gunboat57
Member
Lot's of great pictures, thanks. I sure like the looks of the model 25. I'd probably go for something with a barrel 5" long or longer. The search begins...
Functional as in "carry able"?If I want to get a revolver in 45 Colt, DA, used, what makes and models should I be on the lookout for? I know about the 1909 Colt, and the Colt New Service. Did Smith and Wesson make 45 Colt revolvers prior to WWII? I'm not looking for a collectible, but something functional. Suggestions?
You don't know the half of it.Vern, I was looking for a New Service as my first choice but I'd have too much trouble with the sights unless I found a target model. New Services in good shape seem to be getting rare, and pricey! You're fortunate to have one.
I have yet to meet a Colt Alaskan/Philippine model that wasn't in dire need of a gunsmith's attention. Colt made those guns to fill a critical need for big bore revolvers in fighting the Moro insurgents. All of them saw extensive, hard, military use. Those that didn't found their way up to the Yukon, where they saw extensive, hard, frontier use.You could go Old School and find a Colt Alaskan. Double Action .45 LC. Similar to their lightning models of DA revo's.
You shot the 'Alaskan' with one finger, like usual. The extra-large trigger guard and long trigger were adaptations made to allow the gun to have a stiffer mainspring (giving the shooter the extra leverage needed to shoot it,) since it had to be 100% reliable with the thick, insensitive military primers of the day (an 1878 will clobber the heck out of the modern thin, sensitive, primers to the point where I've seen them occasionally pierced.)gunboat57 said:It has the extra large trigger guard and long trigger for use with gloves, or was it so you could use two fingers on the trigger 'cause the pull was so stiff?
In the 1878, the work of advancing the cylinder and locking it up was done by the hand. When you drew the hammer back, the top edge of the hand would advance the cylinder, per normal. However, the 1878 had another tooth in its hand which would engage the ratchet with the hammer all the way back. You can see the structure of the hand in the attached picture (this is of a different 1878 that I own, which I'm using to illustrate because it's shinier.)EnsignJimmy, refinish or not that is one nice looking 1878.
I take it you've been inside yours and are pretty familiar with how they work. Can you tell me how the cylinder was locked with a chamber in line with the barrel when firing? It didn't have any notches on the outside of the cylinder, or in back like the 1877. How did it work?
I can't help it, I'm an engineer, I just gotta know these things.
Yep. That's exactly what it does. And this was the improved method of preventing unwanted cylinder rotation. The first 1878s had a spring-loaded pawl mounted in the back of the frame that did the same job as the pawl milled into the later loading gates. But Colt found that the tiny springs were prone to breakage, so they changed the design to the one you usually see in 1878 revolvers.Thanks for the excellent explanation. The hand positions the cylinder rotationally and the projection on the loading gate keeps the cylinder from rotating backwards when the trigger is released after firing. (So the loading gate moves open and closed slightly as the cylinder rotates?)
If you pulled the trigger hard enough for long enough, what you'd do is batter the hand and the trigger saddle that connects the trigger to the hand and hammer. The action pushes the hand up and forward. With that being said, it is possible for the 1878 to develop throw-by. It locks the cylinder with the hand on the back, and by friction between the cylinder bushing and frame at the front. As a result, you'll find that quite a few 1878s have worn cylinder bushings (or, at least, a little end-shake.)Theoretically, if you were to pull the trigger (DA) really hard, the cylinder could rotate too far?
Yes, the 1889 also did everything with the hand. However, since it was a swing-out frame, it couldn't use the same cylinder stabilization system that the 1878 did. So it was possible to rotate the cylinder forward with the hammer down. They then introduced the 1892 which had two bolts. The first one just kept the cylinder from rotating with the hammer down. The second one would rise up as the action was cycled and provide something for the hand to lock the cylinder against. It wouldn't be until 1898 that Colt worked out how to get one bolt to do both jobs on a double-action gun.I'm guessing the 1889 Colt worked the same way: no notches and a robust ratchet hand. Of course, they went back to having a locking bolt after that.
That's actually the way 1878 revolvers look on the inside. The only things you don't see on the drawing is the trigger return spring, the hand spring which keeps the top of the hand engaged against the ratchet with the hammer down, and the stirrup that connects the trigger saddle to the hammer.