The Colt 1877 DA's internals

[xtriggerman]

First, Thanks for all the interest & comments on this Colt project. I didn't think there were that many folks interested in these old guns here! So, I thought a better insight into what makes these gun run would also be of interest. Also, I dont know if any one else ever fixed the weak locking lug problem like what I did but its a worthy mod for the shooter rat rods that are just waiting to be we awakened! Incidently As you saw, I neded an ejector rod housing and every make Tom Dick n Harry made units are 4" long. This particular gun uses a 3 3/8ths long housing instead. The ONLY gun out there today that uses one in that size is the Ruger Bearcat. So, for 20 bucks I got one with a spring from Numrich and fit a Uberti rod to it that I had. Problem solved!

In this shot you can see the goofy ass hand spring that wants to twist the hand in its now loose pivot pin hole. Good Grief ! ....  Right at the tip of my thumb, you can see a little black hole I drilled in the frame and milled a relief straight away from it. Thats for a .042" spring wire taken from a 12g mag tube spring.

Hey Greg, the bends on the dual finger spring is about the best configuration I could get out of them. Without the added wire spring, its flat out inadaquite for a working lug with the ware level in these parts. A huge difference between this and a 1873 is that DBL action strut arm you see there rides inside the hammer. The hammer seer edges have the centers gone due to the large milled out track for that strut to fit in threw the hammer center.  You can really see how much they hollowed the hammer 's center out by looking up at the last picture and see the hammer seer edges in the frame right under where it says "hammer seer"  This design has far less hammer to seer contact area compaired to the 73 yet still has the same hammer tension to deal with at the contact areas. = faster ware down and a very abbreviated half cock notch. The upper most notch on the hammer is suppose to be a "firing pin off the primer setting" but mine is pretty much wiped out but the half cock setting was able to be deepened enough as to get it to hold and be loading functional.

This as far as the ejector rod will push out 38 spl cases. I suppose trimming then down to 38LC length is the right thing to do if you really want a play toy that walks n talks the way it should.

 

 Thanks again for all the inspiring comments. Despite the not so "73" duty design work, its still a cool piece to play with.  

Edited February 19, 2021 by xtriggerman

[Whisper]

I greatly admire your skill in figuring out and correcting all the problems with this gun.  Thanks for sharing what you've learned.  I'll still not likely buy one because I have too many incomplete gun projects already, but even so....

With respect,

Whisper

Edited February 19, 2021 by Whisper