1863 Pocket Remington

[grymster2007]

I do feel a bit sorry for Grym

Thanks... but it's OK, I was born rich!... no... good looking? no... slender? no... hmmm.... it's OK I was born... well.... I'm gonna retire soon. Yeah that's it! And I plan to be able to walk out back and shoot, or fish, or....

[Raider2000]

Well bud for the time being you could join a local chapter of the Izaak Walton League like I did so that I would have a great place to shoot my Black Powder & what not, till I get the chance to clear a tract of my property for a decent shooting lane...

[DrLaw]

The Possible Shop has the CVA kit listed at a good price, and Dixie now has the Brass and Nickle frames at $25.00 less than normal prices.

The Doc is out now.

[samco]

Hi Grymster.

Are you aware of the outdoor range outside of Petaluma. TakeTomales-Petaluma Rd. past the Coastguard academy to Alexander Rd ,Turn right about 1/4 mile on left. Very hidden, No signs, You would never know it was there if someone didn't tell you.It goes out to about 300-500 yards I believe. Samco from Brentwood

[grymster2007]

samco,

I was not aware of that one. It's about an hour from me, same as the other outdoor range I frequent. But nice to know of.

Thanks!

[grymster2007]

I had been putting off ordering this gun until I got the conversion cylinder I ordered from Taylor's about a year ago. I contacted them a couple times and (when they bothered replying) they said they expected R&D to ship them soon. I got to thinking lately that I'd enjoy the gun with or without the conversion cylinder, so I finally ordered it yesterday (steel frame version) from Cabela's. Should be here on Monday.

Today I did a search and found a thread on THR dated 10/04/08 that indicates the cylinders may be available soon.

1863 Remington Pocket Conversion Cylinder

Either way, I'm looking forward to shooting this little puppy!

Did someone here say to use some sort of shotgun pellets for round ball?

[Raider2000]

Yeah Grym. you can use 0 buck shot pellets they are .320 in size. 00 buck is .340

[noelf2]

grym, Not sure a cylinder conversion to 32s&w would be worth the price. 32s&w, if you can find them, are expensive and very anemic. I think you'd have more fun and less cost using bp and 0 buckshot. Probably more powerful than a 32s&w anyway, cuz you can fit more bp in the cylinder than can fit in the 32 case (32s&w was originally a bp cartridge). I have a 32s&w long revolver and it's nothing to brag about on the power side, and 32s&w is even weaker. Besides, bp rules!

[grymster2007]

I don't care about the price of the conversion cylinder, but would like to be able to shoot at one of the indoor ranges near me every now and then. The outdoor ones I know of are all at least an hour away. I have a box of 32S&W and I'll buy a few more plus the materials for reloading them.

I do plan to shoot mostly BP and ball.... because that's more fun!

I found a couple of posts on other forums stating 9 - 12.5 grains BP and #10 caps. Sound about right?

So will this buckshot work? Says it's hardened with antimony.

0 Buckshot

[noelf2]

grym, softer lead is best. I would try the hardened buckshot, but wouldn't buy a lot of them at first. See how they work for you.

[grymster2007]

So it arrived from Cabelas yesterday. Took it down to the garage and unwrapped it. My first impression was that it was tiny…. and really cute! I checked out the action and found that cocking seemed to be a little rough, but the trigger felt pretty good and I figured the rest of the action would smooth out with some use. The cylinder timing at least appeared to be correct and the grips looked nice. The blueing was also well done and the barrel appeared to be threaded in such that the flat with the front sight on it was squarely on top.

Then my eye caught something that bothered me. It appeared the barrel was not parallel to the frame/cylinder. Holding it to the light I could see that the barrel canted off to the right by what appeared to be a couple of degrees. I pulled out a straight edge, laid it first on the left side of the frame, noted the gap at the end of the barrel, then checked the right side to confirm that the gap was much smaller.

I’m pretty disappointed in this and don’t look forward to the hassle of shipping it back and waiting for a new one. I run a manufacturing operation and understand well that QC is not perfect, but I really can’t imagine how an item with a defect so glaringly obvious to a cursory visual inspection, by even the least discriminating eye, could be shipped to a customer. I don’t get it!

[arcticap]

Maybe that's a sign to switch over to the Uberti 1849 Colt Pocket.

[Raider2000]

Do you mean that when you look at the pistol from the top, the barrels muzzle is pointing slightly to the right or that the flats of the octagon barrel isn't 100% square with the flat sides of the frame?

If it is just the flats of the barrel slightly off to the flats of the frame then there isn't anything wrong because I have both a Uberti & a Pietta '58's that have the anomaly & they both shoot wonderfully, but if the barrel is pointing to the right then there is definitely something wrong & Cabelas will gladly swap it out for you.

[grymster2007]

Maybe that's a sign to switch over to the Uberti 1849 Colt Pocket.

Believe me.... the thought occurred. Looks like a pretty sweet gun, maybe I'll ask Cabela's to send it in place of the 1863.

[mykeal]

As Raider2000 suggests, you really should check the bore centerline alignment rather than the flats on the outside of the barrel.

The barrel is manufactured from round bar stock; the bore is drilled, reamed and rifled and then the exterior flats machined in place. It's entirely possible the error is in machining those flats, and you may not ever get a barrel that's perfect.

Machining the flats is the easiest step in the process, and it's also the easiest to screw up. It's also the least critical and as such may have large error tolerances, while the bore centerline is the most critical and would have the smallest tolerance.

[grymster2007]

I thought about doing an extensive inspection of the gun, but had already decided it was going back to Cabela's based on the fact that the barrel appears to be crooked.

Then again, having the crooked barrel might be kinda nice when I'm trying to explain my marksmanship deficiencies!

[grymster2007]

OK folks. I sent the gun back to Cabela's on Monday, but I forgot to check the cap size before I sent it. All I have are #11s, but something tells me it going to take #10s.

Anybody know?

[Raider2000]

Many moons ago I had a FIE Pocket Remington & mine took #10's with a little squeeze to the sides to keep it there think #9's would have been a better fit but they were getting hard to come by at that time.

[grymster2007]

Can't say I ever seen #9s. Still available?

[Raider2000]

I don't think so but I think that todays pocket pistols are taking the #10's

[grymster2007]

So I got the new one from Cabela's today. Same problem!

The barrel cants of to the right. The amount may not be so severe as the first one, but I'm still highly displeased. I specifically asked Cabela's to check the exchange gun for this problem. Guess they didn't bother.

Not sure what to do. I really like the little thing. Maybe I'll sleep on it a couple days.

Life is grym.

[mykeal]

Originally Posted by mykeal

As Raider2000 suggests, you really should check the bore centerline alignment rather than the flats on the outside of the barrel.

The barrel is manufactured from round bar stock; the bore is drilled, reamed and rifled and then the exterior flats machined in place. It's entirely possible the error is in machining those flats, and you may not ever get a barrel that's perfect.

Machining the flats is the easiest step in the process, and it's also the easiest to screw up. It's also the least critical and as such may have large error tolerances, while the bore centerline is the most critical and would have the smallest tolerance.

--

[grymster2007]

OK.... I'm going to keep the second one that Cabela's sent, crooked barrel and all. Looks like the barrel threads in, so I'm thinking about threading it out and looking to see if I can fix the problem. Maybe the front of the frame is not perpendicular to the axis of the cylinder and I could re-surface that. Or maybe there's something else I can fix.

Has anyone ever removed the barrel from one of these things? If so, what are the pitfalls?

[Hawg]

Be best to take it to a gunsmith and have the barrel reset. As for the #9 cap question they haven't been made in many years. My old Rigarmi takes #9's but a pinch fit 10 works pretty well. I guess I really ought to swap them out but they've been in there since 1969. I don't think they're going to come out peacefully

[grymster2007]

Be best to take it to a gunsmith and have the barrel reset.

Yeah, maybe. But first I'm going to do a thorough inspection of the thing to determine just what the problem is. I think I can set it up on my little milling machine and start measuring stuff. I'll check to see if the barrel is coaxial to the cylinder. If it is not, maybe I'll remove the barrel and see if the front of the frame is perpendicular to the cylinder. If it's not (and I kinda expect this to be the case), I can machine it so that it is perpendicular. If that requires taking off much material, I might have to face off the barrel (on the threaded end) to maintain the proper gap between it and the cylinder, but that shouldn't be a problem. What might be a problem is if I need to take too much material off the front of the frame, the barrel flats won't be oriented properly when it's screwed back in. If that's the case, I'll have to make a shim.

Sounds like a pain, but I really like the little gun and don't have much confidence that Cabela's would send me a better one, if I did return it.