Fouling in 1861 Colt

[ValleyForge]

Back from an afternoon at the range with my Uberti 1861 Colt & my Pietta Remington '58. The Remmy can shoot all afternoon - the Colt seems to foul badly after about 4 cylinders -- so badly you can barely turn the cylinder. I'd have to break it down & thorougly clean it to keep going.

I'd like to hear what some other '61 Colt shooters have experienced. It's a great looking gun, but it's a pain in the butt.

 

[pondoro]

I wipe the front of the cylinder with a damp rag (damp with Windex or TC #13) while rotating the cylinder. Others disassemble the gun at the range.

 

[jdixon]

I shoot a Walker a lot, same problems. Walker is essentially the same design as what you have, just bigger. Seems that the spindle, or axel that the cylinder rotates on fouls up causing the clyinder to bind. I lube this axel (Bore Butter) heavily prior to shooting and it seems to help some. Minor adjustments of your barrel wedge can help sometimes as well. Pushing it back out just ever so slightly can open the gap between the forcing cone and the cylinder face. If fouling is the problem there that may help. I don't know if there is anything that you can do to eliminate this problem with the Colt design, but hey, the cappers fit the Colt's, they don't fit the Remingtons - a trade off I guess.

 

[amccall]

I have a Colt that I shoot all day and the only problem I have, compared to the 1858 remmington, is the caps are more prone to jam. I use bore butter in all my cylinders and that seems to keep things lubricated and working well. :v

 

[gooddw]

I grease the cylinder pin with axle grease. It works fine.

 

[ValleyForge]

Thanks, Guys.

I'll try these out.

-- VF

 

[echo89]

I am very concious of the wedge position, and it makes a huge difference. My 61 Army is very unforgiving with the wedge tightly pushed in, but when backed out to the edge of the catch, shoots all day provided it's well lubed. The wedge position is not so critical on my 51 Navy replicas.

 

[ValleyForge]

Very interesting. I'll have to fiddle with it & see where it gets me. Thanks!

 

[Zonie]

Like echo89, I have found that the position of the wedge in several of my Colt replicas has a great effect on the "tightness" of the cylinder.

On one of my guns, I can actually lock up the cylinder by pounding the wedge in too far.
It seems to drive the barrel backwards into the cylinder as it is driven in.

To get what IMO is a good barrel position, after the wedge is thru the barrel, with the gun on half cock, push the cylinder back towards the hammer and look at the gap between the barrel and the front of the cylinder. It sould be about .010-.015. Thats about 3-4 thicknesses of printer paper.
If you can't see any light thru this gap, the barrel is too far aft.

I might add that if you don't push the cylinder aft when your doing this check, the spring pressure from the hand will push it forward and make it look like there is no gap.

 

[SAJones]

Many yeara ago I read a learned discourse on the differences in the grooves on the cylinder pin & how that affected fouling & eventual binding. Wish I could find that article now. Anyways, my revolvers vary considerably concerning the amount of gunk it will take to bind. I have a very old Navy Arms 1851, CVA '62 Pocket Police, & a Euroarms 58 Rem. that have never bound on me. However I had a cheap 1851 that would only take about 6 shots, & my Colt 3rd Generation 1851 will bind after 12. Another '58 Old Army will bind after about 3 or 4 cylinders, depending on humidity. I've tried grease & all sorts of stuff for the ones that bind, w/ limited success. I still think it's the way the cylinder pin is machined, & I wish all the gun makers would get on board for this problem.

 

[TFoley]

Hmmmm. Like many a 'real' BP shooter, I'm a cheapskate at heart and about thirty years ago I bought a pile of stuff from a closing down fishing tackle store - not that I'm a fisherman, but here were some cool little fly-tying vices that serve just great for my modelling pastime. One of the things I got was a 7 pound can of Shakespeare PTFE spinner grease, and even after doling a fair bit out to pals who also shoot, I find that I still have at least half left even now. Works well on both my Gen 2 Walker and my Old Army. As for lube, well, as you may or may not be aware, anything American in the way of bullet lube or fouling softener on sale over here cast at least four times what YOU guys pay for it [try paying $17 for a plastic bottle of 'Spit-patch and see how much fun that is], and almost thiry years ago many of us in Germany started using a medical skin preparation called E45. It is a soft, white cream with no detectable odour and being an emulsion, washes away with no problem under normal cleaning. It is used over here in Yoorup to lube just about every bullet from .31 - .577, and does the job well.
I can shoot my ROA or Walker all day long, and often do, without taking them apart - just wipe them down as soon as the last shot has gone.
E45 cost about $8 a pound, btw. It's also good for your paws.

tac