Dropped Dragoon?

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So far I've worked on Uberti, ASM and Armi San Paolo Walkers. Also seen one or two from Palmetto but they might be just an importer. Quality runs from from really good to pretty awful. Every one had a short arbor.
Ah, ok. Never seen them. And Palmetto is a manufacturer. They were known for their replica of the Whitneyville, Spiller and the Colt side hammer.
The early ASM Walker had tiny flat head trigger/bolt and hammer screws.
 
My ancient ASM 3rd Dragoon has no barrel crown. They square cut he muzzle and de-burred the edges. Most Colt C&B revolvers were finished like this with a near flat crown instead of the more modern radiused contour. From the picture the barrel looks parallel to the loading lever, an indication that it came through the beating relatively straight. Peering down the bore at the chambers should indicate straightness. I doubt the bore is damaged too far away from the muzzle. You could check this with a plug gauge or any bore sized rod. The edge flares on the muzzle could be removed several ways; filing, saw cutting, or machining in a lathe. How does it shoot? Unless it was spraying lead everywhere it would be tempting to leave it alone and enjoy its battle scars as medals.
 
IF it was mine I would unscrew the barrel and put it in my lathe and remove about 5/16" to 3/8" of the end then recrown it. The barrel looks like it could use a re-blue also so this is why I suggested my "fix". Since the barrel is in need of rework I would say that the whole gun needs to be reworked also. If you don't have the machinery to do the work find someone that could.

You could try shooting it but I would not until I corrected the issue first.:dunno:
 
IF it was mine I would unscrew the barrel and put it in my lathe and remove about 5/16" to 3/8" of the end then recrown it. The barrel looks like it could use a re-blue also so this is why I suggested my "fix". Since the barrel is in need of rework I would say that the whole gun needs to be reworked also. If you don't have the machinery to do the work find someone that could.

You could try shooting it but I would not until I corrected the issue first.:dunno:
Hate to break it to ya, you ain't unscrewing any thing on that barrel. It's all one piece. It could be mounted in a 4 jaw chuck and centered up but would need additional support from a steady rest or something similar. My question would be why was it being beat with a hammer to begin with. All the other issues need to be addressed as well before much shooting happens. And yes I have the stuff to do it.
 
My question would be why was it being beat with a hammer to begin with.
According to the OP the gun is from an auction and I doubt it will be telling its story, and no matter why, how or what happened, it doesn’t change what I would be doing. People do stupid stuff to guns and other things all the time.
Got this Colt's Dragoon repro in an auction.
As I suggested in an earlier post, I would start by using some precision gauge pins to check the bore and understand how deep the damage goes. Pretty difficult to smack a muzzle around like that and only damage/flare the OD without distorting the bore. That reference point in the bore would be my minimum haircut line, once the bore damage was removed, I would then move on to cleaning up the OD and re-crowning, moving the front sight back as/if necessary. But it’s not my gun and it’s up to the OP to decide what they want to do. ‘Probably’ not dangerous to shoot roundballs and standard powder charges, but who knows where or how consistent the POI will be.
 
Depending on how far back the damage goes...
If it goes past the loading lever catch, you could always shorten the barrel and the loading lever and re-cut the dovetail for the LL latch. Or simply remove the LL and do an "unmentionable" conversion. I've seen plenty of Walkers done up that way.
 
Hate to break it to ya, you ain't unscrewing any thing on that barrel. It's all one piece. It could be mounted in a 4 jaw chuck and centered up but would need additional support from a steady rest or something similar. My question would be why was it being beat with a hammer to begin with. All the other issues need to be addressed as well before much shooting happens. And yes I have the stuff to do it.
You are 100% correct - I don't know what my brain was thing at the time I wrote this:dunno::doh:o_O
 
Can you remove the barrel ? Looks like it was pounded in.
Was able to remove the barrel as normal. Unsure what caused somebody to ever hammer on. Maybe they thought that's how you get the barrel to come off the frame?

Everything seems to line up fine. Gotta get new batteries for my caliper and take measurements.

Thanks everybody for the points of advice! I'll update y'all on this project as I move forward with it.
 
D Yager has the right approach. But then he clearly is a gun smith on these guns. That kind of force would damage other parts and it might best be a wall hangar, get a Pietta to shoot. Ie, how much is it worth to get a beat up horrible finish replica safe to shoot?

What it took to mushroom the end is NOT a fall on a rock. I knew a guy was was going to take a grease gun to knock loose a pintle hitch. That kind of stupid is scary and that gun would scare the tar out of me.
 
I ain't scared! I look at it as a challenge to be taken. It would be interesting to see what other things are damaged or outta whack.
 
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