Colt Stepped Cylinders

[rodwha]

Do Colt stepped cylinders ('60 Army and '62 Pocket) have tapered chambers? Is that part of the reason for the design?
The other part being so that he could use the frame from a smaller gun in production instead of creating a new one?

 

[necchi]

No they weren't tapered on purpose.
To my knowledge they where made to move up from the 36 to 44

 

[rodwha]

I'm a little confused.

My understanding is that the cylinders were stepped, in part so the smaller frame could be used and still use the cylinder stop and whatnot.

But if the cylinder didn't need to be widened as it is to increase the projectile than it would seem for no real purpose and a waste of materials and time.

I figured that the reason the whole cylinder wasn't increased was that the rearward portion was kept similar in interior capacity/size as the original caliber it was built from.

If it wasn't necessary to increase the latter half to accommodate the caliber than it would seem a strange thing to do.

So the chamber isn't stepped or tapered as well?

 

[don hepler]

The 36 cal. 1851, came first, "obviously", and then the 44 cal.1860 was built on the same frame. The cyclinger needed to be increased in diameter, to handle the pressure associated with the increased charge, but to keep from cutting the frame too much, and weaking it, the designers choose to put a step in the cylinger. One revolver has a shorter cyclinder, but I forgot which.

At least, that's what I've read.

 

[rodwha]

Looking at it a bit closer I suppose I wasn't giving room for the last half of the nipple. Where the cylinder rebates is the end of the chamber?

 

[swathdiver]

The '62 was built upon the same frame as the .31 pocket models, though I don't remember if it was the long or short one. This way all the stuff internally, at the back and on the back of the cylinder are the same and interchange.

The '62 is a hoot to shoot!

 

[Zonie]

I can't say what the 1860 Colt Army or the Colt 1862 Pocket pistol did but my Uberti 1860 Army does have steps in its chambers.

About 1/16 inch before the chambers get to the rebated shoulder on the cylinder, its size is reduced.
This does keep a fairly thick wall on the chambers for their entire length.

Oddly, my Uberti Colt 1861 Police pistol which is a .36 caliber built on the smaller Colt 1849 sized frame also has a rebated cylinder but the chambers are not stepped.

I'm guessing but I think the smaller caliber and its reduced powder charge may have made it unnecessary to maintain a thick wall at the rear of the chambers.

 

[rodwha]

Interesting. I suppose there isn't a huge difference between the .31 and .36 calibers, certainly not like the jump from.36 to .44...

My understanding is that the .31 has a 15 grn max charge vs a 25 grn max charge for the .36 caliber. Is this accurate? Seems a lot for a small difference in caliber, though I can't say whether or not there's a difference in length of cylinder...

 

[M. De Land]

Yeah, that's my understanding as well on the stepped 60 cylinder.
I don't shoot mine much and need to more. I usually grab the Remington target model 58 or the ROA for target shooting.
I did set the barrel back on the 60 to tighten up the rather generous gap it came with. It also required me to make a new trigger as it would not hold the fine edge I wanted to better the trigger action. I casenite treated it three times and it still would not hold the edge. Finally in desperation I made a new one out of O-1 tool steel and it does the job. MD

 

[M. De Land]

I was curious if folks knew what the reason for the cut outs at the frame back and extended screw heads is for on the 1860 clones?MD

 

[don hepler]

Shoulder stock

 

[Zonie]

Yup.
Those large headed screws on the sides of the frame and the notch at the rear of the grip butt is to position and hold the shoulder stock in place. The Colts with these added screws are sometimes called "4 screw" pistols.

Colt had a fascination with the idea that his revolvers would become mini carbines if a shoulder stock was installed.
He convinced some in the Army that this would be a neat thing.

The troops had other ideas because of the closeness of the rear of the pistol to their faces.
Mustaches and sideburns were popular with the officers and the smoldering hair didn't make points.

Actually, I made up that last remark but in truth the shoulder stocks were unpopular.

 

[necchi]

Watch the first 7-8 minutes of this video by duelist,,
He explains the progression of the Colt cylinders, the why and how,,
(pictures,, ya know :wink: ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx5vOndeFwM
It starts as info about the 1860, but he explains how it got there,,

 

[rodwha]

Awesome video.
Thanks necchi!

 

[M. De Land]

I heard it was once said that the .44 Colt cap-n-ball was equally effective against horse or man and great grandpa was far from being disarmed if he had one in reach.
I also heard what the Calvary tactics where while using them. It is true that horse mounted troops would pick them up when ever opportunity availed and that they would often have three or four of them stuck in various places for easy access while on horse mounted charges.
According to this source they did not run into a fray as seen in the movies and dance around shooting and installing freshly charged cylinders while in the heat of the me lay and cut their way out with a saber.
What they did is charge through a troop firing them until dry and then run on out of range, regroup and reload before making another charge.
The idea was to break up infantry and cannon emplacements with fire and horse power. MD

 

[swathdiver]

Do Colt stepped cylinders ('60 Army and '62 Pocket) have tapered chambers? Is that part of the reason for the design?
The other part being so that he could use the frame from a smaller gun in production instead of creating a new one?

My ASM reproduction of the 1862 Pocket Police does not have steps in the cylinders.

 

[61henry]

Your right M.D, even using paper cartridges it takes time to reload. You see the crazy charges in movies where it looks like a free for all too but in actuality they were very organized, the saying was that a charge is only as fast as the slowest horse.