Tuning up a 58 Remington questions

[HorsePen Henry]

I have a 58 Remington by Pietta and the little tab thingy that fits into the cylinder notches is coming up too soon and dragging on the cylinder. How do you fix that problem. Also, I would like to smooth up the trigger pull some so it isn't so cotton pickin' stiff. How do you do that with BP revolvers? Any Remmy mechanics out there?

X Horse Pen

[Pettifogger]

How soon is to soon?  Remington bolts do not have lead-in grooves.  The bolt is supposed to rise before it gets to the bolt notch.  How far off is you gun?  You smooth up the action like you do on all guns.  Polish the internal parts and tune the springs.  Depending on how heavy the hammer spring is, it can be adjusted some.  However, you will never get the hammer pull as light as a cartridge gun or you will have ignition or cap jam problems.

[HorsePen Henry]

So, that tab is called a bolt. Thanks. I am not real good on the wordeology of these new fangled capguns.
I have a Colt C&B and it doesn't score the cylinder the way this one does. The Remmy scores the cylinder a good 3/8th of an inch before it falls into the notch and is rounding off the notch shoulder.

I am talking about the trigger pulls hard when I am trying to fire the gun. I don't mind a heavy hammer pull but I don't like a heavy trigger pull. Is there a trick to getting a lighter trigger pull without losing the power in the hammer? or are they related some how?

Thanks for responding so quickly!

X Horse Pen

[Flint]

As it's a Pietta, the mainspring is much stiffer than it needs to be, even as a cap & ball.  I reduce the width of the spring to lighten it.  The Uberti mainspring is lighter, but I'm not sure it will fit the Pietta correctly.  (I should know, but I haven't cross fit them to check).

In repairing a Pietta of a shooting pard, I found his sear damaged, and had to replace the trigger, and I believe it was due to the excessive mainspring, it chipped off the back of the sear as it dropped off the hammer notch.  As his gun is being used as a conversion, I lightened the mainspring to cartridge level and got a 2 lb trigger pull.  Yes, the trigger pull and mainspring pressure are related.

Sometimes, bending the bolt's leg outward a bit toward the hammer cam will delay the bolt drop enough to correct the timing.  Don't overdo it as it tends to tilt the hammer so it drags on the frame on the left side, as Pietta, particularly, has too much slop in the fit between the hammer pivot screw and the hole in the hammer, so it has too much "wiggle" sideways.

I plan to make a replacement screw that will fit the hammer better and reduce the slop in the fit.