Colt 1860 Wedges

H

Hardcase

New member
My memory isn't what it used to be, so if we've been down this road, please forgive me.

Ahh, the joy of the Colt 1860 wedge. It comes in a few varieties - the tranquil, "give me a tug and I pop right out", the "Pietta gorilla" and the "I think I saw it fall under the sofa over there".

So, once the wedge is out, the cleaning is done and it's time to put the whole business back together, what do we do with the wedge? Clearly we don't duplicate the gorilla's enthusiasm. Instead, do we tap it in a bit with a mallet? Just push it in with fingers until it's tight?

Personally, I'd like to be able to remove it with as little effort as possible. So long as it does its job and keeps the front end and the back end of the gun in their appropriate places, I'd like to use only as much force as is necessary.

I know that my great great grandad had a little wood mallet that he used to tap on his original, which seems to be somewhere between finger tight and "stuck". What do you fellas do?

(Sometimes I really wish that I had a time machine.)
 
On my 1860 I just pushed it in with my thumb until it was flush on the off side. It usually took a little firmer pressure to get it started back out but not difficult and didnt require tools.
 
I push it in with my fingers and then, depending on the the cylinder to forcing cone clearance, use wood head hammer to gently tap it further through. Different guns require different amounts of effort. The 'correct' position I aim for is the one that gives a cylinder to forcing cone function clearance of about 0.006".
 
Mine with the wedge flush only had .004 clearance. All guns are different tho and a clearance of .008-.010 can't be considered bad.
 
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