Uberti .36 51 Navy Safety Pins?

[Ray-Vigo]

A question for the more experienced revolver shooters out there:

I have a steel frame .36 Navy made by Uberti. My standard load is 18-20 grains of FFF then a felt wad then the .380 ball. I have noticed that over time the safety pins/nubs between the nipples have worn flat somewhat and that there are corresponding impact spots on the front surface of the steel frame. They're not leaving dents, but have worn the finish there. It seems the cylinder is moving a little bit when the charge is set off (seems so from the impact points). Is this normal? When I cock the hammer, the cylinder locks up tight front-back.

 

[Leatherbark]

I would like to think that the wear is from the fire and blast from each side of the cap that is firing causing the wear that looks like an impact mark. Plus in normal handling and cleaning I'll bet they get dinged some. Cant believe the little pins would be hardend much. Just a thought not scientific.

Bob

 

[Dphar]

A question for the more experienced revolver shooters out there:

I have a steel frame .36 Navy made by Uberti. My standard load is 18-20 grains of FFF then a felt wad then the .380 ball. I have noticed that over time the safety pins/nubs between the nipples have worn flat somewhat and that there are corresponding impact spots on the front surface of the steel frame. They're not leaving dents, but have worn the finish there. It seems the cylinder is moving a little bit when the charge is set off (seems so from the impact points). Is this normal? When I cock the hammer, the cylinder locks up tight front-back.

Probably there is an error with the machining of the cylinder or frame that allows the cyl to come back too far. If the revolver functions and is accurate I would not worry about it.

Dan

 

[Musketeer]

Dan may be right. I've never heard of this before, but I checked my two Ubertis (1860 and Dragoon) and there's no physical way the pins on either could contact the frame. I cocked both guns, squeezed the triggers, manually lowered the hammers, and, keeping the triggers depressed to mimic the firing position, pressed back on the fronts of the cylinders as hard as I could. No dice. :idunno: If your cylinder is moving back far enough for the pins to impact the frame, I'd guess there's bound to be a corresponding imcrease in the barrel/cylinder gap at the moment of firing, reducing velocity to some degree or another. Probably not a huge deal, just an observation.

P.S. Just another thought. I wonder if the pins might have been left too long or were not inserted far enough into the cylinder, rather than the cylinder having too much fore and aft movement, since you said the lockup feels tight? :hmm:

 

[wahkahchimaol.com]

Photos please?

 

[Ray-Vigo]

 

[necchi]

Nice photos, sure shows the deal don't they.
An interesting thing, I have a Uberti 51 Navy 36 and the cylinder doesn't have any pins.
The hammer has the notch, but no pins to go over, (?)
I wish I nad your trouble, it'd be nice to have the saftey.

 

[Ray-Vigo]

Learning the macro function on my digital camera has been helpful for stuff like this.

I will add I don't use the pins as a safety feature, I leave an empty chamber under the hammer. All the shooting I do with it are 5 shot strings.

It shoots OK, or rather it did until last outing. It totally bound up. I assumed the hand/hand spring had broken but when I got it apart nothing was broken, just really dirty inside. After cleaning and reassembling the internals, it functions as it always has.

When I say it locks up tight, I will say that's relative. I can get a small amount of end shake type movement when at full, but I can't manually push those pins into the frame's back by any stretch. It seems 20 gr of FFF is enough to do that though. From my reading 18-20 is the traditional load for it. With that, plus a wad, plus the ball, it fills the chambers. The accuracy is OK. The sights, even after opening up the back, still stink by most standards.

 

[bubba15301]

might be an 1861 navy
never seen pins on a 1851 navy cylinder

 

[JLDee55]

Strange my 1851 Uberti 36 has pins, even on the spare cylinder..End play too tight maybe?

 

[Ray-Vigo]

Yes- Uberti 51 Navy. I wonder if they just use the same cylinder for the 61 too though, so they both get pins. I think I'll do some more testing with it. I've opened up the rear sight even more. I'd ideally like to stick with the 20-ish gr load. It seems about right for the gun.

It's sort of hard to do real accuracy testing because of the poor sights they come with. I guess I'll put it on the benchrest and try again with the larger rear sight.

I'm going to let the pin issue take its course for now and see where it goes. I have to believe I'm losing some pressure at the front, but then again they all lose some. THe benchrest session may tell yet. I will say it's a lot of fun to shoot. I actually have won a couple small prizes with it too.