wedge screw on Colt navy revolver

[Billnpatti]

As long as I have owned a Colt navy revolver, I have never known what purpose the screw just above the wedge slot serves. It is not part of the complete disassembly and while I have completely disassembled it many times, I have never had a reason to do anything with that screw. It appears that it could serve to limit the depth the wedge may be driven into the slot but I am not sure. :idunno: Does anyone know the actual purpose for this screw? :hmm:

 

[cynthialee]

I think it is to catch the pin and keep it from falling away from the barrel. Seems to do just that for awhile, but after a number of disasembly and cleanings it fails to do that.

 

[Joe Sullivan]

I read somewhere that it's to limit the depth you can drive it in but I can't remember where.

 

[Dickydalton]

It's to keep the wedge from coming all the way out when you remove the barrel. Cynthia is right, you can still pull the wedge all the way out if you use too much force.

 

[M. De Land]

Yeah, it's a keep screw, the wedge taper and the end ledge is what limits it's dept.I had to make a new one on the 60 I have. MD

 

[Greg Blackburn]

I think I've lost mine!

My sister bought my dad a "1862 Colt Pocket Police" in .36 caliber and we always thought it was a "nonfiring replica" but after I got a muzzleloader I decided to load it and fire it. Sure enough, it shot!

I have never used that screw though.

Greg

 

[JLDee55]

I have a 60 Colt that the wedge screw NEVER did keep the wedge in, even after replacement. But my 51 Navy and Walker it keeps them from pulling out..I really don't worry about it not holding the wedge in on the 60 Army during dissasembly..

 

[necchi]

It's actually what that little spring and hook in the wedge is for, the hook catches the screw too keep the wedge in the frame.
The spring/hook is not necessarily there as a position stop for the wedge when it's pushed all the way in.
The design idea was to allow for disassembly to swap out a cylinder and/or cleaning.

Most folks think your supposed to push the wedge in untill the hook snaps in on the opposite side of the frame, while that may be the case with many colt revolvers, it's not carved in stone.
The wedge can be filed to any postion the shooter desires with the focus being the space between the cylinder and forcing cone.

 

[M. De Land]

My 60 Colt clone had such a huge gap between cylinder and barrel that I decided to set it back a bit and was the reason a new wedge had to be made.
That gun needed all sorts of help to bring it up to speed but it works like I want now.
Had to make a new trigger as the original would not hold and edge even after two casenite applications and a new front side had to be made to hit anywhere near what you were pointing at.
I'm thinking about adding a rear sight on top the back end of the barrel as the notch in the hammer does not line up with the point of impact very well and one must use the right side of the V notch as the rear aiming point.
The gun is and always has been accurate though which surprised me from the rather weak way they are designed. It is fully the equal of my 58 Remington accuracy wise. I don't know why for sure but I like the contrary revolver. MD

 

[Billnpatti]

Thanks for all of the good info. I have been shooting this thing for several years without knowing a lot about it. I just shoot it, clean it and reassemble it just as it was when i got it wya back when. Now, I find out that when I got it, the wedge had apparently been put in upside down and I have been reassembling it that way ever since. It worked but obviously wasn't right. Now I have another question and I will post it in a separate posting.

 

[Zonie]

As I mentioned in another post, I have been known to back out the wedge retaining screw after adjusting the wedge depth to get a good cylinder to barrel gap.

If the screw is backed out until it bottoms out on the inside face of the wedge, it will act as a stop the next time the wedge is inserted.

This doesn't always work though.
There will be times when the wedge at the proper depth will not be close enough to the side of the barrel for the screw to stop on.
In these cases, the screw will just fall out and get lost.

The best solution is to install a thin spacer in the bottom of the barrels arbor hole for the arbor to bottom out on when the cylinder/barrel gap is good.