Andy Griffith
New member
I picked up another used but unfired Pietta 1860 last week- it had been actioned some though.
The hammer was hitting the side of the frame and the bolt was popping up far too early, so I went to work.
I polished the frame and got rid of the burrs that the hammer made where it was catching and that alleviated that problem. I defarbed the hammer, but it still slightly rubed the side of the frame, but nowhere as badly. I took everything out of the action and smoothed everything, and looked at the bolt, checked the width of it against the stop notches- which it was correctly fitted from the factory (suprisingly) and looked at the legs and they looked a bit short, and thought that was the problem.
I took it out, and dropped in another unfitted bolt with longer legs just to see if it helped the problem, which it didn't.
I took out the hammer, which I looked at earlier and it had no appreciable wear on the cam, but it seemed that the cam was not sticking out from the hammer as far as it should, and a smidgen higher than it should be. For grins I slapped another hammer in there and viola- it timed perfectly with the original bolt. I then inspected the hammer and put a straight edge on it- indeed it was cast with a .015 bow in it.
I have never encountered a mis-cast hammer before, but now I know something else to verify if all else fails.
The hammer was hitting the side of the frame and the bolt was popping up far too early, so I went to work.
I polished the frame and got rid of the burrs that the hammer made where it was catching and that alleviated that problem. I defarbed the hammer, but it still slightly rubed the side of the frame, but nowhere as badly. I took everything out of the action and smoothed everything, and looked at the bolt, checked the width of it against the stop notches- which it was correctly fitted from the factory (suprisingly) and looked at the legs and they looked a bit short, and thought that was the problem.
I took it out, and dropped in another unfitted bolt with longer legs just to see if it helped the problem, which it didn't.
I took out the hammer, which I looked at earlier and it had no appreciable wear on the cam, but it seemed that the cam was not sticking out from the hammer as far as it should, and a smidgen higher than it should be. For grins I slapped another hammer in there and viola- it timed perfectly with the original bolt. I then inspected the hammer and put a straight edge on it- indeed it was cast with a .015 bow in it.
I have never encountered a mis-cast hammer before, but now I know something else to verify if all else fails.
