Cleaning my New Model Number Three . Update

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I seem to really be going hog wild on the merits of the old S&W Top Break designs and how well they were suited for shooting Black Powder. Perhaps you have seen some of my earlier postings and photos.

Yesterday I brought both my New Model Number Three and my 44 DA to a local match. The match director said I could shoot my 44DA as long as I shot it single action. Who was I to argue?

Yesterday's match consisted of six stages. Both revolvers are chambered for 44 Russian. My loads consist of 1.3 CC (about 19.5 grains) of Schuetzen FFg in Starline cases. This is lightly compressed by a Mav-Dutchman 200 grain Big Lube bullet sized to .428 and lubed with SPG. Federal Large Pistol Primers.

The 44DA was so much fun to shoot that after the match I fired it a whole bunch more double action. Probably shot up three or four more cylinders full. There is just nothing like blasting away as fast as you can yank the trigger with Black Powder.

I am happy to report that at the end of the match the New Model #3 did not exhibit any binding at all. At half cock the cylinder spun like a top. The 44DA cylinder did not spin quite so easily, but there was no binding and I am sure I could have shot it a whole bunch more if I had wanted to. But after three or four more DA cylinders the gun was getting so hot I thought it best to give the old baby a rest. It's over 120 years old, after all.

Anyhoo, here are some photos. I chose to photograph the nickel plated New Model since the black fouling shows up better than on the blued 44DA.

In this first photo there is plenty of nasty, dry fouling caking the recoil shield, but very little anywhere else. Notice how the recoil of the round being fired kept the round hard against the frame and there was no fouling deposited under that round.



Most of the fouling in this photo is down at the base of the cylinder pin. The reason it is all wet and slimy looking is I liberally coat the inside of the pin and the extractor rod of the cylinder with Ballistol every time I clean the gun. The fouling seems to have mixed with the Ballistol and has remained quite wet. Notice that no fouling at all got past the gas ring and onto the helical clearance cuts on the pin. You can't see it too well, but there is also plenty of fouling on the underside of the top strap and all around the barrel/frame latch.



Sorry, I did not take any photos of the cylinder. It had a nice light layer of dry fouling everywhere.

Here are two photos of the same areas of the gun after it was cleaned with Murphy's Mix. Sorry, that last shot is not perfectly in focus, but I think you get the idea. Yes, there seem to be some stains on the nickel of the frame. I do not believe they were there when I first bought the gun, I must have put them there myself. I scrubbed them pretty good with Murphy's and a bronze brush, but they did not go away. I did not get more aggressive because I do not want to damage the nickel plating. I also noticed the front of the cylinder is starting to develop blast circles around the chambers. They don't scrub off either. Oh well, I bought the gun to shoot, not to look at it. I am going to live with them, I am not going to attempt any more aggressive techniques to remove them, as I want to preserve the nickel plating as long as possible. It is not the original plating, the gun was refinished at the factory in 1965, but I don't want to try anything aggressive on it. The vertical scratches on the frame are not my doing, they were there when I bought the gun. Somebody must have tried to close the gun with the extractor extended a little bit.






Hope you find this interesting.

[Montana Slim]

Good report....I have & regularly shoot my DA #3 with similar results.
Thought I'd mention I use MAV's sized to .430 in the .44 Russian cartridge.


Slim
(But, I do use the .428 sizing die when loading for my .44-40s)

[Hangtown Frye]

How Cool.  Reminds me that I really need to take my New Model No.3 out and put it through it's paces too!

Thanks for posting that, Driftwood.

Cheers!

Gordon

[Fox Creek Kid]

Judging by the recoil plate I don't think this gun was shot very much before ol' Driftwood latched onto it.   Nice photos, Driftwood.  

[wildman1]

Driftwood ain't none of my bizness, but I'm curious, have ya tried annealling on those shell casings? I did on my 45 Colt casing and it completely got rid of fouling anywhere back of the front of the cylinder on my revolvers. In my '92 it eliminated it in the action. WM

[Driftwood Johnson]

Fox Creek Kid

This pistol was sent back to the factory and refinished in 1965. So I have no idea how it looked before then, but it has obviously been fired very little since then. Looks almost brand new. There is a little tiny bit of pitting in the bore, but not much. The chambers look like they were just cut.

Wildman

Nope, I don't see any need. This gun was designed to shoot Black Powder just the way I am loading them. I can understand annealing 45 Colt brass for a rifle, because it usually does not expand enough to seal the chamber. Nobody was annealing cases when this gun was made, it only takes a few strokes of a bronze bristle brush and some Murphy's Mix to clean the recoil shield. I shot the pair again at a match yesterday. Both guns kept right on ticking with no binding at all through six stages, and then the DA44 was shot a bunch more times after the match. I'm getting better at cleaning them too, only took about ten minutes for each gun.

[wildman1]

I understand completely.  Only thing I don't know is if the brass in the older cases was as hard or as thick.    WM

[Driftwood Johnson]

Well, I have a couple of original 44 Russian cartridges, but I ain't gonna take them apart to find out.

[Wolfgang]

Driftwood, . . real nice pistol.  Thanks for posting about it   

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy Again

Thought I would post an update. Just finished shooting the Great Nor'Easter, the New England SASS regional. Shot the New Model #3 along with one of my Colts. Five stages on Friday, all my guns kept functioning fine, per usual. Put the guns away with no cleaning, no spritzing, nothing. Felt a bit guilty about not cleaning the Smith, but I was pretty confident it would be OK.

Five more stages on Saturday. No problems at all with the guns, started with them dirty, they kept right on functioning just fine for all five stages. Did I mention I use Big Lube bullets lubed with SPG? Put the guns away again Saturday night, with no cleaning.

Sunday night. Just finished cleaning everything. No problems, everything cleaned up just fine like normal.

So. Torture test for the 19th Century S&W Top Break design when shot with Big Lube bullets. Ten stages over two days with no cleaning in between. Performed flawlessly.

Gotta love these original Top Breaks.