Remington 1858 Cylinder Stop issue

[venturasurf]

Hello everyone - long time lurker, just registered because I need some of the expert help available here.

I'm having an issue with one of my 1858's. Everything works well on it, it's timed okay (I think so), seems to be great. I am experiencing one problem, however, which may be very dangerous.

The cylinder stop on the revolver stays engaged until you begin to decock the revolver. Basically, if you cock the revolver, then pull the trigger while slowly "riding the hammer" to allow it to decock slowly - you can see the cylinder stop disengage and the cylinder is allowed to turn before the hammer hits home.

I worry that during firing the cylinder stop might allow the cylinder to turn slightly and the cylinder will not be properly aligned with the bore when it goes off... and KABOOM.

None of my other 1858's do this... the cylinder stop stays fully engaged and the cylinder is locked into position after pulling the trigger.

I would appreciate any advice or direction that you can give me.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

There is something wrong with your gun. Don't shoot it. The bolt is supposed to stay in the fully engaged position until the hammer is fully lowered and it is supposed to retract when cocking the hammer first begins. I'm not a gunsmith, but I'm sure there are others who can help you fix your problem.

 

[BADUNAME30]

WELCOME Venturasurf.
Is the gun new ?
Has it ever been fired ?
Has it been taken down and cleaned internaly ?

Can't believe i'm gonna ask this one..
Have tried dry firin it and does it stll do this ?

 

[Jim K]

It shouldn't do what you describe. It sounds like the hammer cam is hitting the end of the cylinder stop so that instead of the cam springing the limb of the cylinder stop out of the way, it is hitting the end of that limb and camming it up, thus pivoting the stop and disengaging it from the cylinder. That would be near impossible in a Colt type, but could happen in a Remington copy because of the way the cylinder stop is made.

Anyway, that would be where I would look for the problem. The fix may be minor, just a swipe with a file, or it may be major if the hammer is made wrong.

Jim

 

[RaceM]

Check the hammer to see if the cylinder stop cam has rotated in its hole.

 

[venturasurf]

Thank you so much for your help. I have stopped shooting it since I noticed it a month or so ago. Otherwise it shoots great and I didn't notice a thing until one day I was practicing loading cylinders and cocking. It hasn't been taken completely down, I'll do that tonight. I was speaking with the smith at Taylor's and he mentioned the same scenario as the one Jim K mentioned. Once I get her torn down I'll look for burrs or oddities and check for cam problems.

 

[venturasurf]

Okay here is a picture of my bolt:



It appears that the side on the bolt closest to the hammer "catches" on the "nub" on the hammer while decocking. I am thinking that it is the nub on the hammer that looks kind of suspect. I don't see anything weird about this bolt but then again I have never smithed an 1858 before so what do I know. I'll keep tinkering with it tonight and let you know how it goes.

 

[venturasurf]

FIXED IT!!

I polished the cam on the hammer (previously referred to as "nub") and I filed off about half a millimeter off the left hand side of the bolt where it meets the cam and then polished that. Works like a charm now. Cylinder stays securely locked in place during all stages of hammer travel. Bonus thing too - the bolt isn't riding up like it used to while half-cocked and the cylinder can freely spin without putting a groove on it.

Thank you so much to everyone. Time to go shooting!

 

[BADUNAME30]

Don't alter that "nub". It is as Jim told you,it's the hammer cam. If it has burr you can remove that but don't go any further with your file.
The culprit could be the leg of the bolt is dissoriented to the cam.
Part One page starting at page 17 addresses what may be your problem.

LINKS DELETED BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WORK.
SEE WORKING LINKS IN RESPONSE #14

 

[venturasurf]

I just polished the cam - barely enough to take out some of the bluing. It was definitely the leg of the bolt, was wide and had rough edges and no "taper" for the bevel on the cam to push it aside with. I do want to check out those PDFs you posted though but I got 404 errors...? Thanks again for the help man.

 

[BADUNAME30]

That's a shame about the errors. That is some great pistol tunin in there.
Try this. Go to response #7
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=676316

 

[venturasurf]

Oh wow there's TONS of helpful information in those PDFs. I feel a lot more comfortable tinkering around inside the action of a SA BP pistol now - I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this. I'm definitely going to purchase some spare parts though, gotta learn someday how to time and tune a revolver might as well be now. I plan on passing these down to my sons in good working order after a few thousand more rounds and several more years.

 

[mykeal]

Jim, West PA - your links are incomplete. After the word net, they should be:
/articles/Tuning_the_Pietta_Part_One.pdf and /articles/Tuning_the_Pietta_Part_Two.pdf

 

[BADUNAME30]

Thanks mykeal, i copied and pasted them from the OP.
I was just reading over in the Gun Discussion board about how the url in a link gets 'eaten' when copied and pasted.
It worked when i went to the OP and copied and pasted the url so venturasurf
was able to see the pdf's.
Mmmmm...spose i should o' just done this....

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

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

Yep, that worked.
Thanx mykeal. Now i understand how to do this.