Do-It-Yourself Gunsmithing Parts And Accessories For Colt And Ruger Single-Actions

American Handgunner, Sept, 2000 by John Taffin

Custom pistolsmiths are doing a thriving business providing a service for those who prefer their sixguns a cut above. Rechamberings are big these days with .44 Magnums becoming .45 Colts, .475 and .500 Linebaughs. In these pages, I have reported on many of the metal-smithing craftsmen who perform their magic. They are nearly as important to me as my doctor. However, there are many things that we can do ourselves to upgrade our sixguns, especially single-actions.

Belt Mountain Enterprises: If you have shot many single-actions, you have run into at least one of two prevalent problems. Since 1873, the cylinders of centerfire sixguns have rotated on a base pin that is manually pulled from the front of the frame. Early Colts had a screw that entered diagonally from the front of the frame and applied pressure against the cylinder base pin.

To remove the pin, this screw had to be loosened. It worked well with the recoil of black powder .45 Colt loads, but was deemed too much of a problem so it was replaced with a transversal spring loaded catch. A screwdriver was no longer needed to remove the pin, but often the spring did not provide enough tension and the pin sailed forth while shooting. This became more prevalent as sixguns were chambered in magnum calibers.

I have lost base pins from Colts, Rugers and Great Westerns. In addition, single-actions are often somewhat loose if the cylinder pin is undersize. Belt Mountain addresses these difficulties by offering replacement base pins in several types, all of which are .002" oversize for a tight fit of cylinder-to-frame.

Both blued and stainless versions are offered with an Allen screw in the head of the pin that can be tightened against the bottom of the barrel to prevent movement under recoil. The latter comes with a standard size head or an easier-to-remove knurled head.

Brownells: What with all the interest in cowboy shooting, Brownells now has several items of interest to sixgunners including all factory parts (except frames) for Colts, Ruger Blackhawks and Vaqueros, and EMF Hartford replicas.

Brownells also carries Qualite Pistol & Revolver's custom Ruger parts, such as brass and steel grip frames, steel ejector rod housings, crescent head ejector rods, as well as Belt Mountain's replacement cylinder base pins for Ruger, Colts and replicas.

For those who feel they can smooth up their own single-actions, Brownells has come up with a Colt SAA Stoning Kit consisting of three stones for smoothing out the casting marks often found on the innards. The fact that Eddie Janis of Peacemaker Specialists put this kit together attests to its usefulness.

Directions are simple and even I was able to smooth out several Colt and replica single-actions. Note: This does not put these SAAs in the same class as those worked over by top gunsmiths such as Eddie Janis, Bob Munden or Dave Sample, but it does help remove some of the interior roughness.

Brownells also offers neoprene washers to fit under the mainspring. These washers reduce hammer tension and trigger pull and also cushion the mainspring against shock, plus reducing power mainsprings and trigger and bolt springs. All of these, added to the stoning of the interior parts, can really smooth out a single-action; however, care must be taken so the result is not a dangerously light trigger pull.

Power Custom: In 1973 Ruger made the first major change in sixgun design since 1836. For nearly 150 years, single-actions had to be carried with the hammer down on an empty chamber in centerfire models or in a slot provided between chambers in cap-n-ball sixguns. A hammer down on a loaded round or capped cylinder was an accident ready to happen.

Ruger changed this by adding a transfer bar safety mechanism, which allowed the gun to be carried loaded with the hammer down. The transfer bar makes this possible since it blocks an uncocked hammer from contacting the firing pin.

There is one inherent problem that is found in Ruger single-actions, be they Blackhawk, Bisley or Vaquero. With the old Colt, it was possible to place the hammer on half-cock, rotate the cylinder, listen for the click and know that the chainber was lined up perfectly under the loading gate for either shucking a fired round or reloading a fresh one. On Rugers, when the click is heard, it is too late. The cylinder has advanced too far to either remove or replace a round of brass.

Custom sixgunsmiths have been adjusting Ruger New Model actions to remove this irritation. John Linebaugh was the first to offer a cylinder that rotated freely in either direction. Jim Stroh offered a "Colt-style" trigger for Rugers that sat back further in the trigger guard to mate with a half cock notch on the hammer while still maintaining the use of the transfer bar and the safe carrying of six rounds.

Ron Power has long been a gunsmith's gunsmith and now Power Custom is offering several custom parts for Ruger, including a hammer and trigger kit. The kit consists of three parts: a hammer assembly with hammer plunger, plunger spring and plunger pin; a trigger to use with a hammer with a half cock notch; mainsprings, trigger return spring and cylinder latch spring from Wolff.