Repairing Percussion Hammer Noses

[Pettifogger]

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

Since we are all playing nit pickers tonight, there aren't any 3rd Gen Colt percussion revolvers.

[Mako]

I'll see your nit pick and raise you one...You are being a nitpicker because you know as well as I that 3rd Gen and Colt's Signature Series are used interchangeably.

Just like we say "Military" and "Civilian" Army models.  Show me where that is an official Colt's designation.

Just between nit pickers...

~Mako

[Pettifogger]

I'll see your nit and raise you one.  There are no "3rd Gen Colts" because the Signature Series aren't Colts.  They merely licensed the name "Colt" but have no association with Colt.  In other words, the Colt's built using Uberti parts are vastly superior to the Signature Series Ubertis.  (Open for a nit picker since some early Colt 2nd Gen parts weren't made by Uberti.)

P.S.  Don't normarily inbibe.  But there was two footsball games on today.

[Mako]

Pettifogger,
I'll see your raise by stating Dennis Adler in his book Colt Blackpowder Reproductions & Replicas: A Collector's & Shooter's Guide explains that the Signature Series as licensed to Colt Blackpowder are considered Colt's pistols.  Here is also an interesting quote directly from that book :

"...for color pictures of the 3rd Generation Colt Blackpowder makes and models listed. Third Generation Colts can be found on pages 23 through 37 and pages 77, 84, 85, 86 and 94."

Notice he not only calls them Colt's pistols he calls them 3rd generation.

And I raise again by pointing out that the Colt Collectors Association has a category for both the Signature Series and the 2nd Generation Percussion Revolvers.

And now I call, with the Coup de Grace.  I'm pushing it all in by pointing out Colt's Historical Services Dept. in Hartford will issue a Colt's Historical Letter for Colt's Signature Series Percusion Revolvers.  I believe that one would hold up in a court of law...

Mako

[Pettifogger]

Shoulda went into the other bathroom to look at the BP book some more.     All I can say is no grey box "Colt" will ever darken my safe.    Can't figure why anyone would want to spend $200.00 to "letter" a $300.00 gun.     Just to get even, I'm gonna put the 51 Navies (with capguards and gas shields) I tuned for Winter Range in the closet and shoot my ROAs at Winter Range.  Might even use Pyrodex pellets!!!

[Mako]

... Just to get even, I'm gonna put the 51 Navies (with capguards and gas shields) I tuned for Winter Range in the closet and shoot my ROAs at Winter Range.  Might even use Pyrodex pellets!!!

OH MAN!!! you fight dirty!!!

You know just how to push my buttons!

Mako

[Hoof Hearted]

Well at least I am able to liven things up here a bit!

Raven and I were complaining a couple of weeks ago about the lack of interest on the forum.........boy will he be surprised when he gets back from the SHOT show

OK I stand here un-admonished and prostate myself for your amusal.........I really should not try to remember things from in the house when the gun shop is only about 30 yards from here. So I went out and looked (by the way Pettifogger I was using 3rd gen because I hate the term "Signature Series" but I did so knowing full well they are Uberti parts), and YES is the answer to Mako's question about Pietta's*, It must have been an ASM that I was thinking about, oh well CRS and all that.........

Mako, not to admonish you but Uberti had smooth faced hammers in their first guns :-) This is why I made the comment (recently working on a GU marked '51)
Along with non roll engraved cylinders w/o the "park" pins................(this time I did look and I counted 14 Uberti's in my collection of Percussion and conversions and just about twice that many newfangled cartridge Uberti's).

As to my reply directed to the OP:
It was not my intention to confuse, only offer help, and I did not say you had Pietta hammers. I only professed that Pietta's hammers were notched on the face.

*Everyone makes compromises in everything they do. I "like" the Pietta's more than the Uberti's and that goes back a number of years....maybe 35?

[Hoof Hearted]

You admonished Driftwood last week for expressing an opinion instead of checking  the facts.  Maybe he thought the same thing you posted above  when you answered him.

Well I took his post as an attack. I actually held back in my admonishment

I completely agree with you about exceptions and trying not to be equivocal but I NEVER jump on someone and SHOUT "your wrong". Not my nature, in fact I spend a lot of time refraining and not answering when posters want to take that attitude. That is the kind of thing that runs off the newcomer and could very well be why attendance is so poor here.

HH

[Pettifogger]

OH MAN!!! you fight dirty!!!

You know just how to push my buttons!

Mako

Here is the gamer ROA.  Even though the 51 is shortened and lightened and is much smaller, the ROA only weighs one ounce more.  Removing the rammer and replacing the steel frame with an old 3 screw aluminum frame saved 6.6 ounces.  I have a bad back and after hauling lots of metal around all day feel pretty miserable.  The mods made the ROA tolerable.  Now I just need to find those Pyrodex pellets I was testing a couple of years ago!

[Pettifogger]

Hoof Hearted, remember that here in cornputter land you cannot see a face or hear a voice intonation.  Unless someone outright calls you a dirty @#$%%!$@^@^ (which will get them tossed from the wire) don't sweat anything.   Most people are here to help and have a little fun.

[Mako]

... Now I just need to find those Pyrodex pellets I was testing a couple of years ago!

STOP, just stop in the name of everything Holy Black please stop...

And I was going to tell you that '51 was pretty handsome.

Oh wow, the room is spinning...Ethyl, I'm coming...

[Pettifogger]

STOP, just stop in the name of everything Holy Black please stop...

And I was going to tell you that '51 was pretty handsome.

Oh wow, the room is spinning...Ethyl, I'm coming...

You are partially safe.  I was talking to the Hodgdon people at the SHOT show and they said there is very little demand for the .44 pellets and virtually no demand for a .36 pellet so they have no intention of ever making any.

[Hoof Hearted]

STOP, just stop in the name of everything Holy Black please stop...

And I was going to tell you that '51 was pretty handsome.

Oh wow, the room is spinning...Ethyl, I'm coming...

Boy that could easily be taken different........
Kinda glad I cant see his "face or hear a voice intonation"

[Fox Creek Kid]

Pettifogger, when those Pyrodex .44 pistol pellets came out I bought a box out of curiousity and loaded some into a few .44 Colt cartridges (snug fit) and shot them in a '72 Uberti OT.    After a cylinder full every screw in the gun had backed out and they felt almost like a magnum!! I shot the rest in a cap 'n ball. So ended my one & only experience with Pyrodex.  Immediately afterward I went to a church & repented and washed my gun in holy water. It is only with great reluctance that after even a decade I will admit to having tried Pyrodex ONCE. 

[Pettifogger]

Pettifogger, when those Pyrodex .44 pistol pellets came out I bought a box out of curiousity and loaded some into a few .44 Colt cartridges (snug fit) and shot them in a '72 Uberti OT.    After a cylinder full every screw in the gun had backed out and they felt almost like a magnum!! I shot the rest in a cap 'n ball. So ended my one & only experience with Pyrodex.  Immediately afterward I went to a church & repented and washed my gun in holy water. It is only with great reluctance that after even a decade I will admit to having tried Pyrodex ONCE. 

I had the same experience.  They feel more like 60 grains than the 30 they claim.

[Joe Lansing]

    Hoof Hearted, PROSTATE is a gland, PROSTRATE is to lay down in homage.

                                                 J.L.

[Pettifogger]

   Hoof Hearted, PROSTATE is a gland, PROSTRATE is to lay down in homage.

                                                 J.L.

Been there done both!

[Pettifogger]

Almost forgot there was an original question.  I don't have a tig welder and haven't found anyone locally that wants to do or can do an occasional gun part.  So, I mill down the face of the hammer and silver solder in a hardened plate.  Actually do this on all Colts that I am not installing cap guards in to get rid of the slot in the hammer face as it is a contributing cause to cap problems.



This hammer is actually out of an evil 2nd Gen Colt (sorry Mako, I didn't have a 3rd, although they are good candidates for experiments) that I installed factory Ruger nipples in as an experiment.  The Ruger nipples are shorter than Colt nippples.  So, after installing the nipples and altering the hammer to fit the Ruger nipples the caps (and theoretically fragments) are farther forward in the frame and farther away from the hammer channel.  I also shortened this one to six inches and installed a .175" shotgun bead as a front sight so I can see something out there.

[Mako]

Pettifogger,
That works very well.  Looks good too.  I'll bet most would think you had just welded them up if they didn't look on the underside of the face.

I have some pictures somewhere of the welds I had the best TIG welder I have ever met add before I even ground the face back down.  Didn't even damage the color on the sides of the hammer. chucked them up, reground the face and touched the faces up with cold blue and you would never know there was a slot there.  There wasn't even a witness line where the added material starts.

He's incredible, but I can't get work out of him anymore, he has a waiting list just for die and mold repair several months long.  He can fix a mold gate with his micro-welding setup in an inert gas chamber and you literally just re-cut the gate and go.  I wish I was 1/20th the welder he is.

We are surveying a couple more welders  for my real job because we can't get anything turned fast.  I have a couple more I need done and I'll try a new one out.  If I find one that can do the work I'll post their information.

Oh, and 2nd Generations aren't "evil."  They may actually be the best of all of the 1860s ever made because the metallurgy is better and the quality looks good.  I have never owned one, but I have looked at the innards of one.  I think the springs weren't  Italian on the one I looked at.  I was allowed to look at it after offering to clean it.  I had remarked the hammer spring felt a lot better than the stock Uberti springs and asked if I could look at it.  It was after a match and I didn't have a caliper or micrometer so I didn't get measurements.  The hand spring and the hand looked better too.

Now "3rd Gen" Signature Models are semi evil.... They aren't any better than Ubertis, their only advantage is the markings on the pistols.  Well, except for the engraving on the back of the grip.  I'd change that out with a Uberti plain strap.  They are semi-evil because they are like most other Colt's commemoratives just built to sell for more money without really any care in the fit or function.

Colt's makes a lot of money just on licensing fees.  You could put a Colt's logo on a brick and sell it.

~Mako

Modified to remove Off Topic material

[Hoof Hearted]

   Hoof Hearted, PROSTATE is a gland, PROSTRATE is to lay down in homage.

                                                 J.L.

That's called humor........