Did I break my '51 Navy conversion?

[Will Sellit]

I received my '51 Colt 2nd generation Colt R&D conversion that I bought from an indiviidual yesterday. After shooting a few rounds through it I removed the barrel and cylinder to clean it and when I tried to put the cylinder back on the bolt was up and I could not of course get the cylinder back on. I do not remember now if it was at full cock or not but anyway I got the bolt down and assembled it, but now the bolt will not rise.
What the heck did I do to it and is there something simple that needs to be done to correct this.
Something else I noticed when shooting it. I loaded 5 rounds and was checking for accuracy and lost count of how many I shot and when I dry fired it on the empty chamber the firing pin stuck in the forward position and I had to use a thin knife blade to push it back. Is this normal or should the pin be looser than that?
Thanks for any help you can give.

[Presidio]

Sounds like ya' mighta forced the bolt spring when re-assembling it, Pard.  It might have broken or gotten your pistol out of timing with the cylinder...you'll havta disassemble it complete to know for sure.  The firing pin staying out on your dry fire sounds as if the internal sping is broken and won't "retract" the firing pin in your R& D.  Without a little  more info or some pics - I'm afraid that's all the help I can be.

I would highly suggest you take it to your gunsmith and have 'em check it out.

[Smokin Gun]

If the bolt won't come back up there's only a couple things it could be. The bolt/trigger spring bokr, not uncommon. Or the trigger sear(top) or hammer notch is worn or broken. Bolt legs may have slipped past the cam on the hammer or the right leg broke. All easy to check or replace. Just take it down and have a look.
Best a luck! Hope this helped.

[Grizzly Adams]

FWIW:  The documentation that came with my R&D Richards Conversion stated:

"DO NOT DISASSEMBLE FIREARM, other than the barrel and cylinder.  If you pull the hand out of the bottom of the frirearm, you will collapse the hand spring, which will make the firearm inoperative.  If you feel you must clean the inside of he action, we suggest you do not completely disassemble the firearm."

Go figure.....

[Smokin Gun]

My '51 Navy Uberti hand spring broke, decrimped it from the hand made a new one from shim stock. crimped it best I could and soldered it in. Works great, keeps a clickin' and keeps on tickin'...