Fitting a new cylinder

[BruMatt]

I have a Beretta Stampede made by Uberti in 45 Colt. I received from Uberti a new 45 ACP cylinder that will fit the frame of the gun. How hard is it to fit and time the cylinder? Is it a job that most gunsmiths can do or do I need to look for a "specialist"? Is there ay possibility of doing it myself? Anyone ever gone throught the steps?
Thanks,

[Bent Ramrod]

I bought a Uberti Flat Top Target replica in .44-40 almost as soon as they came out in that caliber. What I really wanted was a .44 Special, but at this time, the caliber was not offered in this model. So I ordered a Uberti Cattleman cylinder and bushing in that caliber from VTI Gun Parts. I had never fitted a new cylinder to any revolver and was all braced for a series of painful lessons in fitting and timing.

I got Jerry Kuhnhausen's book on gunsmithing the Colt SAA type revolvers as part of the preparation. This book is well worth its cost even if you don't plan on doing any actual work on these designs. His explanations of the timing mechanics and the pictures he has to illustrate them were clear even to a mechanical doofus like me.

I had to shorten the bushing significantly to get it to fit in the frame. The cylinder itself could have fit in just fine, with a little metal removed from the barrel breech, but I wanted interchangeability with the .44-40 cylinder, so I took the tiniest skin off the front of the cylinder, rechamfered the chamber mouths, and slid it in. The cylinder gap for this cylinder was less than for the .44-40 cylinder that came with the gun. There wasn't enough taken off to affect the headspace, as the boss on the front of the bushing pressed the cylinder back against the frame. IIRC, I took the same amount as off the front of the cylinder from the rear of the bushing and the rest of the shortening was done on the front of the bushing.

I then took a flashlight and looked down the bore, with another light behind the firing pin hole, and cocked the gun, slowly and quickly, rotating the cylinder to each chamber to see how far off the chamber indexings were from the barrel. I didn't know what I was going to do if they were off; any messing around with the hand or bolt would have negated the interchangeable cylinder principle, and having to fit up a separate hand and bolt for each cylinder didn't sound very convenient either.

Imagine my amazement when all the chambers lined up fine, with no crescents of cylinder metal showing on the sides of the barrel and the light through the firing pin hole right in the center of the barrel. The lockup, if anything, was tighter than it was with the .44-40 cylinder. I loaded up a few test rounds and took it to the range. No lead shaving, no evidence of problems; and it shot as well (though to a different POI) as the .44-40. The test firing even darkened the light metal at the front of the new cylinder so it looked closer to the original bluing.

I don't know whether this was just luck or what. I have a .32-20 Bisley Colt which has been rather heavily modified and at a Gun Show I bought another .32-20 cylinder just because it was cheap. I put that cylinder in my gun just to see what would happen and it fit and cycled just fine also.

My backyard fence blew down last week in a windstorm and my neighbor across the street backed into my car door a few weeks previously, so I refuse to believe that I'm "lucky." It may be that this timing business is more forgiving than it has been made out to be. Check the cylinder in your gun as above and proceed from there. A good gunsmith can probably take over if something is amiss. If your cylinder fits already, check the gap between it and the barrel and make sure that it is not excessive.

Here I'd like to put a "plug" for my Atlas 6" lathe. It can't turn 34" bull barrels or thread them, and it won't take a 0.010" chip off a workpiece to within a thousandth of an inch of the final diameter, but it can pull jobs like this one out of the fire just fine.

[BruMatt]

Thanks, a lot to digest.

[Cactus Farmer]

To check barrel alinement I used my "pin guages" to find the sizes that would fit in the bores of the pistols I had in the shop. I then bought
spare pins in those sizes. Pin guages are hardened and I annealed them for about 1/2 inch with my torch and then drilled and tapped the hole to accept a long setscrew that fits a pistol cleaning rod.
To check the alinement, cock the pistol and slide the rod down the bore. It should go all the way to the recoil shield. If not, apply pressure to the cylinder in both directions to see if it "just" a bit off. If it still won't fit, apply some white grease pensil,paint stick ect, to the pin guage and mark the misalinement on the cylinder face. I check all the pistols that come in the shop just to see the potential trouble areas. A really bad mismatch is a chance to warn a customer and may make you another repair.

These are for 22,32,38,44 and 45 caliber guns.

[Cactus Farmer]

I added a pic of the tools I made to check cyl-barrel alinement.

[BruMatt]

Another great use for pin guages!