Hammer Pull on 1858s and Cylinder Sizing

[Howdy Cowboy]

Howdy Pards,

I am new to this here forum, or special interest group if you will, so please don't whoop up on me too bad.

Got me a set of 1858s and I am going to have to do some thumb pushups to get my thumb muscles strong enough to cock these suckers. Does anyone have any advice on how to get the springs a little lighter? I know you want the mainspring to be heavy enough to avoid having caps fall into the action, but surely getting them a little lighter won't hurt, will it?

I am also wondering about the sizing of the cylinders. I put the calipers on them and they seem to be less than .454 which is what I thought they were supposed to be. A .451 round ball sets on the cylinder without falling through. Is there a recommendation on cylinder size versus bore size?

Thanks

[Four Eyed Floyd]

My gunsmith tells me that there may be burrs on the hammer spring, but I know what you mean my stainless 58 is a bear to cock. I have to take it into the smith and see what he can do. My other 58 is easy, but both get the primers stuck after firing. As I understand it was a problem with the original design too! Check the size your using 10 or 11 which depends on the nipples. Still fun to shoot though.

[hellgate]

On a couple of Piettas from years back I learned that extremely heavy pulls may be due to an overly long mainspring rubbing on the back of the hammer as you cock it. Take the grips off and look to see if the tip of the mainspring is scraping the back of the hammer. If so, don't take too much off or the spring will be too short and snap out from the little wheelie thingy (gunsmith term ) on the hammer and it is tricky to undo. If the spring is not too long then I have lightened them up by replacing the spring with a Colt '51/'60 mainspring. If the gun is a Uberti, just back out the mainspring tension screw to the desired level. It is the small screw on the bottom front of the grip frame. In most repros it is non functional but in my two Millenium Ubertis it was all i had to do (loosen the screw) to dial in the proper tension which has served me well for several years. Otherwise you will need to thin down the spring.

[Bull Schmitt]

I believe VTI Gun Parts http://www.vtigunparts.com/  has replacement hammer springs for the Pietta Remingtons that reduce the amount of effort required to cock the hammer. I don't see it on their web site and suggest you call them.

[Flint]

I tried to calculate the groove diameter (difficult with the odd number, 7 grooves) to see what to ream the chambers in order to match the bore, and the closest I got was to see daylight, still, through the grooves, even with a .460 ball up against the forcing cone. 

I believe the grooves are deep to collect fouling, and the original Colts and Remington grooves were even deeper than the repros.

The older repros, 30 or more years back had smokless type grooves, and the barrels fouled much more quickly.

The "bore", which is the diameter before rifling, is smaller than the chamber, so the ball bites the rifling lands, and the fouling blows into the grooves.

Generally, Piettas use a .451 ball, Ubertis a 454, and somecases a 457, and the Ruger a 457.

If a cylinder were reamed to match the groove diameter, the ball would be some larger than .460, and would probably lead the bore.

[hellgate]

I would not ream to .460. I've used .454 in both Pietta and Uberti guns just fine. If I had the right equipment I would either ream to .450 and use a .454 ball or ream to .454 and use a .457 ball. Whenever I have miked the cylinder chambers, they seem to be around .448" dia.
I cannot speak for the original Remingtons but the original Colts and the earlier Ubertis were both fairly shallow rifled. Original colts had a gain twist too but not cut very deep. I disagree that they were deeply cut to prevent fouling, they were never expected to be shot over & over again. They were "six shooters" which was six times more firepower than their immediate predecessors. If you shot the revolver dry, you used your sword or fighting knife instead. Reloading was for lulls in any fighting and usually preceeded by some cleaning.