Can't remove cylinder from Pietta 1851

[Russ T Frizzen]

Shouldn't you measure the cylinder gap with the cylinder locked? Try it at full cock and see what you've got. At half cock the cylinder should rotate easily and freely. At full cock the cylinder shouldn't be moving at all.

 

[rebel727]

Shouldn't you measure the cylinder gap with the cylinder locked? Try it at full cock and see what you've got. At half cock the cylinder should rotate easily and freely. At full cock the cylinder shouldn't be moving at all.

Either cocked or hammer down. Either way the cylinder will be fully forward.

 

[Zonie]

Of course I haven't any way to measure it but I suspect that even with the cylinder bolt engaged with the cylinder notch when the gun is fired the cylinder moves aft until it hits the frame at the rear. That opens up the gap between the cylinder and the barrel at the moment the gun is fired.

Even more of that energy that we call recoil is transmitted by the cylinder to the frame than we feel when the gun fires.
Some of it is counteracted by the forward force of the barrel as it tries to squeeze the bullet down and impart a spin to it via the rifling.

This large rearward force by the cylinder on the frame also explains why some of the guys who have put a lot of heavy rounds thru their brass framed guns have seen (and posted) some pretty sever damage on the frame where the cylinder has hit it.

 

[rebel727]

Yes it does move to the rear when fired but when it's fired fouling starts to build up on the face of the cylinder and rear of the barrel. When it's cocked the hand pushes the cylinder forward and if the gap is too small it will start to bind very quickly.

 

[Old Charlie]

Send the thing back and get you a Uberti. I would never own another pietta.
Old Charlie

 

[Bob Riegl]

:bow: Amen !! :thumbsup:

 

[rebel727]

Send the thing back and get you a Uberti. I would never own another pietta.
Old Charlie

Uberti QC has gone down lately and Pietta has come up. I've got two Pietta's and two older Uberti's, no difference in quality. Besides anybody can let a lemon slip through once in awhile.

 

[madcratebuilder]

I would send it back to Calbela's.

The cylinder not sliding off the arbor may be caused by a burr at the wedge or the end of the arbor at the wedge slot is bent slightly. I got a Uberti baby dragoon that had a bend at the wedge. I had to take a few thousandth off the arbor to remove the cylinder.

Zonie, I agree with your method of measuring barrel gap on a Colt. On a Colt the only thing stopping the cylinders forward movement is the barrel unlike a Remington that has a frame to stop the cylinder.

 

[rebel727]

My Pietta 1860 has a .004 gap on full cock and with hammer down. .002 of rearward play with hammer in any position. It can be pushed forward till it touches the barrel but springs back.

 

[FishDFly]

Why not call the Pietta repair center here in the U.S. and ask to talk with a gunsmith.

I have an Uberrti that I could not get the cylinder back into the gun. I called the gunsmith at the repair center, he said he knew exactly what the problem was. He also said the pall springs on the pistols lately were to stiff and he would take care of that issue.
I told him I was going to use the pistol in competition and he said he would "check" the trigger, the trigger is very nice now.

I asked him how long it would take to repair the pistol, he said the day it arrives he would make the repairs and it would ship back that day.

Shipped on Wednesday and received the following Wednesday.

I would call the Pietta gunsmith and skip returning it to Cabelas.

RDE

 

[Stephen_D]

What is the Pietta repair center's phone number in USA?

And does anyone have the contact info for Uberti's repair center in USA?

TIA

 

[FishDFly]

Uberti:

Taylor & Co.
304 Lenoir Drive
Winchester, VA 22603

540-722-2017
http://www.taylorsfirearms.com/service/

Very nice people to deal with.

RDE

 

[Stephen_D]

My gunsmith was able to grind/polish the cylinder pin enough to remove the cylinder. But we both noticed that the barrel assembly, when attached, settled very noticably off to the right. The whole pistol was crooked.

Cabela's is sending me a replacement (even though it's been smithed) and told me to return the old one in the new box.

Any store looks good when everything goes well, but the real test is how a store handles problems.

Cabela's is one fine place to shop !

 

[Robert an saa fan]

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear Cabela's took care of you.

:hatsoff:

 

[Zonie]

I've always wondered about these "returned" guns.

Does anyone think that Cabela's actually returns them to the maker in Italy, or, does Cabela's just sell it to the next buyer and hope that he/she won't be so picky that they want a good gun?

 

[mazo kid]

I've always wondered about these "returned" guns.

Does anyone think that Cabela's actually returns them to the maker in Italy, or, does Cabela's just sell it to the next buyer and hope that he/she won't be so picky that they want a good gun?

I'm not sure about ALL returned guns, but I know some are placed in the "Bargain Cave" at a reduced price. I picked up a Queen Ann pistol and a Western Marshall revolver there at different times (at nearly $100 off each)and was able to repair the minor defects easily and at no cost other than a few minutes of my time. I'm not so sure about the "canted" frame revolver though. You have to look the guns over carefully to see that nothing major is wrong such as that.

 

[mykeal]

I've always wondered about these "returned" guns.

Does anyone think that Cabela's actually returns them to the maker in Italy, or, does Cabela's just sell it to the next buyer and hope that he/she won't be so picky that they want a good gun?

Depends on the reason for the return. As you know, Cabela's has a fairly liberal return policy. Guns returned for 'minor' or cosemtic issues are put on the 'Bargain Cave' as he noted. More serious problems are retained for return to the manufacturer. However, they don't just return individual guns due to import/export issues. They use them as evidence in price contract negotiations. I have no idea what happens to them after that; they're probably destroyed.