Hardest Revolver to put together...

[RoninPA]

A Ruger Birdshead Wrangler. Did a Cerakote job for a friend who bought a Wrangler Birdshead revolver for his son's upcoming birthday (I think he'll be 6). The birdshead only comes in a couple colors right now and his son wanted one in OD Green. For those that don't know, to do a proper Cerakote job you disassemble the firearm completely, then prep the parts to be coated (degrease, abrasive blast the surface, degrease again, plug all the holes that you don't want to coat, then spray and cure. In this case the frame and barrel, ERH, grip frame and loading gate got coated.

Then you get to put it all back together. I have never had a revolver this hard to put back together. When I started I was smart enough to put the individual parts in small plastic bags that I labeled and I even took some pictures so I knew how the went back together (like the trigger, transfer bar, cylinder latch, gate detent spring and pawl guide assembly). Even putting the hammer strut/mainspring has to go in a certain way (you have to put it back in before you put any of the grip frame screws in because of it's length vs. the size of the birdshead grip).

It took me 2 hours to get it all back together - and one of the hardest parts was getting the loading gate and spring to to mesh correctly. But I got it back together and it works like it did before I took it apart.

Give me the Six series, GP, Redhawk, SP modularity any day. I can take a Six series apart - to the smallest part - and put it back together in about 15 minutes. If you don't break down the modules, 2 or 3 minutes to put it together.


Finished product

 

[mistermills357]

I had a few Six series revolvers, and the were exceptionally easy to disassemble & reassemble.

 

[contender]

Gee Ron,, it's time you expanded your knowledge base. Working on SA's isn't hard,, AFTER you understand them!

Two hours huh? At the plant,, they build the entire gun from start to finish in less time! And that includes the machining of various parts.

 

[RoninPA]

Yeah Tyrone, I know And the more I work on them the better I'll know what to do. I'd like to see either the fingers of the builders of the Wrangler (small and skinny?) or the tools/fixtures they use. I did figure out the easiest way to do the loading gate, put the gate in before you do anything with the gate spring. And putting the transfer bar in before you put the hammer in - similar to the DA's but a bit trickier.

I'll get there (I'd better, I'm up to 17 single actions )

 

[the_leper_colony]

I had a few Six series revolvers, and they were exceptionally easy to disassemble & reassemble.

If a Six series would let you swap barrels like a Dan Wesson, Ruger might have achieved something close to perfection (for the home gunsmith, at least ;-)!

 

[mistermills357]

If a Six series would let you swap barrels like a Dan Wesson, Ruger might have achieved something close to perfection (for the home gunsmith, at least ;-)!

I had a Dan Wesson .357 and it was a nice gun, and it looked pretty good.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

Does a Wrangler have action differences from a regular New Model? I don't know, I have never fooled with Wranglers. But a regular New Model Single Six or Blackhawk is not all that hard to assemble IF you have a copy of a New Model instruction manual and follow along. I don't tear into NM's very often, so I always make sure I have a manual on hand when I do, otherwise it seems to stymie me. Last time I had to do it was for a Vaquero that I sold and then was traded back to me 6 months later with issues, I think the symptom was that it would not cock. Problem ended up being the little plunger on the side of the hammer; in the time the other guy owned it, that plunger rusted a little and would not compress. I know it took longer to reassemble than it did to fix the plunger, and I had the manual open.

 

[Mike Armstrong]

If you want some re-assembly fun, try one of the old H&R or IJ revolvers like an H&R "Sportsman" .22! You'll see why holding guns together with pins went out of style....

 

[Fox Mike]

I saw the heading then the poster and had to giggle. "Mr. Doubleaction"! Sorry Ron, the devil made me do it.

 

[RoninPA]

I understand Frank and I can take it.

The big difference is that with the SA's, all the parts are individual pieces, and are not part of a module, they have to go back in place one by one, in the correct order and the space to put them in is small and I don't have the fixtures that they probably devised to help keep everything in place when putting each piece in. Then you find out it's in BUT you should have done Y before doing X so take it out and start again. But I prevailed and learned a lot and came up with some self made pieces to help keep the parts where are are supposed to go (and in the proper position).

It was a learning experience.

 

[Shotgungibbs]

As usual, your work turned out fantastic looking! That little boy will love it!

 

[gunman42782]

If you think that is hard, take apart a double action Colt. Now those things are a PITA! Smiths and Rugers are easy peasy compared to a Colt. And I have never attempted it, but look at a diagram of those Chiappa Rino revolvers. They look like they have more parts than a Swiss watch!

 

[PriseDeFer]

I admire you all from below. A Mk1 Target mag catch made me whimper like a little liberal.

 

[WV460hunter]

A Ruger Birdshead Wrangler. Did a Cerakote job for a friend who bought a Wrangler Birdshead revolver for his son's upcoming birthday (I think he'll be 6). The birdshead only comes in a couple colors right now and his son wanted one in OD Green. For those that don't know, to do a proper Cerakote job you disassemble the firearm completely, then prep the parts to be coated (degrease, abrasive blast the surface, degrease again, plug all the holes that you don't want to coat, then spray and cure. In this case the frame and barrel, ERH, grip frame and loading gate got coated.

Then you get to put it all back together. I have never had a revolver this hard to put back together. When I started I was smart enough to put the individual parts in small plastic bags that I labeled and I even took some pictures so I knew how the went back together (like the trigger, transfer bar, cylinder latch, gate detent spring and pawl guide assembly). Even putting the hammer strut/mainspring has to go in a certain way (you have to put it back in before you put any of the grip frame screws in because of it's length vs. the size of the birdshead grip).

It took me 2 hours to get it all back together - and one of the hardest parts was getting the loading gate and spring to to mesh correctly. But I got it back together and it works like it did before I took it apart.

Give me the Six series, GP, Redhawk, SP modularity any day. I can take a Six series apart - to the smallest part - and put it back together in about 15 minutes. If you don't break down the modules, 2 or 3 minutes to put it together.


Finished product
View attachment 8301 View attachment 8302

I want to spray my gun is it easy to find the stuff ? Hard to do ? Take classes? Etc...

 

[Dan in MI]

If you want some re-assembly fun, try one of the old H&R or IJ revolvers like an H&R "Sportsman" .22! You'll see why holding guns together with pins went out of style....

Or when ten springs will what two can do better.

 

[RoninPA]

gunman42782 - Amen brother, I HATE working on Colt DA guns, they are overly complicated and I really wonder what they were thinking when they designed it.

WV460hunter - if you are mechanically inclined, Cerakoting it not that difficult. The details are all in the prep work. That is where you must be very nit picky about the degreasing, abrasive blasting, degreasing again, taping again and plugging holes where you don't want any Cerakote. Pretty much, in most cases, you have to completely disassemble the firearm, prep, coat, and reassemble. Now, I was brought up around auto body men (when you repaired things not just replace panels) my grandfather, my dad, one uncle and 2 cousins were all auto body men so I learned how to prep metal for painting.

A few basic small spray guns and/or air brushes (and their cleaning tools), a good air compressor and an abrasive blaster are all you need. You can cut out some of the stuff if you're only doing a few items and have someone else blast them or have them let you use their equipment.

If you go on to the Cerakote web site they show you basically how to do it. If you have any questions and want to run them by me feel free.

 

[Hondo44]

The wrangler is basically the same action as the single six new model with one exception I know about: it has a free spin cylinder that's a simplified version of the NEW VAQUERO's/New Flattop's RIPS cyl chambers/loading gate alignment system.

 

[hittman]

About the Colts. Local store had a number of nice looking older Colt double actions on consignment. I asked to see one and also asked if it was in time. Salesman kinda frowned and said, "You know, everybody asks that." He was just too inexperienced to know why folks ask.

Sorry Ron didn't mean to hijack. If my post causes a drift I'll delete.

 

[RoninPA]

Not a problem, it's more about the difficulty working on things that you don't have a lot of experience on. I've learned a lot from working on unfamiliar firearms.

 

[dobegrant.45]

It turned out very good, good colors Ruger should see it