1860 Pietta Army help

Having trouble getting the wedge spring to compress to be able to slide the wedge out. Any help is greatly appreciated thank you
Steve

Use a piece of hardwood or brass as a punch and tap on the spring. I'm thinking of modifying mine to ease removal and installation.

Steve Grentus said:

Having trouble getting the wedge spring to compress to be able to slide the wedge out. Any help is greatly appreciated thank you
Steve

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Don't worry about compressing the spring; it's pretty weak and will just flex out of the way. It's only purpose is to keep the wedge from falling out when the gun is disassembled.

Just use a piece of hardwood, plastic, or brass and give the wedge a good whack. Some are very tight from the factory.

I made these especially for that reason. They work good. I use a hard plastic hammer also.

There is a legend that Pietta has a 2000lb gorilla at their factory that they’ve trained to drive those wedges into their colts.

The “Pietta Gorilla” strikes again!

Seriously, though… Track of the Wolf and others sell brass wedge punches that make removing wedges much easier and won’t damage your wedge.

Half of a clothes pin.

You should be able to drive the wedge back to the spring lip. That is going to determine any issue to start with, heavy whacks or metal needed and ......

After that, assuming the wedge moved ok at the end of the travel, then a whack with your mallet with a bias to the spring lip should take it on out. So tap it at an angle at the top of the wedge so the spring lip gets smacked as well as the wedge.

If the wedge continues to move hard all the way to the lip then there is an issue that is going to take work to resolve or send it to 45D.

I've used a plastic mallet and a popsicle stick. The popsicle stick gets used at the point where the wedge is flush with the surface.

I just whack the thing out with a small rubber mallet. When a gun is newer I find you need a dowel and whack it with the mallet, but after it has been done a few times the mallet is all it takes. 1 good pop and it is out of there.