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Working the 1858 Remington

Really! I looked in there, spring ain't broke so I guess its a typical Eye-Tail-A-N spring.....either too heavy, too soft, too brittle, never just right. Oh well, I already scribed a bunch marks on the grip frame for a coil spring conversion.....guess I'll have to get it jigged up for drilling and conversion.
 
Closing in on the final. Reshaped the spring foot, changed to a spring from my wolf assortment with smaller diameter and slightly smaller wire thickness but more coils.

Good function and a clean 1 lb 14 oz trigger pull with no sear work.

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Closing in on the final. Reshaped the spring foot, changed to a spring from my wolf assortment with smaller diameter and slightly smaller wire thickness but more coils.

Good function and a clean 1 lb 14 oz trigger pull with no sear work.

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I think this is similar to what Bob Munden did to a Colt action job
 
Progress. Removed hand spring, simple jig to install coil and plunger and a plug screw. Basic function is good. Time to final fit and polish all the mainspring and hand parts and start cleaning up the exterior of the frame.

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Finishing up.

All the parts laid out. Frame and cylinder rubbed out with vinegar and 0000 steel wool to remove much of the factory blue. Trigger guard aged toast brown with BWC Super Blue. Rear sight channel opened up to use with the much larger front bead sight. Pretty much all fitted, tested and here, cleaned and oiled with Hoppes 9 Oil.


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First photo, hammer and coil mainspring assembly laid out in the position the parts will be in when fully assembled inside the frame. Note, lower factory roller hole for leaf spring is retained, coil or leaf spring is now usable on the gun. Also, at the bottom of this photo is the new plunger, spring and 6-48 plug screw to actuate the cylinder hand. No more broken hand springs for this revolver.

Second photo, assemble the marlin strut, facing up, into the top most hole drilled earlier in the hammer. The pin can be a running fit (not staked) as when the hammer screw is installed, the hammer strut pin is fully retained inside the frame and can't fall out. Simply push the hammer down into the frame just like you always do to install the hand and its threaded pin. I have the marlin strut drilled for a spring retention pin, so, assembly/disassembly can be done with the coil spring captured on the strut.

Third photo, just the entire main spring assembly in place and held captive by the strain screw. I used a spring foot a bit thinner than the leaf spring slot, it lets me slide the assembly in and out easily. The shim at the base isn't necessary but I put it in to help tighten the spring foot in the slot.

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The Remington is a bit tricky but ultimately responds well to the Ruger style hand spring and plunger conversion that's popular for the opentops and the 1873. Here the parts laid out in order and ready to be installed.

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