Hammer Cam Damage

[Sawney Beane]

I am fairly new to black powder shooting and picked up my 5th revolver at a local gun show. Presented as a "new in the box" Pietta 1860 Colt Army at less than list price. I examined it, the cylinder and nipples were pristine, slight cylinder wear I figured came from the original buyer cycling it for amusement. Timing seemed OK. In my excitement I made a rookie mistake and failed to check the half cock function. When placed in half cock the bolt locks the cylinder. After pulling all the parts I compared them to my 1851. Everything was nice except the hammer cam. It looks like perhaps Bubba had some extra time and tools. I believe the cams are hardened so the damage seems intentional (some kind of failed trigger job?) Also noticed the half cock notch is buggered up too. Hope that's not a sign of more issues. All in all I don't mind the excitement as I am getting an education on these beauties. Anyway a new hammer is on it's way from Taylor's. Here's a pic:

 

[ppg1949]

Yikes! I can't imagine the thought process behind this result. Good luck with the new hammer.

 

[Phil Coffins]

Wear like that isn’t uncommon because the case hardening is very thin. I have found that a file will easily cut these so plenty of lube is required before the first time the gun is cocked. I take a new pistol apart and do my own case hardening on them after deburring and polishing. Unfortunately most folks can't do this so parts wear faster then they should.

 

[Columbus]

Just buy a new hammer and start over.

 

[M. De Land]

If the bolt finger tears up a hammer cam like that then the hammer is soft which is also why the half cock is buggered as it probably had some fins left on it from manufacture. Seems like the new guns are better than early production so test the new hammer and see if it's hard enough. If properly hard it should resist a file corner check. Use an old file.
If it needs hardened you can do it with some Kase-nite powder and a torch, then clean up and cold rust blue or brown.

 

[Sawney Beane]

Just buy a new hammer and start over.

My plan exactly, hammer on it's way.

 

[Sawney Beane]

Thank you all for your helpful comments! I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[M. De Land]

Another option if you have the tooling and skill is to replace the cam lobe. It can be drilled out, an new one made and hardened of tool steel. The method would be to drill the damaged one out, ream the hole, re-harden the hammer body and soft solder or loc-tite in the new cam in place.
It might not be much more work than if you get another soft hammer and have to re-harden and fit that one as well.
Make sure to remove the hammer spring roller before you do any hardening to the hammer body.

 

[Phil Coffins]

Should your new hammer fail the file test I can talk you threw how to color case harden it if you have a camp fire. For a small solid part like a hammer it takes a minimum of equipment. I did this nose cap with this set up. It's as hard as the back of my head now.
IMG_0581 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr
IMG_0572 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr

 

[denster]

Does not appear as if anything is wrong with the hammer cam except it could use a bit of polishing. It is supposed to slope downward like that to push the leg of the bolt over as the hammer falls. The half cock notch has a little flash left over from the manufacture process. Doesn't hurt anything but can be removed if it bothers you.

 

[Redstick Lee]

looks like someone attempted "fanning" with a gun with soft metal parts......

 

[Sawney Beane]

Just got a replacement hammer from Dixie Gun Works. Things started to improve with the new hammer. Further tweaks were required (along with a "hands on" education of how the pistol works). The bolt was rubbing against the bolt slot (filed and polished the slot). The bolt hand would not drop over the hammer cam, the previous owner forced the action when jammed to the point that it chewed up the cam (Dremmeled the half moon of the hand and polished). The action now works correctly in all respects AND I learned something.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Great job and isn't it fun to get one of these things running again when they have been stubborn.

 

[Sawney Beane]

Great job and isn't it fun to get one of these things running again when they have been stubborn.

Yes, the internet really helps. This video helped me understand what's going on "under the hood".

 

[sourdough]

That is a very good animation. It really shows very well how the hammer cam actuates the bolt and how the bolt finger is reset as the hammer drops. It sure beats looking a set of still photos while actuating the hammer and watching the bolt with the gun disassembled. Wish I had this years ago instead of trial and error.

Thank you for posting this!

Another video:



Regards,

Jim