Schofield Help Inquiry

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Tommygunn

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Morgan County, Alabama
Recently I purchased a Uberti repro of the S & W Schofield revolver, and since I purchased it used, it has no instruction manual.
What I would like to know is how one disassembles the gun; very specifically, removing the cylinder for cleaning around the forcing cone, and under the top strap. To me there seems no snap-easy way of doing it, and thought I'd inquire here first before launching springs and tiny parts around the house (which bothers my cat and frustrates me) or breaking stuff through ignorant acts.....
Any assistance much appreciated! :)

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I would have thought the guy should have done dry run before making the vid, having the proper screwdriver sizes ready on the bench. Reassembly of guns is sometimes more difficult than disassembly.

Regards,

Jim
 
Howdy

If you simply want to pull the cylinder out, for cleaning, without taking the entire gun apart. This is all you have to do.

First, pull the hammer back slightly to the half cock position. This draws the bolt down into the frame, freeing the cylinder to rotate. With the hammer at the half cock position you can pull the latch back to rotate the barrel down. You cannot rotate the barrel down with the hammer all the way down, at least not with the originals.

There are two screws holding the barrel block in place. The barrel block has two tabs on the bottom that prevent the cylinder from sliding backwards. Leave the forward screw in place, do not remove it. You may need to loosen it a tad, but just leave it in place. On the this original, the rear screw had a flat ground onto the shank. Turning the screw one half turn freed the barrel block to pivot up. Notice there is a witness mark next to the screw indicating the correct position of the screw to latch the barrel block down.

Barrel%20Latch%2001_zpso6ocjuj6.jpg




I don't know if the modern replicas have a flat on the screw or not. In any case, if turning the rear screw one half turn does not free the barrel block to pivot up, then remove the rear screw only. Leave the front screw in place, maybe loosen it a tad. That is how they were designed. That will allow the barrel block to pivot up as in this photo. Notice the barrel block has rotated up to a stop formed by the semicircular cut for it in the top strap. With the barrel block pivoted up the cylinder can be pulled straight back off the cylinder arbor for routine cleaning. That's all there is to it. As I said, you may need to loosen the front screw a tad to allow the barrel block to pivot up. To put it back together again after cleaning, with the hammer still at half cock so the bolt is withdrawn into the frame, put the cylinder back in place, lower the barrel block, screw in the rear screw to secure it and snug up both screws. I do recommend hollow ground screwdrivers that fit the slots well, so you don't bugger up the screws.

schofieldcylinderframeassembly01_zpscd6c6b19.jpg




After production of the Schofields ceased in 1877 if memory serves, S&W simplified removing the cylinder. The Schofield style latch was done away with. This New Model Number Three shows the newer latch. There was a single tab on the bottom of the latch that retained the cylinder. The latch was spring loaded. Lifting it up allowed the cylinder to be removed. There was an interrupted thread on the rear of the cylinder arbor. Holding the latch up with the thumb, the shooter rotated the cylinder counterclockwise as seen from the rear, while exerting slight backward pressure on the cylinder.

SerialNumberonlatchframemodified_zpsf172a895.jpg




This allowed a matching thread in the cylinder to engage the interrupted thread and the cylinder could then be pulled free. Much simpler than the Schofield system, no tools needed, the cylinder could be quickly removed in the field if necessary without any tools.

CylinderandArbor.jpg




The rear sight of these revolvers was two nubs protruding up from the 'tang' of the latch.

latch02_zps11a954f2.jpg
 
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Thanks Driftwood Johnson! Great tutorial and it told me exactly what I needed! I do notice my Uberti has no witness mark by that rear screw, but seems otherwise identical.
 
So did you take out the cylinder?

Does the screw have a flat on it or did you have to completely remove the screw?


I just finished about an hour ago. The Uberti screw has no flat, you simply pull it out. I loosened the front screw a bit, too, but didn't remove it. The revolver came apart very easily, and, aside from the screw-flat , looked exactly as your above photos. Uberti is like that; they'll change small things, save a bit of $ by not having a flat interrupted screw (which IMHO makes no big difference in the overall gun, really) and wind up with a nice repro that's 99.9999% like the original.
I have a Uberti 1873 saddlering carbine from @1991 which has the trap-door in the butt for cleaning rods; I note modern Uberti s.r.c.s omit this feature. I have a new Burgess Carbine sans trapdoor; originals had them just like the Winchester.
I purchased my gun used, in overall good shape .... but I think this is the first time anyone removed the cylinder. LOTS of carbon under the top strap and around edges in the front of the frame, and cylinder. I had some nice black cleaning tissue at the end.

Thanks again for your post; it helps a lot knowing what I'm dealing with!!!! :)
 
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