Mike, (45 Dragoon) Completes my 1872 Open Top

[RUSS123]

This is actually a report on Mike's work, done to my 1871-2 Open Top I purchased new last January. At that time I had posted concerns about excessive cylinder to barrel gap (clearance), wanting opinions. A few said to send it back to Cimarron for warranty repair. I was in the process of doing that when I met Mike posting like everyone else. Got to talking with Mike, called him to discuss the problem and take measurements. It was then that I decided to send it to Mike for evaluation on closing the gap and have him perform all of his tuning magic. I went for the works... Deluxe tuning package, everything. If you know what all Mike does for these open tops, you know what I'm talking about.

The gap was like .015 and you really had to slam the wedge in to get .012 and that's about when the blast shield bushing on the cylinder would bind with the barrel assy. It was thought at the time of Mike's evaluation that he might possibly be able to mill back the frame and or barrel where the two pins secure the the two halfs. In the end, that's just what he did to bring the barren in closer to the cylinder and achieved between a .002" and .003" clearance. Also, Mike trimmed back the blast shield so that the cylinder would contact the forcing cone under recoil and as Mike puts it, that makes it self cleaning. No kidding.

I'm a little late in making my report on Mike's behalf here. I got my gun back from Mike around Father's day and was able to shoot it with a friend for the very first time but only once so far. To say the least, it shoots beautifully and feels solid as a rock. The action is as smooth as butter. Of all my single actions, this one gives the most shooting pleasure. Even my long time friend mentioned how amazingly good the action was. He was very impressed. Some of the highlighted items Mike employed into my 1872 OT are:

- Arbor to barrel fit correction, which Mike did in conjunction with milling the frame a few thousandths for the BC clearance.
- Added wedge bearing set screw, making the wedge adjustable due to wear.
- Hand Spring coil install, eliminating the leaf spring.
- Bolt block, to stabilize the bolt.
- Bolt and trigger coil spring mods. Mike makes his own spring, eliminating the leaf spring for lighter and smoother trigger pull as well. It's amazing he can do that.
- Action Stop; this is huge actually. It stops the action at the hammer so during fast and hard shooting, stress to the action from the bolt back to the hand and ratchet is eliminated. When you think about it, the bold stops the movement suddenly while you're still putting pressure on the hammer.
- Action Shield, situated on the hammer, holds in the grease fill action.
- Tapered Ejector rod and dimpled the rod nipple.
- Hammer shims,
- Internal Action polishing.
- Locking pins installed for the 3 main screws.
- Frame screws plus the hand was fire hardened.
- Lubrication: Mobil 1 synthetic grease filled action.

I highly recommend getting with Mike if you have a used or new Open Top and if you want the gun to last forever. I learned so much about them and what you get from the factory out of the box, which leaves much to be worked on. Couple of pictures here. The second pic shows the BC clearance which is about a minimal as can be, thank to Mike being able to correct it with the Arbor adjustment.

[45 Dragoon]

Wow Russ !! Thanks for a  great write up!! I appreciate your opinion and am  glad the Open Top is working better than it's supposed to !!! Lol!!  I consider it my job to make these revolvers perform on the highest level! My action setup that I ended up with ( unknowingly) is basically the same as a Freedom Arms action (coil, coil/ torsion, and flat main ) which I consider more "bullet proof" than that in a  Ruger. The action in your O.T. should never need servicing / cleaning or lubrication. The time taken to fit your action should give you lifetime service and the limiting factors in my actions (action stops and bolt blocks) are a huge reason why.  Again, thank you for allowing me to "correct" your O.T. and give it the "Outlaw Mule" treatment!!

Mike