Colt Navy Cleaning Frequency?

I ordered an Italian Colt Navy replica from TOTW that is due to arrive today. It’s my first venture into cap and ball revolvers. In Track’s description of the revolver they mentioned that it will require cleaning after 12 to 14 rounds, and failure to do so would result in damage. Is this accurate? That is not even three full cylinders of shooting.

In general use the gun gets nasty pretty quick. And crud can stop the cylinder from turning well. Accuracy will start to go down a little as the barrel gets dirty, but not enough to affect my shooting.
A simple wipe of the cylinder face between loads is and maybe a swab of the barrel if your hard core target shooting.
After shooting you need to do a deep cleaning of the gun if it’s one shot or one hundred.
You may find that three cylinders are about an afternoons shooting. Six shots is as fast as any single action. Twelve shots not so much.

Thanks, I have shot a lot of BP and naturally knew the cleaning after shoot any rounds would be mandatory. I could not understand why so few rounds would require it. BP and smokeless are two different things indeed!
Any tips on pulling the wedge key? That seems to be in the slot mighty firmly. I hate to take a brass drift to it but I’m starting to think that is what it might take.

Leaping lizards batman that's a lot of cleaning! Not to claim I know much but I usually shoot about 100 rounds and then clean the gun at home. I use FFFg black powder and lubed wads. Maybe the wads keep the bore clean.
If you are new to revolvers I recommend getting a screwdriver and very slowly and carefully grind the thickness and width until it EXACTLY filled the slot in the screws. THEN stone the edges to get rid of any burs, etc. If you do that you can frequently remove the bolts without marring them.
If you need a sequence on disassembly- just ask. Maybe disassemble with the gun in a cardboard box and write down how you are taking it apart.
Remove barrel and cylinder and then the frame as that holds the mainspring. Then the crosswise bolts in the frame. Carefully note the spring in the bottom of the frame that controls the bolt and trigger. Draw how it looks before removing it.
I use hot soapy water and an old tooth brush. I also use q-tip swabs for the nooks and crannies. Then dry everything. After dry I have a pizza pan I put the parts in and put it in the oven a minute or two to dry some more. Then I oil everything and reassemble. I do this after each time I shoot.
The lock work on a Colt Percussion is pretty much the same as that on the later 1873 Peacemaker so a book on the peacemaker can pretty much be used on the percussion colts.

I have shot 7 cylinders without cleaning my 1860 Army. The only thing that got tight was the loading lever, a drop of oil and it was good to go. As long as I don't have to force the action I keep shooting.

To remove the wedge I use the plastic handle of a screw driver. Strike the right side end and it will pop out to the left. To replace it tap it in till the spring just barely comes threw. While the barrel and cylinder is off check the arbor length. You want it to bottom out in the barrel when the barrel is even with the frame.

I think TOTW was being a bit conservative with their 12-14 round comment.

Even then, I don't think they were talking about fully disassembling and cleaning the revolver.

As others have said, the face of the cylinder and the area where the arbor sticks out of the front of the cylinder will develop a build-up of fouling that can make the cylinder hard to turn.

If this build-up gets bad enough and the cylinder becomes very hard to turn it can cause problems with the cylinder hand at the rear that turns the cylinder.

This fouling build-up can be reduced when you go to reload the cylinder after shooting your 5 or 6 shots by placing the hammer at half cock and then rotating the cylinder a few full turns by hand while you push forward on the cylinder to keep the face in contact with the rear of the barrel.

Doing this will scrape off most of the fouling on the front of the cylinder and it helps to break off any major fouling that has developed on the arbor.

If rotating the cylinder by hand doesn't seem to free it up then wiping the face of the cylinder with a damp rag and running the rag down around the arbor/cylinder area should be enough to keep the gun firing all day.
All of this can be done without removing the barrel and the need to do it is basically a judgment call by you.

All of the above. I grease my cylinder arbor with water pump grease, and also the internals, which when the odd cap falls off the hammer into the guts of the pistol, tends to keep it from jamming most of the time, but not always ! I use a 1/8 greased hard felt wad over powder and that keeps the bore well clean. I used that when I ventured briefly into cowboy action with my navy and dragoon colts. Learned a lot about a pistol shortcomings playing that game. I don't often strip the pistols completely, generally only when I have got cap debris in the guts causing jamming. I should have gone to hard felt wads years ago saves messing with grease over the balls and all the associated mess. . After cleaning with either warm or cold water and all chambers and barrel dried, I swab the bore and chambers with olive oil. The good thing about that is not hard fouling and you do not have to cap off before and event !!Never had a misfire with this little trick.

Cheers

Heeler

jon math said:

Any tips on pulling the wedge key? That seems to be in the slot mighty firmly. I hate to take a brass drift to it but I’m starting to think that is what it might take.

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Follow all of the above sage advise,, and keep reading this sections archive for ton's of tips and shared knowledge.
Tip;
The little clippy thing on the wedge is NOT there to be driven to the other side of the gun,, it's there to keep the wedge from falling out.
The clip hit's that screw on the way out and is then not lost.
The "wedge" has to do with the space between the cylinder and forcing cone.
like I said,, keep reading here. :wink:

Thanks for all the reply gents!

A good solid tap with a brass punch and a soft faced hammer got the wedge out. The revolver was sold as used, but after opening it up I'd call it pre-owned but I doubt it was ever fired.

Looking forward to the weekend for sure!

In my limited experience, once you find a good combination of ball size, wads (+ or -), lube type and how to apply it etc. then you can shoot a lot more than what TOTW says before cleaning is needed.

Thanks, I sure hope so!

Around 1968, Dad brought home a Replica Arms (Uberti) 1861 Colt Navy. At the time, the common wisdom was to load the cylinder, then goop up the chambers over each ball with Crisco. It was supposed to prevent chain fires and also keep the fouling "soft". A few decades later this has been proven to be largely BS, chainfires originate at the nipple/cap end, and excess lube of any kind attracts and holds burned powder residue 'fouling'.

I have that 1861 Navy today & it shoots and looks like almost new.

For muzzleloading rifles, I load with a 'dry lube' patch; for cap & ball revolvers I use either prelubed felt wads with as much lube squeezed out as possible, or else a paper wad with a minuscule amount of beeswax & tallow lube folded up inside it. Fouling is negligible. Somewhere I have pictures of my stainless ROA after 72 rounds (12 cylinders) of shooting. You can clearly see that both frame & cylinder, as well as each chamber is stainless steel. Powder residue is negligible.

I have only had one shooting secession with mine so far and I fired off three cylinders full with no problems at all. I really was impressed with the accuracy for such primitive sights and round balls. I will say I was glad that this was not my first experience with black powder because if it was, based on the amount of time it took me to clean the revolver vs. a single shot hooked breech rifle, I’d never have tried BP again.

a Colt revolver "4 way" tool is all you really need in the field.....use the screwdriver tip in a twisting motion to loosen the wedge.

the Chapman tool co.s entry level gunsmithing bit set(#8900) has everything you'll need for working on any and all Italian repros, revolvers, rifles etc. including the thin bits other sets just don't have.

whatever your load remember that it's chamber seal & correctly fitting caps that prevent chainfires
so as long as you're shaving a complete lead ring off your ball when you plunge, and using tight fitting caps that split when fired but never fall off beforehand, you're ok.

Edit: and IF you really want to speed up your post firing cleaning, pack your frame in the trigger/bolt/hand area with wheel bearing grease and don't worry about about breaking it down for cleaning (the frame) but 1-2 times a year. (it IS an Italian repro, not a fine old Colts Patent revolver)

When I first started shoot, so many decades ago now, one of the first things I did was buy a nice set of gun smith tools and as I have added different firearms to my collection if they require special tools I have added them to my bench. I also picked up some top quality one piece cleaning rods and bore guides. You are right the correct sized bit makes all the difference when working on something.
I purchased this pistol used and I would have said it had never been fired, but after I shot it I opened the whole thing up and it truly looked like there had been a coal fire inside the frame. I’ll check again next time I fire it but I find it hard to believe all that soot was from just 18 shots. Like you said it’s not a priceless antique maybe the former owner had the same feelings and never cleaned the inside.

I will look into the Colt tool you mentioned as well.
Thanks

That is the reason I always do a complete tear down for cleaning no matter how little the gun was shot.
Fouling will blow through the interior of the complete gun in a very few shots.
The other reason is that some internal parts really need grease not just oil for proper lubing, for those inclined to remove the grips and run them through a dish washer cycle then use compressed air to blast oil through the interior when dry.
Arbors, hammer cams and ratchet stars should have grease not just oil on them. Also excessive oiling is nearly as bad as running them dry from all the dust and grit it attracts.

I work overseas and only get home 2x per year. When I'm home I'll shoot my Pietta 1860 revolvers over the course of a couple days without cleaning.

Having the arbor greased with Bore Butter I can go about 4 days shooting 4 or 5 cylinders per day before cleaning and oiling them.

Find I enjoy shooting C&B revolvers more than my modern guns.

jon math said:

it will require cleaning after 12 to 14 rounds, and failure to do so would result in damage. Is this accurate? That is not even three full cylinders of shooting.

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IMO that statement is not correct. I shoot pistol at Friendship and will shoot all my revolver matches in one day. That is about 100-120 rounds--with NO cleaning whatsoever. If you notice your gun getting hard to cock, it is usually fouling build-up on the arbor, so removing it (or the cylinder ) for a wipe-off should keep it running smooth. My revolvers get a complete strip-down cleaning after every shooting session, no matter how many rounds have been fired.