Possible acquisition

[Marshal Will Wingam]

It's good that things have settled down for you. Looking forward to your photos.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

WELL........

Took Truth and Justice to the range to test fire before leaving for the annual match Wednesday.  UGH!  75% light strikes and fail to fire.  The springs are so light, the hammer won't set off the primers.  Someone "hour glassed them" to make the action light.  Fortunately I had two new ASM mainsprings in my parts stash, so I took care of that problem.

Second problem, one has a bent firing pin, that causes it to stick in the ferrule and not rebound, stuck in the primer.  I don't want to try too hard to straighten it, as if I snap it, I'll have to have a machinist make one.  The other firing pin also sticks, I suspect it is peened from dry firing.  I'll take them apart again, and polish them up to make them work freely.

Third, the firing pin springs are weak, so i will need to match them up with some kind of replacement.

In fairness, the guy I got them from is a pard, and would not screw me.  He actually had them as an investment, having bought them 10 or 15 years ago, with 500 rounds of ammo.  He still had all the 500 rounds .44 Colt ammo when he sold them to me, confirming he never fired them (He is a .38 shooter).

I'm still happy with the deal, as these are minor fixes, but sure glad I checked before I went to the match!!!!!

[Marshal Will Wingam]

If you want to lighten those springs without modifying them, these Singl;e Action Army hammer Spring Spacers from Brownell's work great. I cut them in half so I can do two springs with one spacer. You can then adjust the tension with the hammer spring screw. Careful not to strip the screw out of the trigger guard.

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[Abilene]

Well TL, that's sort of a bummer, but like you said, good thing you didn't discover these things while 'on the clock'.  I've heard of ASM firing pins mushrooming.  You might need to have some made, but seems like it shouldn't be too hard.  Do those hammers have the screw in the back that retracts the face of the hammer when screwed in, like ASM hammers?  Some folks found their hammer faces were not all the way forward and that caused light strikes also, though yours does sound like the hammer springs. 

I use various lighter main springs in all my guns, but I put a #10 split washer under the main spring.  I can 'tune' the spring tension with the screw like Marshall Wil mentioned above with those neoprene spacers.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

The new mainsprings are great.  Don't need to lighten them at all.  I have used leather spacers before, but not going to need them.

I gently tapped the bent firing pin almost straight, and polished my firing pins so they don't stick in the recoil shield.  I made replacement firing pin springs by cutting short pieces from an AR15 buffer retainer detent spring. 

Next project will be undoing the "hair triggers" that someone put on them.  The top of the triggers are flat, and really don't engage the sear notches on the hammers.  You can make them firing just thinking about it!  I'll stone a slight angle on them so they actually engage the hammer notches.

I should be good to go after I add a pound or two to the trigger pulls.

After the match, I'm going to go to a local machinist I know (who fabricates old gun parts), and I'll have him make me a couple spares.  I already have two spare ASM cylinder hands and two spare ASM locking bolts.

I will say that when they did go off, they were dead nuts on at 25 yards with the Load-X 210 grain .44 Colt ammo.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Glad to hear you have such a good handle on making them work right. From the sound of it, they're an outstanding match pair.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Test fired some primed cases Nice big primer dimples and no stuck firing pins.....Now for the hair triggers....

[Rube Burrows]

Sounds like you'll have these things purring like a kitten soon.

[Abilene]

I recently had my engraved conversions at a gunsmith because the triggers were getting too light, and I don't trust myself to work on sears.  But honestly, for competition this past year I now slip-hammer, or "trap-the-trigger" for all my pistol shots, so the light triggers wouldn't be an issue.  But still...nicer to have a proper pull.