I have an old replica 1847 Colt Walker revolver that somehow I bent the loading lever. It was made by <ASM> an old Italian gun maker in 1962 and the loading lever is no longer available. I took the lever off and into the blacksmith shop and was able to straighten it cold on the anvil. Made my day because I was concerned it may break but it worked and I'm happy.

Before with the bent lever.

After what it should look like.

I can’t control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails ~ Semper Paratus~

Congrats Randy. Do you have a pic of it bent in the same position on a bench as the repaired pick? It would be much easier to compare.

Frosty The Lucky.

No, I'm afraid I don't have one. There were a lot more pictures on my old laptop that crashed and when I tried to put them on this one from a back up, it failed and then somehow the back up on the drive was erased, I couldn't figure out why as they were both Windows 7 operating systems.

I can’t control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails ~ Semper Paratus~

WIN 7 lost data!?!?!?!? Whodathunk it?

Every time Windoze updates it rearranges my files and changes MY preferences to ones that marketers like. GRRRRRR! and NO I do not want to save everything to the Cloud. Even though I'm SURE we can trust our data to servers in China. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I found out what happened to my back-up. Even though both lap tops are Windows 7 they are different versions. The old one was an HP Windows Home Premium and the newer one Dell is Windows 7 Professional. You can't restore files from one to the other using Windows Back up & Restore..... my bad.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

I also have a confession to make. I know how I bent the loading lever on the Walker. Cap & Ball revolvers require soft BHN5-7 (pure) lead for the round balls. Well I cast up some round balls using the lead in my lead pot not remembering the lead in it was hard lead alloy BHN29 for my cartridge rifles. Well when I couldn't seat the hard round balls, I used a cheater bar on the loading lever, I did get one cylinder loaded but another my bad. Just happy I could straighten the lever without having to forge a new one.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

Now for happier times. Debi found a replica Colt copy in an antique shop while she and a friend were as we call it junk shopping... She took some pictures of it and sent them to me but I thought the price was too high, they wanted $275 for it. After having vehicle troubles, I finally made it to the shop and looked it over. After some haggling I bought it for $225.

It is a unique copy of an 1851 Colt Navy model in 44 caliber. The Navy models were 36 caliber. It's made by Pietta (Italian replica gun maker) who made a limited addition for Traditions and sold by Bass Pro. It was made in 1995 according to the date code. It has the brass frame with the cylinder and barrel steel and a finish Pietta called "Old Silver" which looks like mat stainless steel. A very tough finish. It's been shot very little and locks up just like a new one. I haven't shot it yet because of the weather but plan to soon now that I scraped the frozen glacier from the area I have my target stand set up and the wind chill factor isn't in the sub-zero category. What y'all think?

Here it is with my 1858 44 caliber Remington Army copy.

I keep my data backed on CDs and . . . DRATs I can't think of what you call the little memory chip thingies. I'm sure China has it all backed up too but I know where mine are and can touch them if I wish.

Used a cheater to seat the ball in your pistol?! I'd give you a ration if I haven't done things just as . . ungood myself. 

Beautiful pistols I don't have any black powder weapons anymore but they were fun to shoot but I haven't done any shooting in years. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

 

Flash drives?

That sounds right, probably. Flash cards are coming to mind too now but so does Mother making me learn multiplication tables.

Frosty The Lucky.

Now that flash drives have the capability of storing up to 1tb of data, I now use them instead of the USB external hard drive I had been using. I also have started doing a back up of the back up, just in case one or the other fails.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

 

23 hours ago, Irondragon Forge ClayWorks said:

I used a cheater bar on the loading lever

Now that's a new one! LOL.

Glad you got her bent back Randy. Never thought of using a cheater, I am now though LOL, after a day of shooting those, palm of my hand starts aching a bit pressing that loading lever down all day! Beautiful revolvers, I am not familiar with ASM, pretty much just the Uberti and Pietta makes and some of the Traditions etc. What is ASM?

<ASM> is for Armi San Marco one of the original Italian replica builders, making Colt copies, the early guns were better quality than the later ones. Seems Colt filed a law suit and It was sold off to <ASP> Armi San Palo then Cimarron/Euroarms. I don't remember the exact time line though mid to late '70s. They made a lot of guns imported by CVA (Connecticut Valley Arms).

  I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

The lever isn't bad if you make a thick leather palm pad part of your reload kit, along with patches, swab, caps, grease, etc. 

I used to cringe at Spaghetti westerns but after doing some reading I started as result of a thread here I discovered how intensely devoted many Italians are to the American wild west and the movies are seriously more "authentically" Old wild west than American movies. 

I think the "body" noises, while eating or doing anything physical is a bit of over ding the stage craft but I've changed my outlook on Italian movies, western firearm replicas and such. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks Iron Dragon for the information, you have some pretty guns there, I can see the quality in those older reps no doubt. Happy shooting!

19 hours ago, Frosty said:

The lever isn't bad if you make a thick leather palm pad part of your reload kit, along with patches, swab, caps, grease, etc. 

Thanks for the tip, I get the same aches and pains when using my flintlock short starter for any length of time. Booohooo, right? Hey, I'm getting older and older, bones just aren't the same and after a lifetime in the trades and as a surveyor, with hammer in hand and bags hanging off my hips every day, my frame of bones are starting to feel it. I think I got one more last stand in me with Blacksmithing, we'll see.

I had to learn how to open a jar with slow moderate twistage or my thumbs would ache for hours. Jar lids are sealed with rubber and will slip if you don't force them. For small caps I can work channel locks without crushing the cap.

When I was young I never thought I'd live long enough for the parts to start wearing out. On the upside, modern medicine is learning to repair and replace all sorts of body parts. I figure if I can hang on another 25 or so years I can have a 25yro body grown and get a job. Why not? I WILL know then what I know now!

Frosty The Lucky.