Holy Crapoly!!

[bdhutier]

You boys ever seen this happen before? Pietta, steel frame, 12 rds, RB, 30gns FF. Was just letting a friend of mine try her out!! There was no indication anything was wrong until I pulled the barrel to clean it...

 

[himem777]

woooo! how? :shocked2:

 

[bdhutier]

Not a clue, man. Breaks my heart, though... She shot fine and true, as usual. I'm more confused than anything else. I've seen a lot of things sheared off, but always with radial motion.

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

I'd make a phone call and see if you could send it back for replacement. Good thing nobody got hurt. :shake:

 

[Don]

That shouldn't happen with 30 grains of powder. I'd send it back if you can. Other than that maybe a gunsmith can bore out the broken pins and put new ones in.

Don

 

[Norinco]

Man, that sucks!

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

That's highly odd!

Must have been a defect from the start!

I hope that it's fixable! I always use the half-cock position to take the barrel off with the loading lever, thus taking all of the stress off of that set of pins.........

Good luck!

Dave

 

[bdhutier]

That's highly odd!

Must have been a defect from the start!

I hope that it's fixable! I always use the half-cock position to take the barrel off with the loading lever, thus taking all of the stress off of that set of pins.........

Good luck!

Dave

That's what I do, too, Dave. I pulled to half-cock to free the cylinder, pulled the wedge, and noticed there was a little light between the cylinder/frame and the barrel. Didn't think anything of it, since I just pulled the wedge and figured it worked out a little. Pulled the barrel off, and when I went to remove the cylinder, it just didn't look right. It took me a minute of staring to realize the dowels, or whatever their proper names are, were missing.

Upon closer inspection after cleaning, it appears the frame ends of the dowels are smaller than the barrel ends. I guess there was a weakness right there, and they finally gave way. I'll be calling Traditions today, I'll let you guys know what they say.

 

[gordy]

I have to agree with Smokin 50 , its the first time I"ve heard of this problem on a new gun . It looks like the pins were sheared before or odurring the shooting session because the broken ends have powder residue on them . It will be interesting to hear what Traditions has to say ? The pin stock may be bad and this may show up on other guns in that run . :idunno:

 

[pargent]

how do you supose the pins sheared off with the wedge in place ? :hmm:

 

[bdhutier]

how do you supose the pins sheared off with the wedge in place ? :hmm:

That's what I can't rightly figure out. The best I can guess is, if the pins' steel was soft enough, maybe the vertical stress from each discharge put enough shear force to cause the pins to crack at the joint until they eventually separated? I suppose that could be logically possible if there was enough forward play between the wedge and the arbor pin. I'm certainly no metallurgist, but since there wasn't any detectable rotational force, I can't come up with any other reason.

 

[bdhutier]

Two pics after a bit of cleaning. Hopefully they're a little clearer...

 

[wulf]

Looks like the arbor and barrel twisted and
sheared off the pins...the arbor seems not to
line up sideways like it should...maybe it's
just the picture angle...Check to see if the
arbor will turn back....just a guess :idunno:

 

[rwiliff]

I had that happen to a pawn shop Pietta 1860 Army. No clue how it happened. I simply drilled out the left over pins, cut off the drill to use as new pins and soldered them in place. Maybe not right, but it worked.

Warmst Regards,
Robert

 

[Norinco]

Could the case hardening have made the pins too brittle?

 

[mjn]

I had that same thing happen about ten years ago on a steel frame Pietta 1851 navy .36 after about three cylinders full. That's one of the reasons why, out of eleven C&B revolvers I own, ten are Uberti, and only one is a Pietta. Although I do like the one I have.

 

[pargent]

I would say by looking at the photos, 1 that the pins were soft or more likly brittle and maybe very slightly out of alignment.If they were brittle that would explain them snapping off with the stress of firing .

 

[junkman_01]

What are you trying to say? It could happen to a Uberti too! I think you are a Uberti snob. :nono:

 

[Pete Gaimari]

If he isn't. I am.

 

[junkman_01]

You need 'diversity' in your life. :blah: