Merwin Hulbert Spring Question

[Sparten459]

Hello to everyone,

I just got this third model M&H single action in 44 WCF today, and was going over and cleaning it when I noticed that the cylinder wasn't locking up when the hammer is pulled to full cock. I unscrewed the trigger guard and found that both the barrel catch(?) spring and the cylinder stop spring had been replaced at one point. The barrel catch spring is just too long, an easy fix. But what the cylinder stop spring was replaced by, wasn't even a spring. Because of the rare nature of M&H's and the lack of documentation on them, I have 0 idea what the spring that actually goes there looks like. I was hoping that someone here might be able to help me with that. Now I know that finding an OEM replacement is well.... unlikely. But if I at the very least have an idea of how it looks, I'll be better off than I am now.

[St. George]

There's a good schematic in Chicoine's 'Gunsmithing the Guns of the Old West' that may help.

OEM parts dried up decades ago, likely before WWI - any replacement parts reside in other folks' revolvers, and they're awfully proud of them.

Scouts Out!

[Virginia Gentleman]

If you can find the drawings, you may be able to get the dimensions for the spring.  I suspect the replacement spring is not well sprung enough so making one with trial and error may be your only recourse.   You will need to shape one and heat it when bending to shape with a torch, quenching and then anneal it to the right springiness.  YouTube has lots of videos on how to make flat springs.  I even made one against all the oddsmakers saying otherwise. 

[Major 2]

I had acquired a Spanish Copy some years ago, with a broken main spring ( the spring was present but in two pieces )
A search was futile for anyone  to make one and a M&H or Oviedo replacement was also unobtanium.
I discovered St. George's comment " any replacement parts reside in other folks' revolvers " for myself.

I wish you much luck,  M&H is worthy project

[Sparten459]

If you can find the drawings, you may be able to get the dimensions for the spring.  I suspect the replacement spring is not well sprung enough so making one with trial and error may be your only recourse.   You will need to shape one and heat it when bending to shape with a torch, quenching and then anneal it to the right springiness.  YouTube has lots of videos on how to make flat springs.  I even made one against all the oddsmakers saying otherwise. 

That's what I was planning on having to do, I was hoping to see what a fully intact spring (and possibly screw because of the threaded blind hole in the trigger guard) looked like.

[DJ]

These pictures are from a 1st/2nd model single action open top in .44 MH, but I think the springs in the big single actions were pretty close to the same.

I apologize for the poor snapshots, but perhaps these will give you some idea of what that spring looks like so you can get started this weekend.

Let me know if you need anything else.

--DJ

[DJ]

The photo of the spring in place somehow got distorted, so I'm trying again.

[DeaconKC]

With those pics, I would suggest calling the folks at Wolff springs, they may have an idea. After all, that's what they do for a living.

[Sparten459]

Thank you all for your help, this is exactly what I needed.

[DJ]

In his book, "Gunsmithing Guns of the Old West," Chicoine suggests using a shortened '92 Winchester cartridge stop spring as a replacement for the  cylinder bolt spring.  I haven't examined such a spring, but it looks like it might take a little more than just shortening.  It also looks to be missing the little tab on the back side, but that might be more for location (to avoid the spring turning to the side) than function.  In any event, it might save quite a bit of labor.