High Quality Replacement Parts for 1858 NMA Revolvers

[GeezerD]

Is anyone making high quality internal parts for the 1858 Remington revolvers ? A replacement hand made from tool steel and hardened all the way through would be nice. -------------------------- GeezerD

[scrubby2009]

I'm about 300 rounds into a lightly modified Pietta hand in my NMA (#52,623) . No problems yet.

[hellgate]

If a hand spring breaks on either a Colt or Remington I save the original hand (since it is already shaped & fitted) and replace the spring with a portion of an appropriately sized bobby pin. I have 3 or 4 in my several guns and so far have not needed to replace a replacement.

[Coffinmaker]

Hi Geezer   

While I really do understand your quandary .... unfortunately, the only parts available for a '58 are from either Uberti or Pietta.  Dat's it.  The springs for the Remington(s) are universally CRAP and the hand itself isn't much better.  Wish I could have better news, but ........ 

[LonesomePigeon]

I have a new Pietta Shooter's Model 1858 Remington and an old Pietta Deluxe Model 1858 Remington from about 1987. They are basically the same gun, a match grade '58 with progressive twist rifling, correct size cylinder chambers, pre-tuned action, ect. The internal parts on the 1987 gun seem to be of a higher quality and more durable than on the newer Shooter's Model. Unfortunately I do not think Pietta makes this quality of parts anymore, not even for the Shooter's Model. Worth noting, both the Deluxe and the Shooter's Models have really stiff mainsprings since they are target guns and the stiff mainspring is supposed to provide a faster hammer fall.

[Professor Marvel]

E'en tho they must be made somewhere for the shooters' models, I do not know where to get the "quality" 1858 guts.

I might conjecture that a fellow could fit and polish existing ones, then case-harden them.

I used to know a fellow who used factory guts as templates and made his own internals out of tool steel!
With todays supposedly affordable benchtop CNC mills that might be an interesting concept....

Now oddly, along the same line of thought , I discovered one can take "standard size" "copy of colt Model 1873 Single action"
hammer, trigger, bolt, and hand and they drop RIGHT INTO an 1851 or 1860 and make it soooooo smoooooooth ....

of course the hand must be modified, and the hand & bolt fitted, and they cost a lot more than soft italian C&B parts but...

yhs
prof marvel

[Blair]

Geezer,

Pedersoli makes a competition grade Remington, you may want to check with them to see what they have?
I do not know if they have done anything special to up grade the steel in their parts.
Of course, there may also be problems with getting their parts to fit and function within a Pietta.

My best,
Blair

[GeezerD]

I discussed this with a former co-worker that operates a wire EDM machine. He said that using the side profile of a Uberti hand, a piece could be cut from hardened tool steel about 2 inches long and sliced off to the proper width of about 1/8 inch. It would take about half an hour to run the tool path including the small slot for the spring and the hole for the pivot screw. He suggested using S7 tool steel @ at 44 to 46 RC. About a dozen hands could be cut from a 2 inch bar.

At 44 to 46 RC, the hand could still be filed and would not require rehardening. I think I will give this a try.

I suppose a cylinder bolt could be made using the same process but I have never had many problems with the factory bolt.

                                                                                                                                    GeezerD

[Coffinmaker]

Some time back, one of my faithful customers brought me a Remington Cartridge gun.  Broken Hand Spring.  So I put a new hand in it.  Really nice Nickel Uberti.  Then he brought me the same gun about 6 weeks later.  Broken hand spring.  I put a new hand in it.  Then he brought me the same gun about 6 weeks later.  Broken had spring.  Understand, after the first new hand, I was eating the cost of repair.  I always guaranteed the work. 

I gave up.  The spring in the Remington was just KRAP!!  The Fifth time it came back (I waited too long) I went ahead and made a new spring for it that would last.  I DON'T LIKE REMINGTONS

[45 Dragoon]

This thread is a perfect example of why there is "plenty" that can be done to the Italian reproductions that will give "life of the revolver" reliability. The Remington pattern offers a rather small platform to work with. The frame is very narrow and extra space is non-egistant. The hand spring was the biggest challenge. If you can't "fix" that problem, why bother with the rest?! 
  I finally figured out a coil/torsion spring setup that gives the hand a lifetime expectancy and coupled with a torsion sprung bolt and trigger (and a few other usual things), turns the Remington into a S.A. that is as reliable as  the most high end S.A. offered today. This extends to the '75 and '90 Remies as well.  I've been setting the Colt pattern open tops/Mod P copies up that way for a good while now and it is a bullet proof system!
I'm trying to figure out a user installable kit but it is a fairly involved ordeal. It's definitely worth it though .  .  .

As far as a hardened hand, you can harden the one in your S.A., you just need to remove the spring and reinstall when done.

Last stop .  .  .  a cam-less hammer .  .  .  never open your S.A. again !!

Mike

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Now oddly, along the same line of thought , I discovered one can take "standard size" "copy of colt Model 1873 Single action"
hammer, trigger, bolt, and hand and they drop RIGHT INTO an 1851 or 1860 and make it soooooo smoooooooth ....

of course the hand must be modified, and the hand & bolt fitted, and they cost a lot more than soft italian C&B parts but...

This is cool. I'll have to remember that when my Pietta '51 needs any work.

[Tinker Pearce]

Being a knife-maker by trade I suppose I have an unfair advantage; there's a lot of scrap 5160 around the shop, and it makes a dandy 'hand' pretty quickly and easily.  The material is half-hard, which seems to work well for a hand, though hardening and drawing it to a spring temper is dead easy. Hand springs I simply grind down from worn-out bi-metal bandsaw blades.

I've never had a problem with the bolts; they need to be spring-tempered to function, so they're pretty tough.

[GeezerD]

I found a way to harden the hand on the surface that engages the cylinder. I removed about .010 from the surface and then had it built back up with laser welding using S7 tool steel filler rod. The process doesn't get hot enough to effect the temper of the hand spring and is much harder than the original surface. -------------------- GeezerD

[hellgate]

Geezer,
Unless the tip of that new hand is shaped right I?d be concerned that it could gall the back of the cylinder. I?ve noticed the backs of some of my well used (prior to me) Remmie ASPNavies are worn down with not a lot of metal between the ratchet cutouts.

[GeezerD]

I agree on shaping the hand properly. As this hand will be used with a Howell 5 shot conversion cylinder, the steel that the cylinder is made of is much higher quality than the standard percussion cylinder. Also, the ratchet angles are different on a 5 shot cylinder.

Once the hand is shaped to function with the 5 shot cylinder, it will still work with the 6 shot percussion cylinder. I am also using a different hammer for each cylinder. The percussion hammer will not go far enough forward to allow the hand to engage the next ratchet cut so I shortened the nose on a second hammer to allow more forward travel.

I don't think this revolver will see much use with the percussion cylinder. I was just curious as to if it could be set up to function with both.

                                                                                                                                                                     GeezerD

[45 Dragoon]

Hasn't been my experience.
  With a six shot conversion cylinder and a cap cyl. yes. Mixing 5 shooters and 6 shooters, it's a rare bird. Of course, the world of tolerances enters the pic so .  .  .  the tighter the numbers, the tougher it is. I like very close tollerances so I don't do the 5/6 thing, it's either or.

Mike