Hello high road. I just bought a Remington 1858 from an acquaintance of mine, think I got a pretty good deal. I'm not new to shooting or even black powder but I am new to this particular model and have a few questions. I found THR in my research and figured I might get some answers here.
I've had it for about a week and haven't really looked at it until today when the conversion cylinder I ordered came. First thing I noticed was the black powder cylinder slides in and out pretty easy. The conversion cylinder slips in easy enough but the pin that holds the cylinder in place (I think it's called the base pin) is a little tough getting to seat. Not hard, it slides in there okay and the cylinder turns fine/indexes right but with the black powder cylinder it slips right in no problem...with the conversion the pin isn't nearly as effortless to seat and it catches a little bit.
It's not so tight that it's binding but it's tight. I have Brownell's moly grease I use on auto pistol slides, should I give the base pin a coating of that and see if things mate up a bit easier? Or would another lubricant be preferred? If this doesn't clear it up should I take it to a smith and get them to maybe do some filing?
My second question involves the hammer. I noticed right out of the box the hammer had a slight outline or peening where it must have contacted caps (the revolver was used). When I popped in the conversion cylinder and dry fired some snap caps I looked at the hammer again and noticed another light peening mark this time where it's contacting the conversion cylinder's firing pins. This doesn't look bad at all at this point (it's probably .001 deep or less) but should I keep an eye on this to see if it gets worse? For what it's worth the hammer seems to slap down harder than the one on my 686 but that might just be the result of different designs.
As somewhat of an aside is there anything wrong with dry firing an 1858 conversion cylinder with snap caps? I know never to do this on a bare nipple but common sense seems to dictate snap caps in the cylinder is a different story.
My final question: Should I test fire this first with black powder and ball or can I just jump right in with the conversion cylinder?
I've had it for about a week and haven't really looked at it until today when the conversion cylinder I ordered came. First thing I noticed was the black powder cylinder slides in and out pretty easy. The conversion cylinder slips in easy enough but the pin that holds the cylinder in place (I think it's called the base pin) is a little tough getting to seat. Not hard, it slides in there okay and the cylinder turns fine/indexes right but with the black powder cylinder it slips right in no problem...with the conversion the pin isn't nearly as effortless to seat and it catches a little bit.
It's not so tight that it's binding but it's tight. I have Brownell's moly grease I use on auto pistol slides, should I give the base pin a coating of that and see if things mate up a bit easier? Or would another lubricant be preferred? If this doesn't clear it up should I take it to a smith and get them to maybe do some filing?
My second question involves the hammer. I noticed right out of the box the hammer had a slight outline or peening where it must have contacted caps (the revolver was used). When I popped in the conversion cylinder and dry fired some snap caps I looked at the hammer again and noticed another light peening mark this time where it's contacting the conversion cylinder's firing pins. This doesn't look bad at all at this point (it's probably .001 deep or less) but should I keep an eye on this to see if it gets worse? For what it's worth the hammer seems to slap down harder than the one on my 686 but that might just be the result of different designs.
As somewhat of an aside is there anything wrong with dry firing an 1858 conversion cylinder with snap caps? I know never to do this on a bare nipple but common sense seems to dictate snap caps in the cylinder is a different story.
My final question: Should I test fire this first with black powder and ball or can I just jump right in with the conversion cylinder?