Found a .44-40 cylinder for my Colt SAA .44 Spl.
Jan 22, 2018 22:14:36 GMT -5
4597, Rimfire69, and 1 more like this
Post by johncantiusgarand on Jan 22, 2018 22:14:36 GMT -5
I bought a Colt .44-40 cylinder off of Ebay from a seller called "us2015.valmo". I didn't realize it at the time, but that is the Ebay seller name for "Old Western Scrounger". Evidently, OWS bought the entire inventory of spare parts from the Colt Custom Shop. That doesn't bode well for the future availability of new Colt SAA's, but it is temporarily good news for anyone looking for NOS components--specifically barrels and cylinders. Mine was in-the-white and appeared to be something from an aborted project, as it had the last three digits of a serial number. But it was very inexpensive for a Colt cylinder, and I especially liked the 19th century cylinder bevels. I haven't decided yet what to do about the finish (it is currently wearing only Johnson's Paste Wax as a protective coating), but I fit it today in a 1983-manufactured SAA that was in .44 Spl. I just wanted something to carry as a companion sidearm whenever I ventured afield with my .44-40 levergun.
As far as timing was concerned, this was easy to fit--no adjustments were necessary to either the ratchets or stop notches. In that area, this was a "drop-in" fit. But I did spend considerable time fitting a NOS base pin bushing, facing off the ratchets, and facing off the cylinder face to achieve zero endshake with excellent cylinder gap and headspace. It, admittedly, looks odd being in-the-white against the balance of the revolver's blued and color casehardened parts. So I'm weighing my choices on how to finish this off. Other than that, how does it look?
As far as timing was concerned, this was easy to fit--no adjustments were necessary to either the ratchets or stop notches. In that area, this was a "drop-in" fit. But I did spend considerable time fitting a NOS base pin bushing, facing off the ratchets, and facing off the cylinder face to achieve zero endshake with excellent cylinder gap and headspace. It, admittedly, looks odd being in-the-white against the balance of the revolver's blued and color casehardened parts. So I'm weighing my choices on how to finish this off. Other than that, how does it look?
