25cschaefer
Member
I bought an Uberti Cattleman 1873 45 Colt, Stoger stamped, revolver yesterday and, being a gunsmith and hopelessly afflicted by the tinker bug, I tuned the action.
This gun had one feature I have not seen before, a safety hammer. In the hammer there is a rod protruding into the safety (first) notch of the hammer, this rod pushes on a wedge that sticks through the front of the hammer when it is cocked into this position. The idea behind this is to place a piece of metal between the hammer and frame so that if the revolver is loaded incorrectly and dropped on a live chamber, the hammer cannot flex enough to snap the spur or trigger, causing it to break and fire.
The revolver I got, for $350 new, had a nasty, ratchetey, heavy hammer pull (and wasn't timed right) so I slickied everything up and reduced the spring power. This is a leaf spring fyi. Now it is much better but...
The spring in the new safety is stronger than the force of the hammer spring (there is never much at the fully down position anyway) and when you cock it to the safety notch, there is not enough tension to depress the safety rod. So, you can pull the trigger and it goes off because the trigger's sear surface does not fully engage the notch, it is effectively blocked by the rod.
This is my gun and I intend to keep it so I will be replacing the hammer with a normal one; I would usually not defeat a safety in a gun but this safety is defeating a safety that has worked just fine for over 140 years.
I just thought I would share so people are aware and watch out for it. Remember folks, when you do a trigger job, check that all of the safeties work properly when you are done.
This gun had one feature I have not seen before, a safety hammer. In the hammer there is a rod protruding into the safety (first) notch of the hammer, this rod pushes on a wedge that sticks through the front of the hammer when it is cocked into this position. The idea behind this is to place a piece of metal between the hammer and frame so that if the revolver is loaded incorrectly and dropped on a live chamber, the hammer cannot flex enough to snap the spur or trigger, causing it to break and fire.
The revolver I got, for $350 new, had a nasty, ratchetey, heavy hammer pull (and wasn't timed right) so I slickied everything up and reduced the spring power. This is a leaf spring fyi. Now it is much better but...
The spring in the new safety is stronger than the force of the hammer spring (there is never much at the fully down position anyway) and when you cock it to the safety notch, there is not enough tension to depress the safety rod. So, you can pull the trigger and it goes off because the trigger's sear surface does not fully engage the notch, it is effectively blocked by the rod.
This is my gun and I intend to keep it so I will be replacing the hammer with a normal one; I would usually not defeat a safety in a gun but this safety is defeating a safety that has worked just fine for over 140 years.
I just thought I would share so people are aware and watch out for it. Remember folks, when you do a trigger job, check that all of the safeties work properly when you are done.
