Colt DS II Blues.

[rintinglen]

While going through my gun safe, I came across one of my less inspired purchases: A 3 inch, Colt, DS-II. This gun would be a dandy, save for the fact that the hand no more fits in the slot it rides in than a 270 bullet fits in a 7mm bore. It wobbles from side to side like a skinny, metal, hula dancer and consequently the firing pin strikes wander across the primers to the point where misfires can and do occur. I am considering ordering a replacement hand from Gunparts, but wondering if anybody out there has had any experience with this admittedly rare piece of Colt Krapola before I throw up my hands and toss good money after bad.
131704131705.

[MtGun44]

Fitting new parts to the original DS is not for the faint of heart. The
action has several critical timing points that have to be right for it
to work well, each affecting the other.

I would suggest that, if the DS II is the same action as the DS,
which I do not know to be true or not, you should have a gunsmith
that is experienced with Colt lockwork do this unless you are very
handy and competent on fine, hand fitted mechanisms - AND
buy Khunhausen's Colt book and spend a bunch of time studying it.

I have done some work on my Police Positive, which is the same
action as the DS, and it can be tricky.

The reason that these are no longer made is too much hand fitting
needed to make them work properly, and apparently yours is an
example of this being true.

[rintinglen]

The DS II is a fine example of being neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring. According to the pundits at the time, The DS-II was an attempt to simplify the V-spring lock work to reduce the hand fitting required by the older V spring actions. The action resembles that of the SF-VI. Well, they changed the lock work alright, there is a small flat spring mounted on the transfer bar that pushes the hand forward, there is a frame mounted firing pin, the spring that holds the cylinder release is different. The problem is that the slot that the hand rides in is at least 20 thousandths too wide, and there is nothing to prevent the hand from waving in and out, thus changing the Geometry of the relationship of the rachet and the cylinder. You might call it timing error by design.
Anyway, as I see it, there are two possible fixes. Install a new, wider hand, which entails careful measurement and stoning, or modify the existing hand, either by peening, bending or welding. I think a small ridge TIG welded on the outer face and then carefully stoned to width might be the best solution, but I am afraid that the heat might ruin the temper. Likewise I am a little skeptical about my ability to bend the hand enough without breaking it. I will order a replacement and do some measurements, but if anyone has any experience with these I'd sure like to benefit from it.

[MtGun44]

Your idea of welding the hand sounds like a good one, but will take a
really skilled welder. I have welded the back corners of 1911 mags as
a learning exercise with 7 amps and a TIG machine, and I am only
moderately skilled, not like a real pro, so that sort of work can be done.

Heat treating isn't extremely difficult, but it is significantly alloy dependent.
If one can get a spare hand, I would at least try welding it up, filing
and stoning to fit and then heat red hot and quench, followed by a 700-800F
tempering.

You can polish carbon steel and use the 'tempering colors' that come up as
you heat a polished steel piece - like when you are grinding and over heat it a bit,
it gets various shades of purple and blue. Look up tempering colors and
carefully wave a propane torch past the small part and wait a few seconds
and then do it again until you get the color you want. Not super precise,
but has worked for me.

[bhn22]

I would buy a replacement hand before attempting to alter the one you have. If your intended repair wors, then you have a spare. If it doesn't work, at least you already have a replacement hand available when you go into Plan B.

[rintinglen]

Well, E-gunparts shows the hand available, so I'll spring for one and see about getting one of the welders at work to fix me up. These guys are Nuke certified, so I think that one of them can do the job, or at least tell me who can.

[CLAYPOOL]

Sell to a colt collector and by something else or trade him for one of his gems...!

[pietro]

.


Does Colt still support it, service-wise ?


.

[glockky]

[QUOTE=pietro;3153642].


Does Colt still support it, service-wise ?

Colt will make repairs to the revolver but they do not carry a warranty. I personally think colts are beautiful guns but I will not spend my hard earned money on one.

Colt revolvers are built extremely tight and have great actions, but the tight action also is very apt to wear. And no I am not trying to drag colt through the mud here either.

A buddy of mine had a gorgeous Anaconda. Me and him would take our 44 revolvers out and shoot quite a bit. We never shot any crazy loads mainly 240gr bullets around 12-1300fps. The Anaconda he had recently purchased started not rotating the cylinder far enough to engage the lock in the cylinder if he did not cock the revolver really fast.

So after doing some reading he decided to not try and fit a new hand and sent it to colt. He had to pay shipping both ways and he had them do an action job while they they were replacing the hand had. His total cost was over $300 and we could not tell any difference in the action.

So we went back to shooting our 44's some more mainly with light loads of unique and some 240gr hunting loads. He figured he had put around 250 rds through it when he started having hand issues again. This time he sold the revolver and picked up a redhawk.
YMMV but I just wanted to share this info with you.

[MtGun44]

Short hand in a Colt is common. If set up exactly right, they are pretty
durable in .38 S&W and Spl, but I do not shoot my Anaconda too much. . . . .
more thru the S&Ws and Rugers.

If the cylinder holes don't line up perfectly with the bore, each shot the
Colt WILL get aligned by the boolit, like a hammer blow to the hand if
the holes are off a touch. S&W purposely designed in a bit slop so that
this forceful alignment doesn't pound the hand.

I like my Colts, but after working on them a bit and getting to know how
they are made - there is a reason that Colt doesn't make revolvers anymore.

[Bman1954]

There is a company called Micro Precision Welding that welds small gun parts.They have a website and do excellent work,reasonable too.They have welded some impossible to find parts for me and they are very good. Craig