Uberti Paterson cylinded locks up after 2 rounds

[fineredmist]

Does anyone have any experience with one of these revolvers? I have fired black powder revolvers in the past and never encountered this problem. The revolver was loaded with light charges (17 gr. of Pyrodex and .375 ball) and # 10 caps. I fired the first round and second round with no difficulty but when attempting to cock the hammer for the third round the cylinder would not turn. The barrel assembly was removed without difficulty but the cylinder was locked in place. Tapping the cylinder with a wooden mallet finally freed it. The cylinder pin was coated with hard powder residue.

I cleaned the cylinder pin, lubed and reassembled the piece to fire off the 3 loaded chambers. The cylinder rotated freely and I brought the first chamber into battery and fired with not problem. I fired the second and the cylinder locked up just as it did the first time.

I disassembed the piece again and the pin was covered with hard powder residue again. I loaded another cylinder and tried again this time coating the front of the cylinder pin with grease in an attempt to seal it. The result was the same.

After cleaning the gun, I measured the cylinder pin diameter and the cylinder pin bore and found that the pin is .002" smaller than the bore diameter. Is this too tight or is something else wrong? Should the cylinder be installed dry or with a light oil as a lube?

 

[Bezoar]

What are you using to lubricate the base pin? Petroleum is supposed to make it stop revolving rather quickly...

 

[Tommygunn]

I would try bore butter on the cylinder arbor. In your case I would use bore butter over the bullets in the cylinder chamber, too.
It is not uncommon for BP revolvers to bind the cylinder, but it usually doesn't happen as quickly as yours. Maybe it's just a new gun and has to "loosen up" a tad.
I wonder if it is always binding on the face of the cylinder. Maybe the cylinder wasn't milled true flat in relation to the barrel.
Could the wedge be in too far on the gun?
These things matter.
Remember, the wedge doesn't go all the way in; driving it in too far will bind the cylinder. You might actually want to start by backing the wedge out a bit.

 

[arcticap]

Are you using Pyrodex P? If so, then maybe another powder would burn even cleaner, like APP or 777 (reduce 777 loads by ~15%).

 

[Franco2shoot]

Lube

If you read thru the threads, you'll find countless entries covering the lube of the pin.. I had a similar problem with my 1858 Uberti Remington and found the answer here on this board. In my case the cylinder would be sticky and the pin had to be hammered out with a ten pound sledge hammer. (Just kidding but you get the idea). I read about Bore butter and once I started using it my problems started to subside, but it was still sticky. Turned out, Bore butter is good, but I read were there were better homebrew solutions. I will pass along the homebrew final lube that I now use.

Take a small tin the size of an Altoids round container, about a half inch deep and a 2 inch diameter. Next you will need to find the following ingredients. You will need Bore Butter, Burt's Bee's Wax, and some Virgin Olive oil. The tin of Burts is only about the size of a quarter, but you will melt this, and pour into the cleaned out Altoid's tin, along with a teaspoon of olive oil and squeeze in about two lines of Bore butter. Mix the ingredients thoroughly. Put the Altoids tin in the Refrigerator and allow to cool.

The resultant should be a little softer than shoe polish, but can be smeared on just about every moving part. When loading, I put a thin sixteenth or so swipe on the edge of each cylinder.

Last time I went to the range, I went through five loads and the cylinder was still rotating smoothly.

KKKKFL

 

[hildo]

Try lubepills

I have no personal experience with the Paterson, but I have a Walker that locked up as well, even a little before I had 6 shots fired. My other revolvers, a Dragoon and a Rogers & Spencer did not have that problem. I used a crisco type of lube over the ball.
Then lubed the arbor pin of the Walker every time, but it did not help either, I had to pull the cylinder everytime after six shots.

Then I started using lube pills, under(!) the ball and my Walker now shoots at least 40 rounds, and probably much more. The cylinder keeps rotating freely and the barrel stays quite clean on the inside as well.
Lubepills under the ball may be your solution.

 

[mec]

both of my Patersons would gum up after two or three shots for the first several range sessions. After that, they began to function better. One Walker behaved the same way but is very smooth functioning now. Part of the problem is that they have very tight frame to cylinder dimensions and the position of the barrel tends to drive fouling right onto the arbor. Over-ball grease- either crisco or bore butter tends to make the fouling much worse.

My levered Paterson had absolutely no barrel cylinder gap and it did not work very well until I created some by putting a small amount of aluminum foil in the arbor-hole under the barrel.

The treated wads sold by The Possibles Shop make for a clean bore and minimum sticky fouling on the arbor, cylinder front and cylinder proper. I do quite a bit of shooting with properly sized balls and no wads or over-ball grease. I do not get chain fires but also do not guarantee that they will not occur.