ASM 1851 Navy??

[bwiggins1985]

I picked this up today at a local shop when I was picking up a transfer. It looks like it’s an 1851 navy in 36 cal.

It isn’t marked with any caliber marks. Everything is under the loading lever.

The date stamp seems to be [AP] which is 1986 I think.

I am a little lost because of the trigger guard. The stamp on the front strap has the same serial number as the frame.

I stripped it down and polished it up internally. It seemed to be covered in dried cosmaline. The trigger spring was really heavy. So I tried to trim it down a bit and I messed up and cut off too much!!!

Hello Wolff reduced power spring!!!

 

[hawkeye2]

"I am a little lost because of the trigger guard."

?? It's a square back trigger guard Navy and yes they really existed.

That's actually the mainspring, did it break because you narrowed it too much? I don't have any experience with Wolf springs but I have read a couple of times they were too weak to set off percussion caps reliably. The trigger spring is the little 2 legged flat spring in front of the trigger.

 

[bwiggins1985]

Ok I miss spoke… yes I cut the mainspring down some to help with the hammer weight but I cut too much off…

I was confused as I have only seen the square trigger guards on the walker revolvers and then on my ruger super Blackhawk

 

[hawkeye2]

Did you attempt to shorten the mainspring? That can't be done, it has to be made thinner or narrower to lighten it, the length has to remain the same.

 

[bwiggins1985]

Yes I found that out when I cut it down.

 

[bwiggins1985]

 

[hawkeye2]

No big deal, they are easy to replace and not too expensive.

 

[bwiggins1985]

Yes sir they are. I just bought one online… I need to stop staying up on my phone so late buying all the things online lol…

 

[toot]

one thing that is good- they are not UNOBTANIUM!

 

[Whitworth]

Love the square back trigger guard on Navies, nice revolver BTW.

 

[Columbus]

1851 Colt ASM Main Spring - 616160 (deercreekproducts.net)

 

[davidmc62]

Nice find, where bouts in Central Texas you find that and did they have more? Good price? I used to have and Armi San Marco exactly like that as well and traded it off for another 1860 Army. Kind of wish I had kept it, but those square back trigger guards although really smart looking, are just a little too small for my fat finger.

 

[CyrusP]

Great gun! Square backs existed on early 1851s but someone with more knowledge than me (everyone) can fill in the blanks.

 

[bwiggins1985]

I’m in the round rock area of Austin. I found it randomly at the new gun shop I used for a transfer… it was just sitting on the back shelf. I kind of took over the guys work bench in the back of the shop and tore it down to clean all the gunk out to get it to move decent. He was like you’re just gonna clean our guns for us… I was like yea and I’m gonna buy this one lol.

Not muzzle loader related but they got a bunch of Winchester 94s from someone… I’m thinking about one really hard lol like the Marlins better though.

 

[bwiggins1985]

I am really liking the square back trigger guard

 

[user 52391]

Nice find!! The Colt 2nd Generation 51 Navies all had the early square back trigger guard. I'm not sure why Colt chose to go with that style for the 2nd Gen guns since that was only on the 1st & 2nd models of original Colt Navies? They DO look pretty cool though.

 

[barracudadave67]

Square back trigger guards are nice... untill you shoot it a few times, and it bangs your middle finger repeatedly. I changed my trigger guard out after that. But they are cool looking.

Dave

 

[45D]

Yikes!! You know there are books you can read about tuning S.A. revolvers . . . what kind of polishing did you do?

Mike

 

[bwiggins1985]

I polished the pins and bearing surfaces to get rid of all the milling marks and etc. I totally screwed up with the main spring by trimming it too short…. I bought the one from deer creek.

 

[bwiggins1985]

So I got my new ASM spring from DeerCreek and it doesn’t fit