Broken Hand Spring, Easy coil Conversion.

[Trooper Zeke]

Just getting into this and have finally aquired the final piece of the equipment puzzle. This past Monday I took a brand new EAA Bounth Hunter .357 to the range and after about 20 rounds it started to misfire and the hammer felt funny. I took it home and found a spring had come loose inside. Yes it's one of the Colt style leaf hand springs. Good thing if fell out because it broke when I was trying to reinstall it. Researching this has led me down an interesting road. The Cimarron Arm's web site has a parts section with schematics for their products. Their Model P schematic shows some coil spring/plunger hand spring replacement parts that pose an interesting alternative. There are parts shown that use a hollow backstrap screw to hold a coil spring and plunger for the hand. As it happens the left backstrap screw on my bounty hunter is thru drilled and lines up with the hand and if the screws are the same size I may have a simple and very inexpensive way to convert from a leaf type to a coil hand spring. Total cost for the parts to convert is about 12.00 so I have ordered the parts and will see how it works. If things line up and fit properly I will polish the side of the hand that contacts the plunger so it moves smoothly. I'll report back here one way or the other how it works out.

[Pettifogger]

It's an easy conversion, just requires drilling one hole.  You don't need the screw or cup to hold in the spring.  Just put in the plunger and spring and the back-strap will hold them in.  Most of the time using the back-strap hole isn't the the best option as it isn't lined up squarely with the hand.  Stick a punch or drill bit in the hole and see where it is contacting the hand.  You want the plunder to run as close as possible to the center line of the hand.  Most of the time the backstrap screw hole is to far to the left.

[Abilene]

Hmm, my reply didn't show up, so I'll try again.  I have the hollow backstrap screw arrangement as mentioned on one of my older Model P's and on that gun at least it works like a charm.  However, I think Cimarron has the hollow screws but are out of that style of plunger (and Uberti doesn't make it anymore).  It shouldn't be too hard to make a stepped plunger like that but if you are capable of that then you probably are capable of drilling a hole in the frame like Pettifogger mentioned.  Also, I'm guessing the EAA has metric threads and I think the Cimarron is American thread.  But good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Trooper Zeke]

The parts were all in stock and have arrived. The threads are not the same on the hollow Uberti screw and the EAA screw. Before I ordered the parts I checked the alignment of the tapped hole and the hand and it is close enough to centered on the hand that that shouldn't be an issue. I have already replaced the leaf hand spring on this weapon so I'll keep these parts just in case. The Uberti hollow screws are slightly larger than the EAA screws so I may be able to rethread them to work if the need arises. Right now it's fixed and working well so I'm gonna leave it as is. When I get a chance I'll measure the threads on the Uberti hollow screws and post the size in case someone else wants to try this on a different brand weapon.