1858 Base Pin Wear - Common?

[jstein650]

I have a Pietta 1858 Remington - my first foray into BP revolvers. The base pin is milled flat on the bottom to allow for the retention screw. Mine looks like it's nearly half, maybe 40% milled away. I can't help but think this contributes to the fouling jamming in there and quickly causing some binding of the cylinder. Anyway, the pin is already starting to badly wear on the top of the circumference at the forward end after not a lot of use; enough so, that there is visible vertical play on the front end of the cylinder. Is this common?? If so, it would make me wish I'd gotten the Colt. I mean I have probably fewer than 100 rounds through the thing.

Thanks for any replies.

 

[Hellgate]

I've never seen vertical play of the cylinder on any of my Remingtons (12 that I can remember). It is common for the Remingtons to bind up with fouling. Some I have do bind and some don't and I have no clue why that is the case. One simple thing you can do to relieve binding is to put a single drop of solvent or oil on the front of the cylinder where it rubs on the frame each time after you have reloaded it. Hold the gun up and jiggle/twirl the cylinder to work it down onto the cylinder pin and you will see how quickly the cylinder frees up. I do this on my Ubertis at each cylinder charging. On my Euroarms Remingtons I can run at least 30 shots of full power (30grs FFFg) loads without binding.

 

[OYE]

Base pin

Don't have any noticeable wear on either of my 1858 revolvers ( I didn't mike them though). Mine are Piettas and have several hundred rounds through them. I also do the black powder solvent thing on the pin ( pull the pin out halfway) at least every other cylinder (after I get the bottle out I typically will
do each reload). I usually wipe the nose of the hammer each time also so it slides through the slot in the frame slick. If shooting for groups both guns
perform quite well if the barrels are swabed out every 3 shots. OYE

 

[rcmodel]

Tried oiling it before you shoot it?

Just a thought.

rc

 

[45 Dragoon]

For what it's worth, the "void" in the pin gives fouling somewhere to go rather than between the pin and cylinder. That's what the spiral groove does on the Colt arbor. You say you are new to b.p., revolvers need a lot of lube on the arbors/pins to keep fouling out and the cylinder free. (I mix a lot of graphite in bore butter)

 

[rodwha]

I use the aerosol can of Ballistol for my cylinder pin, and it works very well. Beforehand it would begin to bind up on the 3rd cylinder. Not it just keeps going.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I have had some remmington repros including Pietta for decades without such wear. I suspect some grit got in there or there is a rough edge in the cyclinder that is causing the wear. It is possible that the pin is not up to specs and you didn't notice until the finish started coming off. Without seeing in person, it is really just guesstimating what the problem could be.
A Piette I recently purchased used had a very worn cylinder pin, but it clearly showed signs that some one have attempted to alter it with a grind stone.

 

[swathdiver]

How about some photos fella?

 

[jstein650]

Thanks for the input so far guys. BTW the gun has never been shot without lube of some kind. I've used Bore Butter, light gun oil, and lately RIG grease. I've not re-lubed during any shooting session however. Also maybe just not enough in the first place.
My digital camera crapped out on me, and I just picked up another one, but need an SD card.. will send pics hopefully tomorrow.

 

[Jim K]

There is no reason why a cylinder pin should wear to the extent described or that the flat part should take up so much of the pin circumference. I would replace the pin or, if the gun is new, return it to the store and tell them the gun is not satisfactory.

Jim

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

The Remington is more likely to bind up quickly because of the lack of a bushing on the front of the cylinder, and the fact that the pin is so narrow. A cylinder bushing protects the cylinder pin from fouling blasted out of the barrel/cylinder gap. Withoiut a bushing, the fouling quickly works its way down between the cylinder and the pin, causing binding. Most of the cartridge revolvers that followed the percussion revolvers had cylinder bushings. Colt C&B revolvers did not have a bushing either, but the helical clearance grooves on the arbor gave the fouling more clearance, and the arbor was wider with more surface area to spread the fouling out.

Here is a side view of the cylinder pin from one of my Remingtons. This is how much the flat removes from the total circumference. The grooves you see on this pin are an attempt to give the fouling someplace to go, and they also provide a place to hold BP compatible grease.





Here is a comparison of a Remington cylinder pin and a Colt style arbor.





Flame cutting is also common with Remingtons. Look carefully where the arrow is pointing in this photo. The groove that does not go around the pin is the result of flame cutting. Flame cutting happens when the hot gasses and abrasive particles ejected from the barrel/cylinder gap actually eat into the steel of the cylinder pin. I bought this revolver back in 1975, and it has had many hundreds of rounds fired through it, causing this amount of flame cutting.







Don't use regular gun oil with your C&B, it is not compatible with Black Powder and may make things worse. There are plenty of Black Powder compatible oils and greases on the market. Bore butter is good, so is Ballistol. Do try to keep the pin well lubed. When firing my Remmies with 45 Colt conversion cylinders I pop out the cylinder to reload and wipe the face of the cylinder with a damp cloth for every reload. I grease up the pin whenever I think it needs it.

 

[g.willikers]

Welcome to the wonderful world of the past.
We of the modern age are sure spoiled by our ultra reliable technology.
It's hard to imagine that a four year civil war and decades of fighting the natives was done with the weapons of the 1800s.
There was a reason that Hickok and his contemporaries spent all the time they did with their guns to keep them trustworthy.