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Rehabbing a revolver

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longhunter49

Pilgrim
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I've always liked tinkering with old guns and felt the need to occupy some time recently so I'm at it again. Bought an old brass frame 1849 FIE Colt copy. As per his description, it had been purchased as a college age project, had gotten wet and been stored since. Sounded perfect so I paid a minimal fee and he promptly sent it.

Now, the cylinder was rusted in place and there was scattered deep rust on the barrel and loading lever. First task was soaking it a vigorously applying multiple raps with a nylon mallet. Once it was loose I disassembled the rest.

Surprisingly the barrel was relatively clean. Not shiny, but shootable. Cylinders were also not bad and nipples straight. The trigger screw was a , well.... backwoods gunsmith replacement " with a small nut on the outside, but it worked. The mainspring felt like it came off a bear trap and the small hand spring was rusted off. Other than that everything else cleaned up well.

New springs have been ordered from VTI and the rest of the gun cleaned.

I refinished the barrel and rammer with Plum Brown and will rub those back to an aged look in a few days. The brass frame was soaked in some brass aging solution. The grips will eventually have the varnish removed and stained.

Ultimately I plan to convert it to .22 lr but for now, with new springs installed, she'll be a nice little shooter.

Pics are before and after....
IMG_0629.JPG
IMG_0630.JPG
IMG_0287.JPG
IMG_0289.JPG
 
The date code appears to be AC/1977. Any manufacturer marks on the revolver?

It is actually a brass-framed repro of an 1848 Pocket .31. It has the squareback trigger guard, the short frame, and the short forcing cone. It is definitely not an Armi San Marco revolver looking at the shoulders behind the trigger guard.

1848 Pocket .31 Replica Arms ASM 001.jpg


I am guessing that is may be an Uberti, but that's a long shot.

I hope the springs work for you.

Regards,

Jim
 
Only markings are FIE Italy on the butt. Looks like a stylized RA in front of it. Replica Arms maybe. The date code is AC and has usual PN proof.

It is indeed a 1848 copy. Chubby fingertips and small keyboard don't always work together well.IMG_0291.JPG
 
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Navy Arms bought out Replica Arms Marietta OH around 1971-1972. They continued the RA name for a few years hoping to capitalize on the RA name but it did not work out. Many of those revolvers had the stylize RA stamped on the front left side of the frame, but I was not aware that the stylized RA lasted until 1977.

Somewhere in my convoluted photo files I have a photo of that stylized RA stamp.

I will look for it. I do believe it to be of Uberti manufacture.

Regards,

Jim
 
The VTI folks seemed to think it’s Uberti. Looking forward to getting the springs installed.
 
I love these sort of projects! I'd love to find something similar someday.
Mark
 
I love these sort of projects! I'd love to find something similar someday.
Mark
Me, too. I keep scouring Gunbroker and the WTS adds here and on other sites hoping to find myself a winter project to work on, but haven't really found anything yet that strikes my fancy.
 
That's not a RA, it's a PR. Ruschina? I had an Italian website bookmarked,then I my HDD went bad.😢:doh:
 
PR it is.... I found this on the " Gunboards for Collectors". Credit goes to member " Woodlander".

"Anyway... PR has nothing to do with Pedersoli. In fact, it was the mark used by Fabbrica d'Armi Esterina Riva for their black powder replicas line, imported by FIE (Firearms Import Export). They also used the mark DART for modern firearms."
 
PR it is.... I found this on the " Gunboards for Collectors". Credit goes to member " Woodlander".

"Anyway... PR has nothing to do with Pedersoli. In fact, it was the mark used by Fabbrica d'Armi Esterina Riva for their black powder replicas line, imported by FIE (Firearms Import Export). They also used the mark DART for modern firearms."

I have a "DART" marked Remington Navy replica. It's unfortunate that there doesn't seem to be very much reliable information about these early Italian imports. I, for one, would really be interested in knowing more about where they come from and who made what for whom.

 
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