why at this time but I don't need it in 1/1000's 1/32's will do just fine. When I have a little more time I will explain what I'm up to.

 

[Lunie]

The face of what? The barrel, cylinder, or...?

 

[Pancho]

Thanks Lunie I left that out. I need the width of the face of the hammer.

 

[mustanger]

Oh, and I was going to ask if you ment when I was smiling, or frowning. Sorry couldn't help it.

 

[junkman_01]

I just measured my Pietta 1860 Colt and the hammer face measures .325 inches across the hammer face.

 

[Lunie]

~0.325" across the hammer face.

For reference, 5/16" = 0.3125"
Closest to 0.325" is probably 21/64", which is ~0.328"

And when you can, tell us what it's fer.

 

[Lunie]

Oh, and I was going to ask if you ment when I was smiling, or frowning. Sorry couldn't help it.

With an 1860/61, it would obviously be while smiling.

 

[martysport]

Metric is so much easier to understand

 

[Beagle333]

I get .324 on my Pietta 1860

 

[Omnivore]

I had to shave mine (Pietta) a little so it would stop rubbing on the frame, so I can't tell you what it was originally.

Pray; do tell. What do you have in mind?

 

[Pancho]

Omnivore, I have a pair of 1862 Colt Police and I'm using one as a test mule to cure the tendency for the guns to jam with "cap crap". One of many suggestions is to install a vertical pin in the hammer channel that would prevent spent caps from coming off the nipple and falling under the hammer. The pictures that I got from the archives show the pin in place with the hammer at half cock. Not knowing the diameter of the pin stock or the revovler used I figured that if I new the width of the hammer face I could comparatively determine the size of the pin.
Lucky for me that sltm1 ,the originator of the post, responded to my need and is sending me more information.

 

[Lunie]

If I were going to do something similar...

I would choose a pin diameter very near to, or just smaller than the existing notch in the hammer face. A coarse measurement is about 0.085". It's a little less than 1/3 of the width of the hammer. It would be pretty reasonable to just elongate and deepen this notch, while trying to maintain its original width. Assuming all things go to plan, the functionality of the safety pins between cylinders would be maintained.

I'm not sure what you have in mind. I was just thinking out loud about what I could do to my own iron.

 

[Smokin'Joe]

This may help:

http://www.theopenrange.net/articles/colt_cap_and_ball.pdf

 

[Beagle333]

I had 3 flattened caps in the case of my Army when I opened it up. Not to change the topic here, but somebody told me that Treso nipples have the smaller hole and that will stop the blowback and that is what tears the cap apart. Anybody know (before I drop $36 on a set of these?)


(Yes, I did search the forums before asking that, but all I found was recommendation for Treso because they were tougher, or they would stop caps from falling off from being ill fitted, not that it would lessen cap fragmentation.)

 

[junkman_01]

The smaller hole will lessen the blow-back. Less blow-back lessens the chance of cap fragmentation and blow off.

 

[CraigC]

Metric is so much easier to understand

Not for us!

 

[Lunie]

Not for us!

Riiiight...

Instead, we (or at least I) have to learn both. I like both systems just fine, but for the love of Pete, could we please just pick ONE and end this half-and-half malarkey???