Remington Pocket 31

[mec]

I ordered this through Cabelas as they were the only ones who seemed to be advertising a steel frame variety. It is marked CA- confirming the proof sequence is continuing in the traditional vein and that the revolver is a 2006 production. It is perfectly timed and functions caps amazingly well for such a small, tight revolver. I had one major busted cap hang up out of about 40 rounds and it was a good one. Had to take the cylinder out to remove the cap. Usually though, it functioned very well. Very impressed with the overall quality of this one as well as the fit and finish.
I broke it. Not Pietta's or the design's fault. It's just that Swiss fffg bulks higher in the chambers and compresses less than pyrodex or Goex fffg and I tried too hard to seat the ball. Being such a small gun, the excessive force broke the loading lever at the screw hole. I've ordered another one from VTI.
this is a really small revolver. Take a look:

Hits 8 inches high and about 2 inches left at 30 feet.

Smaller even than the Colt Pocket Model. 12.5 grains is a maximum charge with Pyrodex or Goex 3f and probably a bit much for Swiss as it compresses less than the other two.

Big difference from full sized 58-63

There is a lot of nonsense history on these on the various commercial sites but it appears that a Beals patent pocket revolver like this came out in about 1857 by Whitney and maybe Remington. It evolved with the bigger guns and the replicas are called 1963s.

 

[Manyirons]

Got a pair worked over by tha SMITH, first thing I learned, LOAD tha cylinder off tha gun!

What a great shirt pocket pistol!

 

[Third_Rail]

Could you possibly take a picture of the Rem. Pocket 31 and a "1862" snub (actually an 1861 from Cabelas)?

 

[mec]

don't have a 61 snub but it's a lot bigger. Even the 31 colt above dwarfs it.

Actually, I did end up loading a couple of cylinders off the gun. fairly easy with a small ball starter. The breakage problem may not be too bad. I tried to compress a full charge of dense Swiss 3f.

 

[Third_Rail]

mec, I'm unclear on what you said; which is bigger, the snub or the pocket 31?

 

[mec]

The 61 Snub is on the colt navy frame and is much larger than either the colt 31 or the very small Remington. the remington is just a little longer than the chief's special in the picture and not as tall.

 

[Third_Rail]

Thank you very much.

 

[Ned Christy]

Mec,

I also bought one from Cabelas and mine is almost perfect, except the hammer nose will not fit in the safety notches between chambers. Is this the case with yours as well? Also, what size ball do you use? I found that .315 is about right in mine with a charge of 9 grains by volume of Pyrodex P.

Ned Christy

 

[MCgunner]

Mine had a bead rather than the thumb nail sight. I like the thumb nail better. Mine is from Cabela's, but it's a brass frame. Shot it not long ago. Don't often take it out, but I got the urge. I have a nice little brass mold for it, casts one conical, a rather pointed one, and a round ball per throw. Lot easier to just shoot 00 buck, though.

 

[mec]

Mine has .312 chambers as opposed to .317 in my Uberti Wells fargo. I suspect you are right about the .315 balls being optimum. I was using .320s from Buffalo Bullet Co. as I had them for my Colt .31 and they are the right size for it. Smaller balls rattle around in the Uberti/Colt chambers. I decided that I would not reduce the 12.5 grain charges since the velocities dip in to the 400 fps range even with these full chamber charges. If I were to use Swiss very much I would probably cut the charge by .5 grain because it doesn't compress enough for easy seating.

I tried some 60 grain bullets from my brass colt replica mould and found them too long to fit under the loading lever.

 

[mec]

" also bought one from Cabelas and mine is almost perfect, except the hammer nose will not fit in the safety notches between chambers"

I remembered your post about this and it was one of the first things I checked. Works just fine on this one.

 

[MCgunner]

Seem to remember getting in the range of 700 and some fps with pyrodex P with mine. I remember the energies came out to about what .22 long rifle puts up from a 4" gun. Not what I'd wanna rely on back in the day for defense. If I were a cowboy lookin' for compact fire power, I'd have to move up in size and figure out a way to hide it, I reckon.

 

[mec]

I get higher velocities from my 4" Wells Fargo but am not surprised you got higher speeds from your remington than I did from mine. There is quite a lot of variation amongst these guns/loads.

 

[mec]

vti comes through again

As mentioned above, I busted the loading lever on this putting too much pressure on a chamber full of swiss. VTI came forth with a new one which dropped in with no problems. also supplied the spare trigger bolt spring and hand assembly I ordered. Sent me a ball point pen as a gesture of appreciation.

 

[The Sicilian]

They're fun to shoot, huh mec? I like my little 1849 pocket, I load mine with the cylinder out, it's a lot easier that way. I just tried Triple 7 in mine yesterday, both 15 grains and 12.5 grains. Do you think that the 15 grain might damage the gun over time mec? Seemed to shoot just fine. The only problem I've been having is using .315 balls, they're just too small for the Colt. I think .323's might be perfect, you have any opinions that might be helpful? I think the .315 balls are probably hurting the accuracy a little bit, even though I managed to hit a can at 25 yards out, it was one of those little energy drink cans, smaller and narrower than normal 12oz. cans. I was really proud of myself even though it was just a lucky shot I'd like to get th Remmy pocket pistol next, it looks like it would be a lot of fun to shoot.

The Sicilian.

 

[mec]

I bought some 315s by mistake one time and they fell into the uberti Wells fargo chambers. I wanted to shoot so, I laid them on a piec of wood and whacked them with the handle of my screwdriver type nipple wrench. this expanded them enough to stay in the chambers. 315s are for one of the patched ball rifles instead of revolvers but they might work in the remington. Mine has .312" chamber mouths while the ubertis are several thousanths bigger

I'm thinking the 15 grain charge is pretty heavily compressed. It would be about impossible to get that much black powder in the colt 31 chambers- black won't compress as much as H777. I've used a 12.5 gr/equivalent measure and it works fine. In the 31s I didn't find a whole lot of difference among the various powders except that Swiss was a good bit faster than the others.

 

[The Sicilian]

No doubt, I tried to squash em a bit but my hands wern't as gentle as yours and the ball was too large. I don't yet have a nipple wrench for this little gun so I have to be careful not to jam anything inside the chambers. Without a wrench I'm pretty much screwed if something goes wrong. I was doing 15 grain charges with H777 and there was plenty of room, I could have added a little more if I wanted to, I just didn't want to over do it, you know? I just made around thirty paper cartridges out of BP (Goex) for the .31, all 12.5 grain cartridges. I used Tops rolling papers as they seem to work well. I used some french lites before, thinking that thinner papers would be better, but I was wrong. The thinner papers seemed to leave more of themselves behind. Pretty weird, I guess the stouter paper must travel all the way down the bore and into the open where as the thinner French papers must stay behind for some reason. Even using wads I had plenty of room left. That H777 compresses pretty easily compared to American Pioneer. The AP in 3F looked more like 2F to me. The grains were almost three times the size of black powder or H777!

The Sicilian.

 

[ArmedBear]

How do you load the cylinder out of the gun?

Did you make your own loading lever setup, or is there one out there that will fit the diminutive .31?

 

[mec]

took out the cylinder. Charged a chamber, set ball on top . whacked with a wooden handled nipple wrench and then used the nub of a ball starter to seat the ball all the way.

 

[edggy]

Reminghton Pocket .31 Caliber

I also bought a Pocket Revolver from Cabela's. But mind has a cut ring inside
the bore about 1/4 or a little more before the cylinder. I talked to a Cabela's representative from their store before sending it back. And he checked two new ones and they both had the same cut in the barrel . He advise this is
the way they are made (2006 Models) Now for my question. Why the cut.
I really don't think it will hurt anything. It looks like the threading machine
cut a little too deep. but I don't know

 

[ArmedBear]

took out the cylinder. Charged a chamber, set ball on top . whacked with a wooden handled nipple wrench and then used the nub of a ball starter to seat the ball all the way.

LOL

Maybe we could modify an old progressive reloader to charge the thing up in five lever pulls...

Hmmm....

 

[mec]

Looked at mine. It has the same ring. I suspect your guesses about the source are right and that it is insignificant. Overall, these are well made but as small and delicate as they are, I suspect all sorts of things will start going wrong if we shoot them extensively.

 

[edggy]

Rem. Pocket (Caps)

mec, What size of caps are you using now or which one's do you recommend.
Thank You

 

[mec]

I stay with Remington. #10 is about ideal for the remington though, I'm pretty sure the hammer spring is stout enough to set off cci.

 

[Steve499]

Just for what it's worth. I cast some .31 bullets the other day from an original mold I have and stuck my dial calipers on the conical. It measured .310 on the rebated base and .322 above that. I didn't measure the round ball.

Steve