1862 Woes

So, my Uberti 1862 Pocket Police finally arrived. I replaced the nipples with SlixShots and did the Duelist tune up. I took it to the range and loaded up the same load I shoot in my 1861 Navies, which is 25 grains of FFFg black powder, a lubricated wad, and a round ball. It seemed pretty accurate at 25 yards. The problem is the spent caps are ending up under the hammer and in the action. I believe the mainspring is too weak and the hammer is being lifted up by the pressure of the load going off. I would expect this with factory nipples, but not SlixShots. How do I solve this issue? Should I use some other brand of nipples? Replace the main spring?

Andreas Jager said:

So, my Uberti 1862 Pocket Police finally arrived. I replaced the nipples with SlixShots and did the Duelist tune up. I took it to the range and loaded up the same load I shoot in my 1861 Navies, which is 25 grains of FFFg black powder, a lubricated wad, and a round ball. It seemed pretty accurate at 25 yards. The problem is the spent caps are ending up under the hammer and in the action. I believe the mainspring is too weak and the hammer is being lifted up by the pressure of the load going off. I would expect this with factory nipples, but not SlixShots. How do I solve this issue? Should I use some other brand of nipples? Replace the main spring?

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I went through the same thing with my Pocket Models.
I bought several mainsprings looking for a stiffer one. It was a manure shoot because no one that sells them knows the relative strength of their particular brand of springs, but I ended up with two that were stronger than the factory ones.
Cap jam problems went away.
Even after all these years, the Italian manufacturers can’t seem to wrap their brains around the concept of proper spring tension, and the importance of not using screws that are too soft.
Their engineers and management people are apparently not shooters, so there is little incentive to fix the problems.

The factory nipples work great, get rid of the six shots and see how it works.

Sometimes the notch in the nose of the hammer is too wide on replicas and may have a burr that lifts the cap on cocking. Filling the gap with JB Weld can help but you won’t have the “safety “ position any more. Or if you’re like me weld it shut then recut the notch to the width of the safety pins.

One thing you can try, that will cost you only in time, is to remove the spring place it in a vise just above the screw hole and very slowly bend the spring backwards till it bends to a new position. This will increase the tension to the hammer. I did this to my 1860 that started to missfire two years ago and it has worked fine since then. Best regards.

Sounds like it's grabbing caps, like Phil Coffins said even a small burr on the hammer can grab caps and drag them back into the action. I always smooth the hammer face with a hard arkansas stone on any new colt. Mite work mite not?

I bought a spring kit for my 1860 army, it came with a lightened main spring.
I doubled it atop the Pietta spring. No cap bunce that Ive seen yet.
I called the company I got the spring kit from and they told me they have stiffer springs and if I wanted to send mine back they would send me a stiffy.
Id already redesigned the one I had, so it was too late for that.

https://www.emf-company.com/store/pc/-26-1851-60-61-Trigger-Bolt-Spring-p1729.htm

I have three Uberti's that had the same problem, a 1849 Pocket, 1862 Police, and a Pocket Navy. Replacement nipples helped slightly, but never could fire five shots without multiple cap jams. I replaced the main springs with ones made for a Pietta 1851 Navy. Ground them down to size, and cap jam problems went away. My little Uberti's are now fun to shoot. Still not pleased with Uberti, for the price I paid, I shouldn't have to have the additional cost of replacement parts and then tweak a brand new gun just to get it to function properly. I would never buy another small Uberti. No problems with either Uberti or Pietta when it comes to full size revolvers, they run fine for me right out of the box.

I had the same issue as you. Cured it by putting in an action cover. It’s a thin piece of brass sheet attached to the hammer that seals up the internals.

ernbar said:

I had the same issue as you. Cured it by putting in an action cover. It’s a thin piece of brass sheet attached to the hammer that seals up the internals.

View attachment 205004

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Can you give more detail on how you did this?

smoothshooter said:

I went through the same thing with my Pocket Models.
I bought several mainsprings looking for a stiffer one. It was a manure shoot because no one that sells them knows the relative strength of their particular brand of springs, but I ended up with two that were stronger than the factory ones.
Cap jam problems went away.
Even after all these years, the Italian manufacturers can’t seem to wrap their brains around the concept of proper spring tension, and the importance of not using screws that are too soft.
Their engineers and management people are apparently not shooters, so there is little incentive to fix the problems.

Click to expand...

I guess they figure, "it's good enough! They wanna tune up, let them do it!" We do seem to have some really talented guys here who know how to tune revolvers. If the factory had to do it, the cost would be many Italian Lira!

ZUG said:

Can you give more detail on how you did this?

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Need a drill press to drill a small hole in the hammer and a Dremel to cut a thin channel to insert the brass strip that is held in the hole like a roll pin. I’m handy with tools but Mike (45D) does it professionally including other work he does to the pistol. I also pumped up the interior with Mobil 1 Synthetic grease to keep fowling from entering. Makes cleaning SUPER easy and fast. As an example, yesterday I shot 48 round balls thru my 1860 using 28 grains of Schuetzen. The cleaning took about 30 minutes because the interior parts are sealed off from fowling and cap fragments. The frame got a quick wipe with only the cylinder and barrel to scrub clean. I did this mod to all my BP pistols.

What’s this?

Jappo said:

What’s this?

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I failed to photograph the process on mine.
That is not my hammer but that is how the brass strip is attached. Believe that is 45Ds picture and maybe Mike can chime in with an answer for you.

ernbar said:

I failed to photograph the process on mine.
That is not my hammer but that is how the brass strip is attached. Believe that is 45Ds picture and maybe Mike can chime in with an answer for you.

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Hey! That's a hammer from a '72 Open-Top. The shield I put on cap guns has a curl on the end that holds the frags out of the action and allows you to "dump" them by turning the revolver over.

Mike

45D said:

Hey! That's a hammer from a '72 Open-Top. The shield I put on cap guns has a curl on the end that holds the frags out of the action and allows you to "dump" them by turning the revolver over.

Mike

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Forgot about the curl at the end of the strip. I grabbed that picture to show where the hole is drilled on the hammer side.
As I was fitting the strip in the pocket police, I accidentally came across the length and spring angle so the strip rests on the frame making a good seal.

Uncle Miltie said:

The factory nipples work great, get rid of the six shots and see how it works.

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If the hammer is being blown back is causing the problem not allowing the gas to vent the way Slixshot nipples work removing them will only make the problem worse. A cap rake and Wolf brand mainspring cured the problem on mine.
YMMV
Bunk

@Andreas Jager

Duelist1954 on utube has a video but for the life of me I can't find it. But here is an equally competent fellow that runs Era's Gone molds. His fix is cheap and worthy of consideration. The extra spring can be bought from Taylors and Co. Here's the video.

Bunk said:

If the hammer is being blown back is causing the problem not allowing the gas to vent the way Slixshot nipples work removing them will only make the problem worse. A cap rake and Wolf brand mainspring cured the problem on mine.
YMMV
Bunk

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Exacto mundo Bunk, the Slixshots have the vented sides to allow extra blowback to go out and reduces the cap sucking issue. I have them in all my BP pistols.