I got this 1863 a couple months ago. The acquisition included only the parts shown. It is a CVA import manufactured by ASM. ASM parts are hard to come by. I went to VTI, DGW, and Deer Creek. Most of the ASM parts came from Deer Creek. The rest came from VTI (limited to screws) and I had to settle for Pietta parts from DGW for the rest of the project. Most notably, I was unable to find an ASM hammer, so the DGW Pietta hammer had to work.
The main spring and hand came from Deer Creek. These were ASM parts and they were the last he had. The first challenge was to get the ASM hand to fit the Pietta hammer. That hammer was sent without a dog to mount the hand onto. Rather than a dog, there is an unthreaded hole. I will post a second thread, to which I will attach (or attempt to attach) the ASM parts breakdown from VTI. The missing dog is part number 52. Alas, no one had the hammer or the dog. It is as though a Pietta hand has an integral dog, like a Colt hand because the Pietta hammer is not threaded. The ASM hand has a hole rather than a dog. I overcame this problem by threading a hole in the hammer, making a dog which resembles a headless screw and turning the fabricated dog into the hammer after the hand is in place.
The hammer and hand thus work properly and can be disassembled with ease which is not the case in existing designs of this pistol using original parts.
I began the work of smoothing up the action as follows:
1) The bolt did not engage the cylinder at full cock nor did it engage the cylinder with the hammer all the way forward. This was corrected by significant filing on the left leg of the bolt. I am a bolt filer, not a bolt bender. I am terrified I will break the bolt leg if I try to reposition it.
2) The hand in its front to back dimension was too large. This caused the hand to drag the cylinder counterclockwise our of battery when the hammer was gently permitted to fall. This situation would probably not have been a problem when the pistol was fired because the rapid movement of the hammer and hand would have been too quick to pull the cylinder. Nevertheless, I decided that the correction was easy enough to undertake. I corrected this problem by reducing the size of the hand using a fast wheel.
3) The bolt appears to be dragging the cylinder. I believe I can correct this by putting a chamfer to the left on the bolt. This is a future action.
An additional modification I made to this pistol was to install a screw in the grip to hold the mainspring in place, similar to the 1858 Remington. I drilled the hole and tapped it for the same size as the trigger guard screw. I then relieved (counterbored) the hole so that the head of the screw would be flush with the backstrap. I installed this set screw in the back of the backstrap rather than in the front as it is on an 1858. I find the location of the screw on the 1858 to be distracting since the third finger always comes to rest on the spring screw. With the screw in the back of the backstrap no part of my hand ever contacts the screw. I may find a different situation on recoil, but I am wiling to take the chance. I like this modification because it makes the pistol as easy to work on as the 1858.
The main spring and hand came from Deer Creek. These were ASM parts and they were the last he had. The first challenge was to get the ASM hand to fit the Pietta hammer. That hammer was sent without a dog to mount the hand onto. Rather than a dog, there is an unthreaded hole. I will post a second thread, to which I will attach (or attempt to attach) the ASM parts breakdown from VTI. The missing dog is part number 52. Alas, no one had the hammer or the dog. It is as though a Pietta hand has an integral dog, like a Colt hand because the Pietta hammer is not threaded. The ASM hand has a hole rather than a dog. I overcame this problem by threading a hole in the hammer, making a dog which resembles a headless screw and turning the fabricated dog into the hammer after the hand is in place.
The hammer and hand thus work properly and can be disassembled with ease which is not the case in existing designs of this pistol using original parts.
I began the work of smoothing up the action as follows:
1) The bolt did not engage the cylinder at full cock nor did it engage the cylinder with the hammer all the way forward. This was corrected by significant filing on the left leg of the bolt. I am a bolt filer, not a bolt bender. I am terrified I will break the bolt leg if I try to reposition it.
2) The hand in its front to back dimension was too large. This caused the hand to drag the cylinder counterclockwise our of battery when the hammer was gently permitted to fall. This situation would probably not have been a problem when the pistol was fired because the rapid movement of the hammer and hand would have been too quick to pull the cylinder. Nevertheless, I decided that the correction was easy enough to undertake. I corrected this problem by reducing the size of the hand using a fast wheel.
3) The bolt appears to be dragging the cylinder. I believe I can correct this by putting a chamfer to the left on the bolt. This is a future action.
An additional modification I made to this pistol was to install a screw in the grip to hold the mainspring in place, similar to the 1858 Remington. I drilled the hole and tapped it for the same size as the trigger guard screw. I then relieved (counterbored) the hole so that the head of the screw would be flush with the backstrap. I installed this set screw in the back of the backstrap rather than in the front as it is on an 1858. I find the location of the screw on the 1858 to be distracting since the third finger always comes to rest on the spring screw. With the screw in the back of the backstrap no part of my hand ever contacts the screw. I may find a different situation on recoil, but I am wiling to take the chance. I like this modification because it makes the pistol as easy to work on as the 1858.
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