Lubing the cylinder rod

[Fly]

What lube do you guys find best for lubing the cylinder rod on a 58 Remey?

Fly[smilie=s:

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Wheel bearing grease(hight temp,waterproof), NOT BP grease of some type. The object is to protect the rod/cylinder hole from fouling intrusion. Also use on rammer & hole. BP greases/lubes tend to "adopt"fouling to keep it soft.

Incidentally, for easier cleanup, make the external areas of the pistol that show fouling after shooting, fingerprint greasy with BP lube as it makes cleanup with BP products easier. Internal parts which get cleaned infrequently do well with wheel bearing grease as a waterproofer and lube.

BvT

[Naphtali]

What lube do you guys find best for lubing the cylinder rod on a 58 Remey?

Fly[smilie=s:There is another part of the problem to consider. It is likely Colt open top cap lock revolvers tended to be preferred to Remington revolvers because their cylinder pins were proportionally (and actually) much larger in diameter and included concentric rings/threads along pin's length. This difference translates to significantly superior fouling control - that is, pin retains lubrication better and more lubrication while fouling is distributed within a much greater area.

One small adjustment you might consider to improve your Remington cylinder pin's ability to control fouling is to have the pin knurled where it resides within cylinder frame. This does what Colt's concentric rings does while changing nothing that pertains to your revolver's timing or critical tolerances.

Hope this helps.

[Hellgate]

I use cheap rotgut automotive bearing grease. However, some Remingtons (my Ubertis) foul faster than others (my Euroarms) so, I apply a single drop of oil (olive or Ballistol) at the front of the cylinder where it touches the frame and jiggle/twirl the cylinder to work the oil down onto the cylinder pin between loadings. This takes about 10 seconds and keeps the guns rolling throughout a long match or day's shooting. I never need to do the oil drop thing with colt designs.

[mazo kid]

I switched over to using a synthetic grease, Mobil 1 in my case. Seems to last much longer than any other grease, keeps the cylinder turning freely without bind-up.

[Omnivore]

The Remington's cylinder pin has a flat on the bottom, which serves as a cleaning groove. I haven't noticed a significant difference between my Pietta '58 Rem and the Pietta Colt as far as cylinder fouling goes. I've used Bore Butter, sometimes with a little olive oil and typically get 48 shots or so with no problems.

Since the '58 Rem cylinder is so easily removed, it's no problem to give the pin a wipe and regrease if it should need it. I think the trick is to get as much grease in there as you can, reghardless of the type used. The flat on the pin should be thoroughly caked with it. I also work some of the lube into the front end of the arbor (cylinder pin) hole in the cylinder before installing it. That causes the pin to force more grease into the hole. Greasing over the top of the loaded chambers I think helps a little bit also, as grease is blasted out along with the powder residue.

Be aware that some greases react with the powder residue to form a hard tar-like fouling that actually makes things worse.

[canyon-ghost]

Question: Is this a blackpowder specific application, or is it something you'd want on any single action?

Ron

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I treated my SA clones the same way as described in my post above. You still have lots of powder gas in smokeless too and someday you have to clean it . BvT

[Omnivore]

There is a huge difference between shooting smokeless and shooting black powder or BP substitutes. Black powder is far, far less efficient than smokeless, i.e. there is a large percentage of the powder that never converts to gas upon combustion (which is why you get all that smoke, and it's also why you need a lot more powder). Smokeless powder on the other hand is extremely efficient, in that almost all of it converts to gas. That's why it doesnt smoke much at all, and we use relatively very light charges to achieve the same energy.

Single action/double action doesn't matter, except that trigger cocking might prefer a more free-turning cylinder. With smokeless (depending on the gun's tolerances) you can go hundreds of rounds without powder fouling getting in and tying up the cylinder.

With black powder it can be as little as 30 rounds or so when you start having issues with a revolver (fewer rounds if it's a new or tight revolver) so we grease the b'jeezus out of the guns in an effort to ward off this problem as long as possible. Part of that is using the right grease, so it will tend to keep the fouling soft instead of creating a hard cake that ties up the action. Same goes for muzzleloading rifles - a softer fouling in the bore means less swabbing between shots and a hard fouling means extreme difficulty in ramming the ball down the bore unless you swab between shots.

With a smokeless system you can shoot a dry bore with dry, jacketed bullets all day. You wouldn't get but a few shots that way using BP.

By many accounts, humidity also plays a role in the consistency of BP fouling. Hence the blow tube.

[canyon-ghost]

Thanks for the explanation. May go into BP someday.

Ron