Hi, there will forever be the argument on whether the Remingtons or Colt revolvers are the superior design BP revolver. There is one serious reliability issue for the Colt family of revolvers, Cap Sucking. That is were a cap part from a previous shot falls into the action that prevents further shooting of the handgun. This problem can be mild for the larger Colts, like the 1860 Colt, or severe for the small framed Colts like the 1849 Colt. One learns to do either the revolver in the air, or wrist twist shuffle to recock the revolver hoping that the cap jamming parts fall away from the revolver.
Mike has a video where he experienced cap sucking when testing a new Colt 1862 Police, see:
CapandBall experianced the same thing testing the Colt 1862 Navy, see:
CapandBall discussed how to minimize cap sucking in this video, see:
The best explanation I have found on why cap sucking occurs is that the cap get pushed into the hammer safety gap and then recocking the revolver pulls the spent cap off the nipple allowing it to fall into the action.
While Mike's solution to cap sucking is simple, filling in the hammer groove with epoxy, I reject that method in that it removes the safety aspects of placing the hammer down on a cylinder pin. Doing the epoxy hammer gap fill mod forever more turns a six shooter or five shooter into a six shooter or five shooter minus one.
The solution that CapandBall discusses requires a gunsmith to put a pin in the revolver frame such that when the hammer is pulled back, it separates the hammer from the cap allowing the spent cap to remain on the nipple.
I have a few questions:
Has anyone here had a pin added to their Colt frame?
Did it work?
Were there any problems with the pin added to the frame?
Is this mod reversible?
Where can I get the frame pin work done and what is the cost?
Does this really need a gunsmith, or can it be done at home?
Regards,
Richard