Another beautiful Blackhawk! Great job brother! Your dad is gonna be very happy!
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1860 Army Blackhawk
- Thread starter Sharps40
- Start date
Very beautiful --enjoyed the making of the pistol--await the range report--thanks for sharing
You have mad skills Sir!! Fine Job! Congrats
Okay. Got to inspecting and cleaning the Blackhawk 45 Colt. Dayum it was dirty and wouldn't function with the cylinder installed. Once I got it apart, soaked it an hour in WD40 and scrubbed it and the blasted it with solvent.....
Reasonable mechanical condition. Plumb brown frame, black barrel and perfect bore and cylinders. Cylinders mike .455ish which is about right for an early new model 45 colt...it'll prolly shoot best with .454 bullets....pretty much standard lead loading in factory ammo. Bluing is about 75%+ coverage....lots of holster wear. Some light freckling all over. Big rubber grip is fine and the finish on the alloy frame is over 90% condition.
The reason it wouldn't cock with the cylinder in place? The hammer plunger, which releases the bolt lock on the back stroke of the hammer was stuck too far up into the hammer. And the reason it was stuck in there is cause it was broke, rotated and one half wedged over the other....was a booger to get out. But in all, since it was stuck/wedged up in there, it couldn't do its job and release the bolt lock.
So, either a new hammer or just a plunger. I hate to pay $10 for a $2 part so maybe just the entire hammer assembly. I'll think it over. Gotta get it running and I think I'll sell or swap for a caliber I load for.
Reasonable mechanical condition. Plumb brown frame, black barrel and perfect bore and cylinders. Cylinders mike .455ish which is about right for an early new model 45 colt...it'll prolly shoot best with .454 bullets....pretty much standard lead loading in factory ammo. Bluing is about 75%+ coverage....lots of holster wear. Some light freckling all over. Big rubber grip is fine and the finish on the alloy frame is over 90% condition.
The reason it wouldn't cock with the cylinder in place? The hammer plunger, which releases the bolt lock on the back stroke of the hammer was stuck too far up into the hammer. And the reason it was stuck in there is cause it was broke, rotated and one half wedged over the other....was a booger to get out. But in all, since it was stuck/wedged up in there, it couldn't do its job and release the bolt lock.
So, either a new hammer or just a plunger. I hate to pay $10 for a $2 part so maybe just the entire hammer assembly. I'll think it over. Gotta get it running and I think I'll sell or swap for a caliber I load for.
Clean and pretty. On the ready line. Checked and double checked. A variety of 38 Specials and 357 Magnums, lead and jacketed, 125 to 158g ready to go.
Pretty typical primer indentation. No signs of failure in any of the hundreds of rounds fired today. So, no transfer bar pinch and obviously, no light strikes. We'll leave the hammer nose adjustment where its at.
Starting with 38 specials in 125g weight and the rear sight all the way down, I walk it up to zero at 10m from the bench.
Three CCI Blazers, 158g JHP at 10m. Rear sight is a bit high w/o the ears so I'll install a taller front bead and bring the rear back down a bit for better range of adjustment with heavy and very heavy bullets and loads.
At the beginning of nearly 2.5 hours of slaughtering steel from 5m to 30m. The Lightning is dead on and no changes to be made. The 1860 Army Blackhawk needs a taller front sight but its close enough to regularly knock over 8" steels at 30m off hand. I have plenty of time to change the sight and rezero for Dad.
Opened it up when I was just too tired to shoot well any more. No worries with the trigger spring mount. The legs do not jump the holes in the backstrap and if they did I wouldn't know because trigger function will be guaranteed by the filler block below the legs.
The end of a good first workout with the 1860 Army Blackhawk. This pile was shot thru the 1860 Army Blackhawk. A smaller pile went thru the Lightning when I had to halt and let the Army cool off.
Findings:
-- Story ejector rod rubs the cylinder mouth when the cylinder gets warm. I'll polish a flat in that rod this week.
-- I will probably glass bed the grip panels where they meet the frame not only to fill the left side gap but to keep oil out of the end grain.
-- New front sight is needed for the 1860 Army Blackhawk, taller. Which is fine, I need a part or two for the 45 Colt project.
-- The 1860 Army grip is comfortable, controllable, really handles the heavy loads well and I adore the Bisley Hammer!
-- I gotta lotta cleaning to do!
Pretty typical primer indentation. No signs of failure in any of the hundreds of rounds fired today. So, no transfer bar pinch and obviously, no light strikes. We'll leave the hammer nose adjustment where its at.
Starting with 38 specials in 125g weight and the rear sight all the way down, I walk it up to zero at 10m from the bench.
Three CCI Blazers, 158g JHP at 10m. Rear sight is a bit high w/o the ears so I'll install a taller front bead and bring the rear back down a bit for better range of adjustment with heavy and very heavy bullets and loads.
At the beginning of nearly 2.5 hours of slaughtering steel from 5m to 30m. The Lightning is dead on and no changes to be made. The 1860 Army Blackhawk needs a taller front sight but its close enough to regularly knock over 8" steels at 30m off hand. I have plenty of time to change the sight and rezero for Dad.
Opened it up when I was just too tired to shoot well any more. No worries with the trigger spring mount. The legs do not jump the holes in the backstrap and if they did I wouldn't know because trigger function will be guaranteed by the filler block below the legs.
The end of a good first workout with the 1860 Army Blackhawk. This pile was shot thru the 1860 Army Blackhawk. A smaller pile went thru the Lightning when I had to halt and let the Army cool off.
Findings:
-- Story ejector rod rubs the cylinder mouth when the cylinder gets warm. I'll polish a flat in that rod this week.
-- I will probably glass bed the grip panels where they meet the frame not only to fill the left side gap but to keep oil out of the end grain.
-- New front sight is needed for the 1860 Army Blackhawk, taller. Which is fine, I need a part or two for the 45 Colt project.
-- The 1860 Army grip is comfortable, controllable, really handles the heavy loads well and I adore the Bisley Hammer!
-- I gotta lotta cleaning to do!
Thanks so much for this build and allowing us to watch it move along.Congrats on a beautiful and functional weapon.Good luck on the next one as well.
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2010
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Well done and nice range too.
Dad called. He got the build book. (I downloaded, edited and .pdf'd this thread into a build booklet) Read thru it this AM while I was doing the test firing. Needless to say, we's both pretty excited to finish it up and get him carryin it!
Awesome brother. Sounds like everyone will be pleased!
