Swapping cylinders on a 58 Remington

[Buckshot Mitchell]

It looks like I can use some advise on swapping cylinders on a 58 Remington
I thought I knew how to do this, but of course that was before I had any. (Clint
sure makes it look easy)  I thought that you pulled the hammer to half cock,
dropped the loading lever, slid the pin out, and the cylinder would drop out.
It’s been my experience that at half cock the hand is in the way, and with the
hammer down the bolt is in the way. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it is
the C&B cylinder or the R&D cylinder. If it matters, they are Pietta’s.
Thanks for any help you can give.

[sundance44`s]

Yep always put her in half cock first .. drop the loading lever ...but make sure the plunger doesn`t fall into one of the cylinder holes ..that will sure bind things up ...if the gun is new things can be a little tight ..and if you`ve done shot it things can be real tight  .. depending on rather or not you have the pin lubed up enough or not . if the pin slides out ok and the lever plunger isn`t in a cylinder hole ..try tuning the cylinder clockways while thumbing it out to the right side of the gun pushing with your left thumb on the left side of the cylinder..they`ll come out on the left side ... but it can be a little harder on the left side because of the hand being on the left side . a little pratice and you`ll be as fast as ole Eastwood !

[Cincinnati Slim]

Howdy Buckshot,

Here's the trick...

Hammer at half-cock, drop lever and pull cylinder pin. Tilt frame right. Cup yer left hand under frame to catch cylinder. Your left hand thumb rotates cylinder slightly while pushing it out of frame. The hand projecting out of the recoil shield is spring loaded and acts like a ratchet.  A slight spin in the normal direction of cylinder rotation pushes the hand out of the way when removing or replacing the cylinder.
Same drill when replacing cylinder. Insert while rotating slightly. Once cylinder is in place move yer right hand thumb and forefinger up to either side of the frame recoil shield to hold cylinder in line while the left hand pushes the cylinder pin back in and latches loading lever. Give the cylinder a spin to find unloaded/uncapped chamber, full-cock and lower the hammer on the empty chamber.

First practice this WITHOUT CAPS ON THE CYLINDER !

It is possible to set off a cap with careless handling.

Never happend to me, but I do belive it is possible!

I have a lot of practice and can swap in capped ready-to-shoot cylinders just like in "Pale Rider" in 3-4 seconds.

I like to smear some anti-sieze compound on the "star" or ratchet area on the backs of the cylinders. I think it helps cut down on wear and tear however it also leaves smeary silver stains on my fingers.

Start slow, be safe and practice, practice, practice. Work on being smooth before you try to get fast. Cabela's has a two-up cylinder pouch for yer belt. It's a Triple-K product sold to hold two 10-22 rotary mags. Less than twenty bucks and it fits two Remmie cylinders great !

With practice you can change Remmie cylinders almost as fast as one 'o them shell-shuckin' auto-loader fellers can swap clips. Have fun and be SAFE !

Cincinnati Slim

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[SFT]

That's about the best explaination of how to do that I have ever read; I couldn't even show you how to do it much less write it down better than that.  With practice it will be as smooth as Cincinnati Slim described, and it is possible and very painful to set off a cap accidently, so sage advice in that respect as well.

[Buckshot Mitchell]

Thansks for the lessons, looks like it's time to put in some practice time. Unloaded, uncapped, even uncharged, naturally.
Thanks again and "Happy Trails"

[SFT]

Thansks for the lessons, looks like it's time to put in some practice time. Unloaded, uncapped, even uncharged, naturally.
Thanks again and "Happy Trails"

You're most welcome.  Do it safe, do it often, do it for fun!

[Noz]

Tried that technique yesterday at a shoot. Slicker than greased -- well whatever.
Thanks for the tip.

[Presidio]

Keep on practicin' and ya' kin try it Reloadin' on the clock.  I did, and I did it in about 10 seconds.  Which don't make a hill of beans ta' me cause I ain't that fast anyhow....plus, it was fun ta' give it a try

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

One little trick Ii use when swapping out those cylinders is to capture(pinch between bbl and rammer lever) the cylinder pin with the rammer lever. That gets the rammer out of the way and also binds the pin so it doesn't slide back into the cylinder.  I cradle the front of the pistol in the web of my left hand and rotate the cylinder with the left hand thumb and fore finger as I push the cylinder out the right side.. Works slick as a greased cylinder too. I use bore butter on the cylinder star and the pin too. I'm not as fast as old Clint was in Pale Rider, but fast enought and I can do it in the dark!

That said.

I tried to swap ASP\ Euroarms Cylinders into my Uberti Carbine at the last shoot and remembered the hard way that the ASP\ Euroarms won't swap into the Uberti.(Uberti swaps into ASP\Euroarms fine) By God they will now!!. All my ASP/Euroarms were between 2.004-007 in length. The Uberti cylinder is 2.002-.003. I flat filed off  the ASP\Euroarms cylinders to match the Uberti cylinder and now ALL cylinders swap into all guns.

The few .001's I took off didn't seem to make any difference in gas escapage at all. Actually maybe a bit cleaner, but will not know until I shoot another match and see if they bind up before the 5th stage or not.  So far I can shoot 5 stages without doing more than wiping the pin and applying a bit more bore butter between stages when I swap cylinders out.

The same with my two Kirst 44 Rem. C.F. cylinders shooting BP. just a wipe between stages and they don't bind up at all.

[SFT]

I found out the same difference when I tried to put a Kirst Konverter made for a Pietta in an Uberti made frame.  The cylinder is 5/1000 too long, so I had the local gunshop lathe it back to fit.  Although it was reblued where the metal had been taken off it quickly went back to "white", but worked like a charm.  The reason I ordered a conversion for a Pietta is that I had bought the '58 from Cabelas, which was several years ago and at the time they did not carry Uberti/Remington reproductions.  I even called Kirst to ask why it wouldn't go in my pistol, and that's when they told me of the length difference, but also asked me to double check that I had a Pietta model and not Uberti, and with the receipt and box in front of me (both said Pietta), I looked closely at my gun barrel- It was made by Uberti!!!  How that swap had happened I'll never know, but I'll never get another deal like that again; $136 plus tax and shipping for a brand new Uberti in a Pietta box!

Anyway, having the cylinder lathed to the correct length cost about $20, and was well worth it despite the blueing wearing off on the face almost immediately.   

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

Yep that works. I hand filed my Pietta Kirst to fit my Uberti Carbine and she works like a charm, I had antiqued the Kirst and when I put it in the Carbine I reblued with Birchwood-Casey Super Blue. I even reblued the frame of the Carbine as it was turning purple from age. Now both are a mottled blue and look like well worn originals with ablue still on them.

[SFT]

Yep that works. I hand filed my Pietta Kirst to fit my Uberti Carbine and she works like a charm, I had antiqued the Kirst and when I put it in the Carbine I reblued with Birchwood-Casey Super Blue. I even reblued the frame of the Carbine as it was turning purple from age. Now both are a mottled blue and look like well worn originals with ablue still on them.

Sounds like a great looking gun.  Off the original topic and I'll be happy to start a new thread if need be, but I'd like your opinion on using the refinishing products like you describe above; how difficult is reblueing for the DIY person? How is the set-up and metal prep, and most of all, the fumes?  Do you drive out the neighbors when applying the stuff, buy a breather mask, wear chemical gloves?  The reason I ask is that I'm trying to decide if it's worth the time and money to do a home job or spend the money and send it off.

[Noz]

Home cold blueing/browning works but in my opinion can never be as good as "hot tank" blueing as done by a pro.
Never noticed any excessive odor or fumes.
My most successful effort was browning a muzzleloader. Came out uneven and splochy but grew on me. I'm really proud of it now.