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Hi Dave,

That is a fine looking revolver and I like the photo.  I agree on the grips also but ASM parts can be hard to find .  Parts I got for mine were hit or miss. Dimensions seem to vary with time.  I hope you find what you need. 

I have an ASM 2nd model my dad gave me when I was 12 in 1970.  He let me pick between it and a Navy repro that they had in the gun store. When I picked the Dragoon he didn't say a word but probably thought I was nuts and then taught me how to load and shoot it and clean it.  He owned and shot an original Manhattan navy in the 60's.

Regards,
GEC

Sorry to hear that Mike.  I've been shooting about once a week, weather permitting in spite of working 60 hour weeks. Mostly BP revolvers.

I got a new 1860 Army by Uberti.  On sale from Midway.  The bolt was rising late and I fixed that.  Also installed Slix nipples and smoothed/defanged the hammer face.

First 25 yard group off a bench on Dec 3rd.  1st shot went with high, next five in an inch and a half with four touching. Probably a fluke but I'll take it. 35 grains 3F Goex and .421 inch cast ball.  Hits five inches above point of aim.  Sucked caps like crazy the first two outings.   No jams after installing the Slix Shot nipples.

Offhand at 15 yards it was shooting into 3 inches.

I am having trouble posting pictures for some reason.

Hello all.  I used to make lubed felt wads, then lube pills.  Now I just put in powder, then use a knife blade to put lube over the powder and then seat the ball on top of it.  Quick and simple.  Lube is made from beeswax lanolin and olive oil in varying proportion depending on the time of year. The lube under the ball seems to work best for me.   

One summer a couple of years ago I was using a cardboard box as a target stand at maybe 7 yards and had put several paper targets up and caught the thing on fire with a lubed wads.   

Cheers
Gary

A toss up between an old ASM dragoon and a signature series 1860 Army.  The ASM was a gift from my dad in about 1970 and was made in 1968.  It was my first cap and ball revolver.  It fully lived up to what I have since read about ASM QC.  Nice on the outside, often crap on the inside.

I ultimately replaced the all the internals plus the hammer and cylinder. Fixed the loose arbor. The arbor hole in the barrel lug intersected with the slot milled for the loading lever so you can see the arbor in the hole if the loading lever is removed but that did not affect function.  The arbor is about .25 inch (!) short but it is conical anyways and bottoms out on the entrance to the arbor hole in the barrel lug.  The wedge enters from the right like a Walker which males loading on the gun awkward.  I have seen photos of three other early ASM dragoons set up the same way but I think it's pretty rare.   Now it runs and shoots OK  Oh, and the nipples in the original cylinder were too small for ANY brand/size nipple I was ever able to try.  Maybe meant for size 9 caps? And the original chambers were over sized.  The new cylinder has new stainless nipples that work great.  No cap jams whatever.   

As for the Colt signature series...    A TOTALLY disappointing piece of crap.  It had tool marks on the screw heads and even on the face of the recoil shield, rough internals, excessive cylinder gap, short arbor (loose, natch), timing off.  I'm in the process of fixing it.  It LOOKS real good handing on the wall with nice bluing and case hardening and the fluted cylinder that I like.  I want shooters, not wall hangers.  It is fixable but not what I expected from the signature series Colt.  QC was very poor.

Ya did the right thing and came up with something special.

I use it in my Uberti Wells Fargo.  9 grains Goex4F under a conical or RB cast from an EMF replica mold I got on ebay is the starting load because that is what the measure that came with the small flask I got for the revolver throws.  I tried one cylinder of 13 grains of the same powder under a RB. It was too hot a load.  Caused hammer blow back and the bolt unlocked according to my notes as did 10 grains.  9 grains new Goex 4F was fine but the pistol still sucks caps no matter what.   

The GOI was also from dad's hoard.   Still have a can of DuPont 2F.  Red and white metal can labelled DU PONT in an oval in red letters and "SUPERFINE BLACK RIFLE POWDER" in black letters on the front and FFG appears to be stamped in ink.  The lot number is next to the lid on top and is not completely legible but the second line looks like 02-67.   The powder he had from the 60s still shot just fine.

I was mistaken about the price in the Hodgdon can of 3F.  It is $3.50.  It does not say who made it but it does say made in scotland.  Its a red metal can with red/white paper labels pasted on.

Growing up with my dad I got to shoot and handle and learn about a number of percussion and early cartridge rifles and pistols he collected.  I took such thinks for granted then but I really appreciate it now.

Regards
GEC