Short barrel Remington

D

Doc Hoy

New member
Coupla months ago I put out feelers for clunkers to work on and I came up with this little beaut.

Remleft.jpg


It is a .44 with a 4 1/2 inch barrel. All steel as you can see.

When I got it the revolver would not remain at full cock. Replacement of the trigger solved that problem.

Remtrigger.jpg


Remmuzzle.jpg


This is the pistol I was referring to in another post about serial numbers. It has been defarbed and all that remains is a serial number on the butt and when you open it up the number 21 is on the inside of the grips, the grip end of the frame and the inside of the trigger guard.

Once I got the action cycling I started considering the cosmetic issues with the pistol. There are three: 1) The catch for the loading lever permits the loading lever to come to rest too far from the barrel near the muzzle. So the distance between the lever and the barrel is way more near the muzzle.. 2) the sight is made from a half of a dime which I am not partial too, not to mention the fact that the sight turns sideways. And finally and most notable is the need for refinishing of the pistol.

In the next photo I have removed the two offending parts from the barrel.

Barrelleftside.jpg


This is really and elegant revolver with a lot of possibilities. The action is quite good.

Hammer.jpg


Muzzle.jpg
 
More photos

Here is the serial number

Serialnumber.jpg


and the right side of the frame

RightsideReceiver.jpg


I started on the loading lever catch first. In the Navy when I attended a school on gas welding and braising we did a thing called "shaft build up. The instructor handed each of his students a twelve inch piece of one inch pipe and about a million braising rods. Then he said make this pipe three inches in diameter. We stood there for two days laying down a bead on the pipe until the pipe was three inches in diameter of solid brass.

So I used that technique on the catch.

The catch as it was, fit the revolver perfectly and mimicked the original part well. The only problem was that the vee groove was at the wrong spot allowing the loading lever to rest too far from the barrel in the front. So I built up the catch and when I get a little more time, I will recut the groove at the right spot. I am relatively confident this will work.

Catchbuiltup.jpg


Catchbuiltup2.jpg
 
Awesome pics, Doc:) Thank you.

That looks like it'll be a fine little revolver once you get done with it.
 
Correction....

In the first post I said that the pistol needs to be refinished.

I do acknowledge that some might disagree. The patina on this revolver makes it quite attractive. Once the lever sets properly and the sight is in place, the revolver would be ready in some folk's eyes.

I got hold of a coupla pieces of antler which I will be using for grips. I may polish it up to a high shine, or perhaps blue it. I think it won't look right as it is with antler grips and that antiqued finish.

More later.
 
Nice looking shorty Remy Doc. Can't wait to see it completed. I love the shorty Remys.

You mentioned that the dovetailed loading latch mimicked the original one it had before it was cut down. Since Pietta has a non dovetailed latch post that is silver soldered into a hole, and Uberti has the dovetailed latch like yours has, do you know if yours is an Uberti or some other non Pietta brand like ASM? Or could it be a Pietta that someone made a new dovetail and installed a non factory dovetail latch onto? I know you said that all markings were defarbed except the serial #, but do you know who the original manufacturer was?
Have you mic'd your cylinders and barrel yet to see what they are?
 
Two responses

Bill,When I spoke of the appearance of the catch I was refering to the fact that the overall appearance of the catch can be made to look like the style of catch that was originally on this revolver, essentially cylindrical in shape without reference to how the catch is installed in the barrel.

Both of the parts, the sight and the catch are post manufacture fabrications (I am almost certain of the catch, I am certain of the sight.) It would be interesting to hear from anyone in the group who knows for sure that any manyfacturer made a Remington with a four and a half inch barrel. I don't know of any but there is a lot I don't know. (These would be both known and unknown unknowns) :rolleyes: This leaves me with the conclusion that the revolver was modified from one with a longer barrel and if that is the case it was done by someone who knew what he was doing for most of the project.

I have not measured the barrel or chambers but I can tell you that the chamfer on the chambers is the deepest I have seen on any revolver I have ever examined. The chamfer extends possibly .100 into the chamber and is at what appears to be a fairly standard angle. This may also have been a post manufacture modification, but again, there are a million or so Remington revolvers out there that I have not seen.

I have no idea who manufactured the revolver, but Hardcase may have supplied the answer.

Hardcase,


The numbers look exactly like those shown in your photo. I have pulled apart Remington revolvers from Pietta and ASM and have not, or do not remember seeing numbers like these, but I never dissassembled an ASP. It does appear as though I have now. My Rogers and Spencer is a Euroarms, which likely means ASP. The serial number is at the same place. When I wake up (I am asleep right now) I will be removing the grips to look for a similar number. Note that even the serial number in your photo is six digits with a leading zero. I would love to see serial numbers from other ASP 1858 Remingtons along with the year of manufacture.
 
Doc here's a pic of one I picked up a while ago for $100.00. It's got a 5.5 bbl and a slightly rusty bore. I had to change out the bolt hammer & trigger to correct timing and get the thing to work at all. I'm doing a plumb brown finish on it, only got the 1st coating done so it will look better when completed. It gives me a 4" group at 25yds....havin' so much fun with it I don't know when I'm gonna get the time to finish the browning!!

Edit: It won't let me load the pic!??
 
Doc, gonna give it a try right now...thanks for the tip. Also, waitin' on some replacement grips I picked up on GB
1zmf19c.jpg
 
That's a nice looking brace of Remy revolvers you have there Sltm1. They both look great browned.

How's that 1863 baby Remy do shooting groups? I want to get me one of those.
I just wish the Italian repro manufacturers made the baby Remy in a scaled up design with the spur trigger in .44 cal. I'd get one of those for sure.
 
Bill, the little 63' shoot's very well, I can hold 4-5 inch groups at 20 yds....w/ 2 hands and a lot of patience LOL!! I raised the front sight buy soldering a brass strip (about 1.5mm high), on top of the original. It's pretty much POA now.
 
Here are some photos of the catch so far.

I have finished with the rough shaping of the catch.

Catchfiled1.jpg



You can see tht the lever is much closer to the barrel near the muzzle than in the first pohotos. Much closer to a parallel line.

Catchfiled2.jpg
 
No one has made comment on....

....the size of the sight.

I believe the sight is high by possibly as much as a tenth of an inch. I won't know that until it goes to the range. That is true of the recent 1860 Colt as well, although the intention there was to correct the nature of the Colts to shoot high.

We shall see.
 
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