Arghh - owners of Taylor's in Pistol Caliber...I NEED You!!

[Gunner]

  What a day, the match started out great - a 14, yes 14, shot string with my Spencer. It did work flawless - and I had a clean stage to boot!!!
Then on the next 2 stages, I suffered the inglorious jams caused by the right extractor (that originals do NOT have) or my ham-handedness.... .
After that I retired her for the day.
What I am curious about.. - I need everyone who has a Taylor's in .45 S&W or .44 Russian to look at soemthing for me and report back.
-When you remove your breech block - as in taking it ouit to clean - look at the "hole" where the shells come out of magazzine tube into the action.  Is it centered, or is it off to one side or the other?
With my carbine on her "back", looking into the action, the opening of the mag tube is off-center, to the left side (the same side as the right extractor). I'm starting to thing that the shells are coming into the action crooked and causing my problem.  Am I nuts, or is this the ultimate problem??
Help, members of SSS....rally to the colours and ride to the sound of the guns....

[Col. Moultrie]

Sorry to hear you had problems, Gunner.  I know you were excited about shooting it last weekend.  As you know, I have an original - a Burnside Contract - not a repro, so I don't have the right extractor, but if you shot two flawless sets of shells through her in the first stage, then I would guess that the problem is not with the magazine tube, but with the operator  .

One likely cause would be overall cartridge length.  In the .56-50, if a cartridge isn't just right - if it's either too short or too long - the sucker will hang up and jam.  Remember what happened to me one year at Blue Mt.?  I know it's possible that some of the lube from bullets can get into the seater die on your reloader - at least that happens to me with the cheap .45 bullets I shoot in .45 Colt - and then your rounds start coming out marginally shorter.  It really doesn't matter much in a revolver, but it certainly could in the Spencer.

Perhaps if you make up some dummy rounds to OAL specs and then cycle them through the gun at home, you could see how they feed, first slowly, and then at speed.  If they work flawlessly, then you know it's the ammo you used on those stages, not the gun.  If they work sometimes, but not others, then it's either the gun or the way you're working the lever (which ultimately comes down to the gun as well, but may or may not be fixable).  It may be that you feed the rounds smoothly when you work the lever slowly, but do something different when you get excited.

If you really want to get into this, have Deadeye Donna run videotape of the breech/action as you "shoot" the dummy rounds both slowly and fast.  Then you can watch (and if necessary frame-by-frame) the shells as they come out of the magazine and get levered into the breech.  That's pretty involved, however, and might be a heck of a lot of trouble.

Good luck with it, and if it fails, I'll trade you sight unseen for my cheapo o/u derringer...

[Gunner]

Howdee Perfessor, er...Colonel Moultrie ,
It sure is great to hear from you...(waiting to hear about little Baby Moultrie ).
I reckon I could be hamhanded....(sigh) .
But I still would like to know if my mag tube is straight or crooked (off-set) in the butt stock...

Hey, does this mean you are going to join the SSS?? We'd love to have on board!!

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[major]

Gunner
I have the Armisport Spencer in 44 Russian.  I took the action out and looking in from the bottom my tube is off to the right.  Hope this helps.
Terry

[Gunner]

Thanks to all who replied to me here and via e-mule...well, it appears that I am ham-handed  (sigh).

[Grizzle Bear]

I have one in .45 Schoefield.  Yes, the magazine opening is offset to the right, even in the .56-50's.

Assuming that your cartridge length is correct, and you are still getting cartridges jammed between the extractors, there is a simple remedy.

Just remove the right side extractor.  It isn't needed, and there is no way you can get both extractors "timed" to work in unison.  When they are not parallel, the cartridge gets cocked.

With only one extractor, cartridges will pretty much slide right in the chamber.

Except for the sharp edge on the bottom of the chamber, and I haven't figured out a solution for that yet.  Not enough metal there to open it up.

This wasn't my idea, I found it on a Civil War board, where a bunch of them were having the same problem.  But it works!

Grizzle Bear

[Gunner]

Howdee G-Bear,
Thanx for adding to the post.
Yes, I actually have a "blank" rt extractor for just this reason...but then I run into another problem..extraction of shells from a dirty chamber especially when shooting dirty, sooty fun stuff!! The one left extractor does not alway seen up to the task.
BTW, what board were you on where you were reading about Spencers?
Thanx amigo.

[Col. Moultrie]

>Howdee Perfessor, er...Colonel Moultrie ,
>It sure is great to hear from you...(waiting to hear about little Baby Moultrie ).

>Hey, does this mean you are going to join the SSS?? We'd love to have on board!!

Well, Two Flints signed me up, although I made him promise I didn't have to learn the secret handshake...

As you've probably seen by now (at least I'm pretty sure we sent you out pics, Kira Catherine is here - and we think we'll keep her.

Of course the next local shoot is this weekend - Mother's Day - so now it looks like I'm going to miss another one.  Sigh.  Boy, family does get in the way of shooting...

I plan to dig out the Spencer this summer for some shoots.  It's been a little while since I've shot it, so it's due for some action.

Btw., make plans to come by stately Moultrie Manor this summer, and bring a few "show and tell" goodies along - remembering the Firearm Owners' Protection Act of 1986.  We'll head to the range to make it all legal for NJ.