Cylinder Barrel Gap?

waltermoe

As a rule I always figured, .003 to .005 was a good gap on most revolvers. What is or there about the normal gap on a cap and ball pistol? Pistol being a 1860 Army.

perry shooter

IT is my belief that the early REvolvers all had a larger gap 15 THOUSANDS + or more remember Black powder has more fouling and not as much Pressure -t

rufe-snow

quote:Originally posted by perry shooter
IT is my belief that the early REvolvers all had a larger gap 15 THOUSANDS + or more remember Black powder has more fouling and not as much Pressure -t



+1,

Black Powder fouling, is really bad. Not only between the cylinder and the barrel. But the arbor that the cylinder revolves on. I owned a couple of the original Colt repos years ago. Because they were Colts, I always figured, they made them with tighter tolerances.

Best I could do with BP was 12 shots, (at the most), before the build-up on the arbor was so bad. That I had to pop the wedge, and take the cylinder off. To clean the gunk off the arbor.

charliemeyer007

The first pistol I bought with lawn mowing money as a kid was some Italian Remington repo. I shot that thing quite a bit. I used Texaco axle grease on the pin and home brew paste over the ball. The last year of shooting it I was up to 40 grains of DuPont 4Fg. It would cock the hammer and rotate the cylinder when fired, fortunately I had a light trigger touch so it never doubled on me and I never had a chain fire.

One time the build up was so great I had to take a hammer and drift to get the pin to come out. The cylinder would still rotate.

I think the gap was .010 or so. I did once in a while have to shave a ball that I couldn't seat far enough down to clear. Oh and those Dixie brand Italian caps - the point the pistol straight up while cocking was a good plan to prevent jamming. Remington caps would more or less vaporize and never caused any issues.

I currently have LeMat Repo NIB. Have a bullet mold, still need a wad cutter. I'm not sure I really want to shoot the ugly beast. I have started a holster for it - lots harder to make than for my smooth S&W's

11b6r

It will vary from model/caliber, however, the Dan Wesson .357 uses a feeler gauge to set the cylinder to forcing cone gap at .006

Much more than that, you will see increased flash. Much less than that, the gun can bind when metal parts heat and expand.

Older BP guns DO have looser dimensions for the reasons stated.

4440rk

Had to hunt for the info on the cylinder to barrel gap. From Navy Arms fitting instructions. Less than .030. I made handwritten notes that I set them all at.020-.022.
They all have been just fine with no binding.

truthful

I just measured an original Colt 1860 (mfg date 1861) that has all the original parts it left the factory with. The cylinder to barrel gap is a tight 0.005 inch. I also did the same with an original 1851 Colt (mfg date 1857) and it also measures 0.005 inch. Given the ease with which the barrel and cylinder can be removed and replaced, there are a LOT of mismatched guns out there which could probably create guns with a lot more, or a lot less clearance. But in any case, I'd say that 0.015 on an original gun in decent condition is way out there.

waltermoe

Thank you for the input, and taking the time to measure one for me.
It measures 0.025, I have had it now for maybe, 35 or 40 years.
Every five or ten years or so, I'll take it around back and shoot it, it does get dirty after 20 or 25 rounds, not to the point where it won't cycle though.