I recently acquired several single action "cowboy" guns in 22. One is an old Great Western beast weighing 52 ounces. Great looking gun, but it needs cleaning. I couldn't get it apart like the others. Anyone know how to field strip it?

This is what Uberti says to do and it works for my Colt, Ruger, and ASM. Surely you have tried it with your GW.

REMOVING THE CyLINDER: To remove the cylinder, follow these steps:
1. Open the loading gate.
2. Move the hammer rearward to the half cock (loading) position.
3. Depending on your model, either loosen the cylinder base pin screw or depress
the spring-loaded base pin screw, so that the cylinder base pin can be removed
from the frame by pulling it out in the direction of the muzzle.
4. Slide the cylinder base pin all the way out until it is free of the frame.
5. Remove the cylinder toward the loading gate side of the revolver.

He starts 3/4 of the way through and you don't see much...

Just a tip.
I cut a 3x5 index card the length of cylinder and wrap the card around cylinder before removing.
This will prevent unnecessary scratches.

.

Thanks. Yeah, I tried that. Can't get the cylinder rod out. We have a classic arms specialist at work who knows more about guns than anyone else I know. I want him to give me an informal appraisal anyway. I got the FIE and Ruger apart and cleaned. What can I say about FIE? Their reputation was as junk, but I found in the past they made pretty good guns for the money. I had one of their little 25's for years when I needed a deep cover gun. The Ruger is a Single Six with the Magnum cylinder as well. Some yahoo scrubbed the finish off the aluminum part, trying to make it silver, I guess. If it shoots well I may have that part cerakoted.

At one point I hadn't had my Ruger Single-Six Convertible out to play for a loooong time. Took it out, went to field strip it to re-lube it, and the base pin wouldn't budge for love nor money.

"WTF?!?!"

I ended-up dripping some Hoppe's solvent in a couple places and gently-ish tapping it further-in to break it loose so I could remove it.

The oil (and I'm 99-44/100% certain it would've been Hoppe's when I'd last cleaned and lubed it) had turned to lacquer--freezing the base pin in the frame.

The base pin hole back through the frame comes out in front of the hammer. It may be possible to get a soft punch on it with the hammer cocked and knock it forward.

Here is a simple tool to do that.
Down past the fancy gunsmithing stuff.
https://springcreekarmory.com

Here is a lever type puller
https://www.brownells.com/tool...saa-base-pin-puller/

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
The oil (and I'm 99-44/100% certain it would've been Hoppe's when I'd last cleaned and lubed it) had turned to lacquer--freezing the base pin in the frame.

I have a S&W 28-2 revolver and one day the hammer, cocked back, would move forward in slow motion when the trigger was engaged. I taught my self to take it apart completely and discovered the prior owner had grease in the internals, much of it turned into a hard lacquer-like substance. It was a major pain in the ass to dissolve and clean it out with Hoppes using a couple of brushes and dozens of cleaning patches.

Since this gun was last produced in 1963, it's entirely possible lubricant and/or crud has locked the pin in place. We shall see. For a hundred bucks, I have little to lose.

The last time I had a frozen cylinder pin, I clamped the gun with the muzzle up and dribbled penetrating oil down around it into the frame. I let it sit overnight and was able to free up the pin the next day.
Seems like more of a problem with .22 guns, due to the greasy, sooty ammo.

I'd squirt Kroil into and around the cylinder pin and anything else that is stuck and let it sit for 12 or 24 hours.

Not an uncommon thing to happen at all.

Especially with a .22 that didn't get cleaned, lead and carbon can build up around the rod as well. Soak her down with something.

I used Kroil and managed to drive it out with a soft punch. Our gunsmith measure the pin and said it was slightly oversized. He recommended sanding it with 600 emory cloth, a little at a time, being mindful not to take so much the pin would move under firing. Interesting gun. It appears to be a direct copy of a Colt SAA, down to the internals. The grips are marked "Colt New Frontier" inside, likely replacements.