Got lucky, I think, with a 1851 navy arms 36

[SwanShot]

$150 for this navy arms revolver.
The guy I was shooting with on the weekend was spittin and cursing at this revolver when he had yet another cap jam. He is a very impatient, short tempered bloke. As a joke I said "I'll give you $150 for it" he said "done deal". He really was ****** off. I let him calm down and called him this morning and he want's to go ahead with it, so I'm in.
Now I will have to get on top of the cap jam problem. I searched this forum and got a lot of information so I reckon I should be able sort it out.
Aside from the jamming problem the gun looks to be pretty good. For $150 bucks what the hell???

 

[Daveboone]

I have a recently acquired Pietta 1860, and had the well known cap jam problems. I installed replacement nipples (slixsprings) right off the bat, with no noticeable improvement. I then found the evil burrs on the hammer face that are frequently mentioned. I took a needle file and knocked those down, with some improvement. When back at my gun cleaning bench, I realized there were still fine burrs/ridges along the inside of the pin channel. I took fine 400 grit emory paper and polished the inside channel, as well as the face, then followed up with 600 grit. Next outing I was delighted with flawless functioning.
I have a 1862 Uberti pocket police which has the same problem, ( I only have a couple cylinders through it) which I will give the same treatment. Just to be consistent, I have new nipples ordered for it also.
I also discovered early on that the nipples must be firmly placed to be sure they do not drag as the cylinder is rotated prior to discharge.

 

[SwanShot]

I have a recently acquired Pietta 1860, and had the well known cap jam problems. I installed replacement nipples (slixsprings) right off the bat, with no noticeable improvement. I then found the evil burrs on the hammer face that are frequently mentioned. I took a needle file and knocked those down, with some improvement. When back at my gun cleaning bench, I realized there were still fine burrs/ridges along the inside of the pin channel. I took fine 400 grit emory paper and polished the inside channel, as well as the face, then followed up with 600 grit. Next outing I was delighted with flawless functioning.
I have a 1862 Uberti pocket police which has the same problem, ( I only have a couple cylinders through it) which I will give the same treatment. Just to be consistent, I have new nipples ordered for it also.
I also discovered early on that the nipples must be firmly placed to be sure they do not drag as the cylinder is rotated prior to discharge.

Thanks, I'll check it out

 

[Dale Lilly]

What is the hammer doing; rough/sharp edges pulling the cap back off enough to jam? I am a neophyte with revolvers though I had a Lyman 1858 in the 70s. Dale

 

[SwanShot]

What is the hammer doing; rough/sharp edges pulling the cap back off enough to jam? I am a neophyte with revolvers though I had a Lyman 1858 in the 70s. Dale

Don't know, i haven't got it yet.

 

[Daveboone]

When you get it, even before you shoot it...pull back the hammer (of course unloaded) and look closely to the front face of the hammer. the center notch on the bottom edge is notorious for being poorly finished, with fine burrs/sharp edges, that on impact and explosion of the primer, molds to the face, and gets pulled off the nipple, resulting in jams. Normally the primer will fall off to the side as the cylinder is rotated, out of the way.
The honing, deburring removes the fine little sharp edges that catch the primer. Vented primers help minimize back pressure with resulting primer issues. For the expense and easy labor, quick and easy to perform early on to optimize performance.
Who knows though...simply poorly seating the primers also result in similar jams with cylinder rotation. Part of the fun and learning curve (which I am still also early on with).

 

[Stantheman86]

Shoot it and report back

There are 1000 variables to cap jams

Maybe he was using improperly fitted caps, etc

It could be a 30 minute job to defang the hammer or swap in new nipples

 

[Craig Roach]

I had the Uberti 1849 and now have an Uberti 1862 Pocket Police. Both had the same issue and just polishing the hammer face and nipple changes didn't fix it. I ended up having to install a second main spring and that fixed the issue. There is a video on youtube a guy had up that showed in slow motion how far the hammer was being thrown back when the fun fired. I was allowing the cap, or portions of the cap to fall into the action just from the blowback.