Merwin Hulbert 44-40 Opentop Frontier Repair

[sltm1]

I got this piece from a gent who's great grandfather was issued this as a sidearm when he graduated West Point. Over the years it has seen it's share of abuse. The loading gate is missing, the hand is missing and the hammer was partially wrecked, the bbl lock was stuck in the closed position + a bunch of other minor stuff too. The 1st step was getting it apart (stripped and bent screws) and the next is/was the hammer repair. I made the replacement piece out of the end of a hoof rasp, I soldered it with hard silver solder. Pic's below a before and after on the hammer.

[StrawHat]

Good repair.  The hole looks as if it is bushed, did you bush it to bring it to the correct ID?

Kevin

[sltm1]

NO, That's just a little bur caused by sizing the hole. To get it straight, I went through the other collar 1st.

[Captainkirk]

Nice work! The MH thing has a whole cult of it's own....

[sltm1]

Yeah....and I'm a member, wish I could afford to own one of these puppies!! Champagne taste....beer budget

[Hawg]

Gun Show a few years ago had one for 250 IIRC. Wish now I'd bought it.

[mazo kid]

Nice project there. I had a top strap Frontier in 44-40 that I sold last year. The only M-H I have now is the 38 S&W that we worked on a while back. Several years ago a company was taking orders for a repro they were going to produce. That never happened and as far as I know, the guys who pre-ordered never got their money back. Those are pretty intricate guns with a lot of parts; probably why the guns were never produced.

[sltm1]

I made this tiny screw today, because the original was absent (see pic). I believe it is the culprit that caused all the damage to the revolver. That tiny screw is mounted from the inside of the gun, (the head's not exposed). It's the set screw that holds a small flat spring in place, that in turn held the retaining button that kept the loading gate in place, which is now missing. When this screw unscrewed itself, I believe it fell into the works that contained the base of the hammer and the missing hand and in trying to force the gun to work, it ruined the small collar that held the hand in place...ahhhh, reverse engineering, they should of had me at the Roswell crash !!!

[Mad Dog Stafford]

Boy! My hats off to you on making that little screw! 

[sltm1]

MD, no big trick, make one large enough to work with then cut it down to the right size...hell it's only steel, not like wasting some will cost you anything.

[sltm1]

The hand, last of the internal parts I need to make. Pic's of template and completed hand below, timing seem's pretty good, but I won't know till I put the springs and other parts back in the gun. The hand will have a post soldered to it before assembly.