remington cleaning

H

hillbille

New member
just got out yesterday , first chance to shoot my peitta 1858 remington, my concern is how often shoud I clean it, I used to have a colt army 1860, I could shoot allday had no trouble with function, probubly only shot it 25 30 times at most. yesterday by the 3rd cylinder the triger was hard and the cylinder would'nt always cycle proper. I tried to get the pin out to remove the cylinder but had to pound it out to get cylinder loose is this normal? I was shooting 30-35 grains bp ,pregreased wad patch and 451 ball. My powder horn was messed up and wouldn't shut off as I had a 30 grain nipple on my flask but sometimes the flask wouldn't shut off I'm sure it had 35+ in cylinder.offhand the groups were good enough for me few high floaters but I'm sure that was from extra powder, otherwise they were 8-10 inch at 40 yards.
 
hillbille said:
I was shooting 30-35 grains bp
Click to expand...
Switch to Pyrodex or 777. Black powder fouling gunks up the lock work on revolvers much quicker. Black powder substitutes allow you to save your cleaning until after the range session ends.
 
If you look, you'll see that the base pin on your Colt copies have multiple grooves--if you kept these greased every time you cleaned the Colt copies, you could shoot pretty much all day without the cylinder binding from crap. The base pins on the Remington copies are smooth. Mine used to bind just like you described. When I worked for a US machine tool producer, I bought a second base pin for the Rem 58 that I had, and had a lathe operator groove that pin with several, equally-spaced grooves, 1/8" wide by .005 deep, starting about 3/16" in from each end of the cylinder. This gave a place for the grease to stay, and it helped solve the problem. When I started lubing the base pin with Borebutter, it worked even better. Be sure that the starting point for these grooves are inside of the cylinder hole, though, and not even with, or flush with, the openings at each end of the cylinder. You want the grease to be on the pin, inside of the cylinder hole, and not creating a cavity at each end. Note that if you do this, there is a flat on the Rem. base pin. That will mean an interrupted cut--not a big deal for a machinist, but something to consider if you are a newbie with machinery.
 
Hmmm.

I usually remove the cylinder either every or every other cylinder load to wipe the face clean, wipe the pin clean, & run a bore snake through the barrel "cept when I am switching through my cylinders then I'll wipe them after I finish my third cylinder."

After the days shooting I'll clean my pistols with a bucket of hot soapy water & then use WD-40 to displace the water & let them dry for a bit then use Olive Oil to lube the internals & the rest of the pistol, this my help in keeping your pistol fully functional for more than just 30 shots.

If you can I would deffinitly get a powder measure &/or a more reliable flask because even though the likely hood of over charging is nill if you are using real FFFG black powder but as you noticed the shots were not exactly uniform.
 
raider I have a measure but it didn't do me much good home in the gun cabnet, as per the pin this one was sllightly bent when I got it so I have a new one on order, might try and grove the old one as i think I got it straightened out with vise and the press.
 
I clean mine bout like Raider does. Don't put undue pressure on the hammer trying to cock it when it gets fouled. It'll damage the hand. DOn't load directly from a flask. If you have a hot ember in a chamber it turns a flask into a grenade.
 
This is the second reference I have seen to lube with olive oil? Where did you come up with that, and is it possible that there could be something in some types of olive oil(additives?) that would be undesireable? Is it just a good lube for shooting or does it do anything to protect the gun like petroleum bases?
 
Tom, you do not want to use a petroleum based lube on a bp revolver anywhere near the chamber mouths or bore. It makes a mess that's really hard to clean. It's ok inside the action. I have used Remoil in the action with no problems. Balistol or olive oil work very well.
 
OK, when i take my remmys to the range, i make a day of it,
i look at it like this, if i mess up my guns, i make it worth while,
so i shoot for a good 5 hours, now to the point.
Lubes, i use all natural extra virgin oil for the works, and i
make crisco and bees wax mixed till its a paste, i put that
on the cylinder pin every 6 rounds and i never get a bind
nor does it ever get stiff, it works wonders on the remmys,
and i use it for lube on top of the ball to seal the chambers,
and it works good, because its thicker than just crisco.
Try it.:D
 
Tom2 - Olive oil is pure vegetable oil and has no additives or preservatives. With respect to lubrication, rust prevention and soft fouling in a black powder gun, it works very well. Has been used by many people for a very, very long time.

It's only down side is that since it is an organic product it can and will go rancid over a long period of time. I therefor do not recommend it for long term storage, but many people report good experiences using it in the short term.

I have no idea how to answer the question, "Where did you come up with that?" Sorry.
 
I prefer to shoot the real stuff in mine too, just under 30gr is my usual load. I also lube with olive oil and Bore Butter and can get 4-5 cylinders full without problems. I clean as soon as I get home from a firing session by taking off the grips, removing the cylinder and nipples, loading rod and base pin and use hot soapy water with a hot rinse, then lube back up once it's dry.
 
just got back from another day at range, I love the accuracy of the pietta could hit a golf ball starting at 30 yards up to 50 when it quit rolling, at least 2 out of 6 sometimes 4 out of 6, but second cylinder got tight cleaned pin between each cylinder after the 6-7 one the in was so tight it wouldn't come out it was bowed up almost touching the bottom of the barrell. I have a new one on order hoping it is just a bent pin, that is making things tight. there was a guy there with a glock who was bragging about hitting a pop bottle at 20 yards, I went out to get my golf ball brought it back to 25-30 yard line pulled the pietta out , you should have seen the look on his face when i hit it twice, the second hit sent it off range into a small creek, put the last two shots in his pop bottle. shrank his ego a bit.
 
Hillbille, when you have cleaned your cylinder pin
and when you have oiled it, so its free of any powder
gunk, does the cylinder spin free or does it still bined
when you spin the cylinder, if its free of fouling and
you have oiled the pin, it should not bind.:confused:
 
it doesn't bind when i give it a good cleaning at the house, spins free ect. the last 1/4 inch or so is little tight but easy enough to work in and out. just gets tight after shooting, I tore the grips off and trigger out ect tonight when I got home it was dirty but not terrible . The guy who owns the local muzzleloading shop said the pin was bent and he ordered one for me. I straightened the old one in the vise on workbench it is free when clean, he said shooting hot loads could bend, or worp the pin I've allways trusted him on all my other problems so had him order me one.
 
hillbille said:
he said shooting hot loads could bend, or worp the pin I've allways trusted him on all my other problems so had him order me one.
Click to expand...

Hmm, Unless you are shooting some kind of powder that you shouldn't be using I wouldn't think that the Cylinder Pin would warp or bend under the ammount of FFFG that you can get in there & still cram a ball into it, which I have done on a number of occasions to my 23 year old Pietta 1858 & so far the pin on mine is still straight, & I've shot as much as 43gr of FFFG & a .457 ball out of it on many occasions when I was in the mood.

Does your pin get stiff in that last 1/4" before it is fully seated even if it is clean?

Now you may have what my older 1858 has "or rather had" is where the lug area of the pin where you use to remove the pin may be binding on the frame where the fit between the two is "or was in my case" a little tight, & if it is the case a little stoning to the top & bottom flats of the pin "where the lug is, no where else" will free it up enough to nearly slide out of it's position when the cylinder is out of the frame & the loading lever is lowered, that is what I've done to mine a many years ago to make it a bit more free but not too much to cause issues.
 
I use a cylinder loader to load my Pietta 1858 Remington and have no problems shooting it all day. In my opinion it is faster to remove the cylinder, load it outside of the the gun and reinstalling it once it is loaded and capped. To wipe the cylinder pin at the same time takes maybe 2-3 seconds. My 20 year old son and I had a little loading contest last summer. He was shooting my Taurus Gaucho (cartridge gun) and I was shooting my Pietta 1858 Remington. When we finished shooting a round we started reloading our respective guns. By the time he had ejected the cylinder and reloaded I had my cylinder reloaded but not capped. Neither one of us is a hotshot SASS shooter - more on the slow side of average. But this very unscientific test shows at least to me that C&B revolvers can be loaded using a cylinder loader with decent speed and saves the time of having to separately removing the cylinder pin and cleaning it when the gun is loaded with the cylinder in place. These are just my experiences and as they say your mileage may vary, but I don't have any fouling problems with my Remmy even after shooting it all day.
 
with the cylinder out you could see the pin was just a hair to the left from seating on center, I bent it back,and and hit it a few times with soft file it went in and out easy, now it is tight again at that last 1/4 to1/8 inch. When the pin is all the way out it is bowed up towards the barrell almost to touching. It wasn't this way before, which makes me think it has lost its temper or is just a bad pin to begin with. Right now it is clean and slides in and out of frame with the cylinder in or out. There is a slight drag at that last 1/4 inch but easily pushed in and out.
 
When you shoot to the point that the cylinder pin won`t come out ..don`t beat on your pistol ...all it takes is a splash of water ahead of the cylinder ..and she`ll slip right out . Its that easy ..just add water ..LOL
 
sundance will try that. stopped at the shop today the new pin wasn't the answer . the fellow that runs the shop say he thinks the frame is warped. the new pin is just a hair from sliding in freely.we decided to take a little more off the old pin where it slides in the frame under the hammer till it drops in easy. you can also see on the front of the pin where the cylinder is dragging off the blueing so I hit it a few soft passes with file, and where the pin goes in the rear frame hit it a few times just up to where it seats in frame. going to go back to see if it hurt accuracy.he has owned a muzzleloading shop since the late 60s here in town, and besides putting it in a press hes at a loss as to what to do.
 
Hillbilly, is this gun a new gun? if so iwould be takeing
it back if you are not happy with it.
First the pin, now the frame? mmm, if you have tried
two pins, and it is a little stiff, and binds bad after a
few shots, take it back. its a shame that you are haveing
a prob with you gun, i have had my 44 remmy for ever,
and had no prob with it. good luck.:)
 
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