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Doc Hoy · January 9, 2011, 01:16 PM

I did a little finishing on the barrel and cylinder but that part of the project has a little ways to go. I'll save that for later.

I also worked on the action a bit. Perhaps you remember from the first post that for the most part the action of this pistol did not work. I cleaned up and replaced several of the internal parts including the trigger/bolt spring, the trigger, and the hand. I still could not get the pistol to remain in full cock, nor could I get the cylinder to advance when I cocked it.

The problem with the cylinder advance was that the replacement hand (Pietta) was too long. The hand was not retracting far enough for the tip of the hand to slip off of the ratchet so it could catch the next ratchet. I ground it down by about thirty thousandths and that corrected the cylinder problem.

As for the failure of the pistol to remain at full cock, I found that the ASM hammer did not match up quite right with the Pietta trigger. I had worked on an ASM 1863 Remington some months ago in which I had to adapt parts from Pietta to fit it and found the same situation. In that case I reworked the contours of the trigger. But in this case, the problem was with the hammer. I have included a comparison of the ASM hammer and the Pietta hammer. You can see that the ASM hammer which is on the top has a full cock ledge which is not nearly as deep as the Pietta ledge. (It is worn from being worked without lubrication too.) In addition you can see the radius of the ASM hammer below the full cock ledge is more rounded and would interfere with the trigger depending upon the shape of the trigger.

I went to work in the ASM hammer with a file to deepen the full cock ledge, change the angle of the ledge slightly so as to more positively engage the trigger sear and also changed the contour of the hammer below the full cock ledge so as not to interfere with the trigger. The second photo shows a comparison of the two hammers after the work was done on the ASM (left).

This was a gradual process. First I got the pistol to remain at full cock. Then more work on the hammer was done to adjust the trigger pull. It started out at about half a pound. (Way too dangerous). I finally wound up with the hammer looking as it does in the photo and the trigger pull is right at three pounds.

My original action on this problem was to simply replace the ASM hammer with a Pietta hammer. This actually made the pistol work, but as it happens the ASM hammer is about .02 thicker than the Pietta hammer and so it fits the pistol better.

January 9, 2011, 01:16 PM	#39
Doc Hoy Senior Member Join Date: October 24, 2008 Location: Naples, Fl Posts: 5,440	Did a little more work on the ASM 1860 I did a little finishing on the barrel and cylinder but that part of the project has a little ways to go. I'll save that for later. I also worked on the action a bit. Perhaps you remember from the first post that for the most part the action of this pistol did not work. I cleaned up and replaced several of the internal parts including the trigger/bolt spring, the trigger, and the hand. I still could not get the pistol to remain in full cock, nor could I get the cylinder to advance when I cocked it. The problem with the cylinder advance was that the replacement hand (Pietta) was too long. The hand was not retracting far enough for the tip of the hand to slip off of the ratchet so it could catch the next ratchet. I ground it down by about thirty thousandths and that corrected the cylinder problem. As for the failure of the pistol to remain at full cock, I found that the ASM hammer did not match up quite right with the Pietta trigger. I had worked on an ASM 1863 Remington some months ago in which I had to adapt parts from Pietta to fit it and found the same situation. In that case I reworked the contours of the trigger. But in this case, the problem was with the hammer. I have included a comparison of the ASM hammer and the Pietta hammer. You can see that the ASM hammer which is on the top has a full cock ledge which is not nearly as deep as the Pietta ledge. (It is worn from being worked without lubrication too.) In addition you can see the radius of the ASM hammer below the full cock ledge is more rounded and would interfere with the trigger depending upon the shape of the trigger. I went to work in the ASM hammer with a file to deepen the full cock ledge, change the angle of the ledge slightly so as to more positively engage the trigger sear and also changed the contour of the hammer below the full cock ledge so as not to interfere with the trigger. The second photo shows a comparison of the two hammers after the work was done on the ASM (left). This was a gradual process. First I got the pistol to remain at full cock. Then more work on the hammer was done to adjust the trigger pull. It started out at about half a pound. (Way too dangerous). I finally wound up with the hammer looking as it does in the photo and the trigger pull is right at three pounds. My original action on this problem was to simply replace the ASM hammer with a Pietta hammer. This actually made the pistol work, but as it happens the ASM hammer is about .02 thicker than the Pietta hammer and so it fits the pistol better. __________________ Seek truth. Relax. Take a breath.