Chiappa 1873 in 22LR tuneup

[blacksmithden]

Im caught up with the fix it shop stuff so time for a little gunsmithing. The main reason I bought this gun was to see if the gravel road cops were still accepting transfer applications 'the morning after'. It was the cheapest gun we had in stock and that was the only motivation. The 'fit and finish' on the thing could only be described as poor to real lousy.

One of the 6 cylinder chambers wouldnt let a 22 cartridge in it without a lot of thumb pressure, and after firing it, I had to remove the cylinder and tap it out with a metal rod.

The fix was a little time consuming but easy enough. I just took a bronze cleaning brush in a drill, and put a little polishing compound on it. The cylinder that was sticking took a little time to hone out but now its perfect. I gave the other cylinders a little polish, and now the rounds slide in and out like butter.

20221018_181136.jpg

20221018_181030.jpg

[M1917 Enfield]

Does that revolver have a steel or aluminium cylinder? It sure looks shiny inside the cylinder. Try not to oil inside the cylinder now that it is so shiny and smooth otherwise the cases may slid back on firing and make the cylinder rotation a bit rough or grippy.

I had a revolver that had mirror polished cylinder walls and often the cases would not grip the cylinder walls fully on firing and cause the rear of the case heads to imprint the back of the breech and cause the cylinder to bind or not rotate nowhere nearly as free as beforehand.

[blacksmithden]

Its crappy pot metal with steel inserts same as the barrel. The frame is too. Each hole is now like a mirror. I'll try it with and without oil and report back.

[RangeBob]

a little polishing compound

What kind?
I tried Brasso the other day, and my goodness does it smell awful.

Brasso, Metal Polish, Cleans and Polishes - Brass Bronze Copper Stainless Steel, 142 ml
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0074EIBR4

[blacksmithden]

What kind?
I tried Brasso the other day, and my goodness does it smell awful.

Brasso, Metal Polish, Cleans and Polishes - Brass Bronze Copper Stainless Steel, 142 ml
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0074EIBR4

Ive got a polishing kit that comes with 3 different waxy kind of bars. I used the white, then red. I think the red is called jewelers rouge.

[M1917 Enfield]

Its crappy pot metal with steel inserts same as the barrel. The frame is too. Each hole is now like a mirror. I'll try it with and without oil and report back.

Maybe being just a weak little .22lr it does not matter as much, the revolver I had that had the issue was a .357 mag.

[blacksmithden]

Does that revolver have a steel or aluminium cylinder? It sure looks shiny inside the cylinder. Try not to oil inside the cylinder now that it is so shiny and smooth otherwise the cases may slid back on firing and make the cylinder rotation a bit rough or grippy.

I had a revolver that had mirror polished cylinder walls and often the cases would not grip the cylinder walls fully on firing and cause the rear of the case heads to imprint the back of the breech and cause the cylinder to bind or not rotate nowhere nearly as free as beforehand.

What brand of revolver was it ? I checked all my revolvers, and with the exception of the firing pin hole, the back wall in all fo them is dead flat. There's nothing there to squish into. Were you maybe shooting really light loads ? When you fire, the primer always gets pushed out a tiny bit, but the force of the blast pushes the brass back and reseats it. I remember experimenting with really weak loads in my 44 mag, and some of them didn't have enough jam to push the brass back and reseat the primer. That caused some dragging on the back wall.

[M1917 Enfield]

What brand of revolver was it ? I checked all my revolvers, and with the exception of the firing pin hole, the back wall in all fo them is dead flat. There's nothing there to squish into. Were you maybe shooting really light loads ? When you fire, the primer always gets pushed out a tiny bit, but the force of the blast pushes the brass back and reseats it. I remember experimenting with really weak loads in my 44 mag, and some of them didn't have enough jam to push the brass back and reseat the primer. That caused some dragging on the back wall.

Italian copy of a Remington 1875 repo!

I had brass colour circles around the breech face (you could almost make out the case head writing) and firing pin hole and as the firing pin hole was very slightly oblong you could see the shape indented in the primer face. That is what caused the cylinder drag. I cleaned all oil and slightly roughed up my cylinder walls and the problem went right away.

Here is somewhat of a similar example I found via Google images but with a semi auto pistol instead of a revolver but the situation is similar -