PLEASE EDUCATE ME

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

I am new at this whole CAS scene. Several gun related issues I don't understand although, like many of you, I have shot and hunted since a child. A good thorough understanding of gun parts would be a good help leaving me in better position to understand the correct terminology of firearms parts.
For lesson 1 I'd like to understand the concept of timing: how it relates to the frame structure and the firearms performance. Bear in mind, many of these gun parts you speak of here are known to me as I have torn down my pistols before, but alas, I end up sounding like a woman and calling it a "thingy." I simply do not know the correct terminology for many of these parts.

[St. George]

Try going to your local Public Library and look under 'gunsmithing' or 'firearms repair', and you'll be surprised to see how many books are available - even more, with an Inter-Library Loan.

Then, check them out as needed - it's winter - might as well have something to read...

They offer what you're looking for in a far easier format - and they feature nomenclature as well as the parts breakdowns and schematics for the basic actions.

There are even C&WAS-specific books that deal solely with the firearms used within the sport.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

Thnks. I'll do that.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Go on the vtigunparts website.  Because they stock parts, the have shematics (exploded views - diagrams) of each gun and the names of the parts.  How you learn about timing is from the books mentioned above.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

There are only a few moving parts inside the typical Single Action revolver. You already know what the hammer and trigger are. The upper part of the trigger is called the sear. This is the part of the trigger that fits into the cocking notches on the hammer. The trigger is just a simple lever, when you pull it back, the sear rotates forward and out of the full cock notch and the hammer falls. The part that rotates the cylinder is called the hand. Ruger calls the analagous part the pawl. The hand (or pawl) is attatched to the hammer and rotates slightly. When you pull the hammer back, the hand rides up and engages the ratchet teeth at the rear of the cylinder to push it around. The most complicated part of the old Colt style Single Action revolver is the bolt (Ruger calls the analagous part the cylinder stop, but it is quite different). If you remove the cylinder from the gun you will see a small portion of the bolt protruding up out from the frame. That part of the bolt pops up into the locking slots on the cylinder to lock it in place. The bolt is a complicated lever/spring. The part that you see that locks the cylinder is just the tip of the iceberg. The rest of the part pivots slightly on its mounting screw. It is split down the middle, with two hooked 'legs' on either side. In addition, there are 3 springs in a Colt; the mainspring, or hammer spring, the hand spring, and the trigger/bolt spring which does double duty on those two parts.

The way the parts work together in a Colt style lockwork is quite simple, but it is also quite ingenious. When you begin to pull the hammer back, two things happen. A small wedge shaped part of the hammer, called the cam, engages one of the hook legs of the bolt. As the hammer rotates back, the cam pushes the leg of the bolt up, rotating the business end of the bolt down out of the locking notches on the cylinder. This frees the cylinder to rotate. At the same time, the hand is rising as the base of the hammer rotates. The hand begins pushing the cylinder around. Most of the way to full cock, the hooked leg of the bolt will slip off of the cam, and the bolt/trigger spring will force the business end of the bolt to pop up. The cylinder has not rotated quite far enough yet for the locking slot to appear above the bolt, but as soon as the cylinder rotates far enough, the bolt pops up into the locking slot, locking up the cylinder. At this same moment, the sear pops into the full cock notch on the hammer and the gun is ready to fire.

When you pull the trigger, and the hammer falls, the sloped part of the cam slides by the hooked leg of the bolt. The bolt is made of a springy steel, so the cam forces one leg of the bolt to the side, so the hammer can continue to fall, but the bolt does not pivot. This allows the cylinder to remain locked while the hammer falls. Once the hammer has fallen all the way, the cam clears the hooked leg of the bolt, and the cycle can be repeated.

One more term. The holes in the cylinder, that one puts the cartridges in, are called chambers. Some folks mistakenly call them cylinders, because the holes in their automobile engine, that the pistons ride up and down in, are called cylinders. But in a gun, the holes are called chambers, unless it is a Smith and Wesson, in which case they are called charge holes.

Timing is the science of getting all those sequences to happen at just the right time. If the 'timing' is off, the gun may not work properly.

David R. Chicoine has written some excellent books about gunsmithing old guns. You can find his books at Amazon. One is called Gunsmithing Guns of the Old West. It is a general book talking about many different guns and models. I recently picked up another book by him called Antique Firearms Assembly/Disassembly. This book covers many other antique guns, in addition to Cowboy guns.

For the very best book money can buy about the Colt Single Action Army, look at Jerry Kuhnhausen's Shop Manual about the SAA.

http://www.gunbooks.com/catalog.html

Kuhnhausen's books are very specific to certain guns, but they are the best books their are. You will notice he recently published a new book about Ruger Single Action Revolvers, which are quite different inside than Colts.

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

WOW!!!!!!!!! Quite a summary. This may seem remedial, but I thin I need a diagram to go with that!   

[RRio]

For the very best book money can buy about the Colt Single Action Army, look at Jerry Kuhnhausen's Shop Manual about the SAA.

http://www.gunbooks.com/catalog.html

Kuhnhausen's books are very specific to certain guns, but they are the best books their are. You will notice he recently published a new book about Ruger Single Action Revolvers, which are quite different inside than Colts.

Driftwood is absolutely correct about Jerry Kuhnhausen's Shop Manual about the SAA. I consider it the "Bible for SAAs".

[Wild Ben Raymond]

Howdy! In addition to the locking notches on the cylinder are the shallower cuts that leed up to the notches. This is where the bolt is supposed to pop up and not before, on colt and colt clones. This also allowes the leading edge of the bolt to slide into the notch easially & get to the bottom of the notch as quickly as possable. Also important is the cut of the bolts locking lug or head, it should match up as closely as possable to the cylinder notches. Example; if the leed edge is to high compaired to the back edge, you may be able to move the clyinder back and out of the notch. If the leed edge is too low compared to the back edge, the leeding edge will not fully ingage the cylinder notch. This will start to put wear on the cylinder and start to burr over the stopping edge of the cylinder notch to a point where the bolt may not stop the cylinder and you get over travel. It doesn't stop there, a bolt head can be out of aliginment with the notches by being to far forward or to far back. The high point of the bolt head should match up to the low point of the notches. As you can see the bolt is the most important part of the timing process along with the cam that it rides on. WBR