1873 cattleman .45

[mcawful]

Hey fellas and gals,
Just got a Cattleman for myself and it has presented with a problem before even going to the range. After cycling the action a few times while working a couple drops of oil in, the cylinder stopped turning. Now the cylinder will only turn if you help it by hand. The hammer won't thumb back all the way, either.After trying to determine the cause for a few minutes, I noticed the cylinder was getting scratched up. I bought this pistol used, so I don't have a warranty. I've searched online, and found that it may be an"early rising bolt". Is that a timing problem? Hard to fix? Expensive? Hope this isn't a taste of things to come with this pistol. Has anyone else had this problem with a cattleman?

6/5/06-Took it back to the shop I purchased it from and they took it back right away. (seems I had a 30 day warranty and didn't even know it). Their in-house gunsmith pronounced it as a worn "hand" and ordered the part right away. I should have it back within a week. Is that a common problem with the cattleman? Anyone?

6/9/06
Well from the inaction on this post, I reckon it ain't a common problem. Or maybe it is. Hard to tell, I guess I'll just wing it. Best to all.

[ 06-09-2006, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: mcawful ]

[Will]

It depends on how much it was shot. I don't have a lot of experiance with the F hand that is in the 73's, but from earlier single hands in the percussion guns it is a wear location. Without tearing the gun down and looking at it I don't know. Im not a gunsmith, just learned what I needed to know to keep mine running. It may be a bad spring on the hand, or posibly a worn cam on the hammer. Nice thing about these guns are that they are easy to fix. "Gunsmithing guns of the old west" is an invaliable resource for just about anything that can go wrong with originals or repo's.

[mcawful]

Thanks Will,
I found "Gunsmithing Guns of the Old West", on Amazon and ordered it. I pick up my '73 tomorrow from the gunshop and hopefully will have no more problems, or if I do, small ones. Thanks again for the response.

6/12/06-
Picked up my pistol and it was just as you mentioned, a common wear point. The gunsmith checked everything else and said it looked good. Even reblued the cylinder for me and you can't even tell the scratches were there. I'm gonna love shootin" this thing come saturday!

[ 06-12-2006, 04:41 PM: Message edited by: mcawful ]

[Will]

Don't worry too much about wear on the cylinder, you'll get that regardless to one degree or anouther. If everythings tuned rite all you'll get is a little brightening on the edge of the lead in ramp and bolt notch. That's one thing that has consitantly turned me away from the Rugers, the bolt falls halfway between the cylinder notches(probably as a liability issue) and you wind up with a bright ring all the way around the cylinder. I realy like the feel of the new vaquero, but didn't want to spend that much money on a gun that I'd have to send to a gunsmith before shooting.

Glad you got it straight, they are nice guns, just keep the pressures down to cowboy loads and you'll have many years of shooting.

[mcawful]

Thanks again. Do you exclusively use cowboy loads, or do you load your own? All I have right now are some remington store boughts. I'm sure they're hotter than a cowboy load.

[ 06-14-2006, 05:15 PM: Message edited by: mcawful ]

[Will]

I load my own, for smokless I load 7 grains of Uniqe powder under a 250 grain round nose flat point bullet lubed with liquid alox. For black powder, I load Scofield rounds, 28 grains of 3f Graf's with 250 grain PRS round nose flat point bullet. The load I use in my Henry rifle in black powder is a bit uncomfortable to use in the 73 single action. For it I use 38 grains of black powder and the PRS bullet. In my revolver with a 4.75" barrel it's a mite much to handle, it'll make the barrel point up, and the navy grips are a little to small for comfortable shooting with those loads. If it had the longer 7" barrel and maybe grips off of the 1860 army it'd be a good bit easier to control. It's not too bad using too hands, but I normaly shoot duelist, single hand.

Ocasionaly when I buy ammo I use Winchester or PMC cowboy loads, it'll say cowboy load on the box. Check with the ammo Manufacturer though, with a few exceptions most 45 factory ammo would be safe with the gun.