S&H carbine hammer won't hold at full cock

[ewmail15]

Hi. Anyone have an S&H carbine and able to remove the safety screw? Need to know diameter and thread count/length. Thought my restoration S&H had a busted safety screw, but it was just decades of crud piled into the screw hole.

Also, anyone have a spare buttplate screw to sell? Buttplate and trigger plate screws are exactly the same, which is very nice. Caliper reads the following, along with photo:

Length: total - 1 15/32"; threaded - 59/64"; non-threaded (excl. head) - 29/64"
Width: thread center - 1/8"; non-threaded - 13/64"
Thread count: ~9?

Any reason why there are only a handful of threads in the Small Arms folder?

[Harry Gaul]

Top screw with a point might be a replacement. The screws with points came along after the Civil War. I am thinking late 1800's maybe turn of century.
Your thoughts?

Harry in Pa.

[Harry Gaul]

I posted that I thought the screw from this post was a replacement because of the point or gimlet. I vaguely remember that the points were not put on screws until the turn of the Century. The information did not sit right so I googled information on the development of the screw. In furniture a screw with a point was developed in the 1840's which predated the Civil War. The firearms in my collection, the wood screws that hold the trigger assembly and butt plate lack a gimlet. Furniture yes, and firearms maybe. Time to check another source. Here is a google search for your consideration.

https://www.worthpoint.com/articles/blog-entry/screws-identify-age-furniture

Putting the stud in Study,
Harry in Pa.

[John Holland]

Ewmail15 - You have asked "Any reason why there are only a handful of threads in the Small Arms folder?" Very simply, the majority of people on this site are competitive shooters, and not really collectors. Hence, the S&H series of arms are not very popular because of the difficulty in shooting them, so there has been very little written about them here.

[Hal]

John,

I think he was referring to the small number of threads in the Small Arms section in general. I had wondered the same thing. There are only 6 threads to choose from. Seems that anything older than 4 weeks or so is missing from the forum.

[Hal]

Ahh, I was able to correct it. At the bottom of the page there is a section called "Thread Display Options". It was set to "Show threads from the last month". Guess there have only been 6 threads in the last month. I changed mine to "From the beginning" and now there are several pages to choose from.

[Eggman]

Information on Civil War small arms on this site is encyclopedic. The thing is, first determine the specific topic you want to research, then enter it in that little blank next to the magnifying glass up above. For example, Smoothbore Theory has been accessed 38,436 times.

[ewmail15]

I'm also going to order a swivel base from therifleshoppe today. Emailed them a couple times, asking if the base comes with the two screws. I tried my buttplate screw, as the head in photos looked really close in diameter. Was not a fit for the base screw wood thread - not sure it was too wide, or the thread gap was different. Would anyone be able to remove and measure your base screw for me? Thanks, Eric.

[ewmail15]

Found the location to see more threads. Thanks Hal. Anyone taken their S&H apart, and could possibly take measurement and a photo of the safety screw? I've made 3/4 trips to Ace, but still haven't found a matching screw pattern.

[plymouthairrifle]

If you still need the screw size it is a #3. My screw pitch gage only gos up to 40tpi so should be 48tpi. The head is like a pan head. Head Dia. .195" thread length .180" over all length .220"

[ewmail15]

Thanks Plymouth. I'll check online for those selling these small size screws.

[ewmail15]

My S&H was missing the extractor. Don't know why, as the spring was still there, and the extractor screw would not move. I used drill bits and extractor bits and the last extractor broke in place - doubled the time to break down the original extractor screw.

You'll need to order a 9/32" -28 tapper. I counted the number of threads (9) with the extractor screw from SS Firearms, and factored in the thread length to come up with 28 threads/inch. Ordered the tapper on eBay a few weeks ago, came earlier this week, and tonight the tapper removed all the remaining metal debris from the old screw still in the female threads. Extractor is operational now. Woohoo!

Might anyone have a few bullet casings I could use to try out the extractor? Repro swivel base and slide bar should be coming from therifleshoppe next week, and a brass piece (forgot company) labeled as replacement for a Smith should be arriving next week as well. Thanks, Eric.

[ewmail15]

All the S&H firing pins I've seen have what appear to be two halves, pressed into place and somehow holding the firing pin itself in place - sort of like the valve locks that hold engine valves in place with the retainers and valve springs.

The lever arm on my 6431 has a beautiful repair to it that I was planning to remove and weld or replace, but like I stated it's a beautiful example of that era and gunsmith repairs done to make the firearms operational again. Maybe the single-looking donut part that surrounds the firing pin is another repair.

[plymouthairrifle]

The firing pin is held in with a threaded bushing. I do not see the slots for screwing the bushing out on your photo. There is a good drawing of these parts on page 84 of John Pitmans Breech-loading carbines of the United States Civil War Period. My 3 S&H all have the threaded bushing.

[ewmail15]

Thanks for sharing Plymouth. I emailed SS Firearms asking if they had the bushing, as they have the firing pin. Any chance you could snap a photo of the page and send my way? ewmail15@gmail.com. Thanks, Eric.

[plymouthairrifle]

I tried to post photos of the drawing and my S&H but for some reason they were huge!! I do not know why, I have posted photos before. Send me your email and I will get them to you.

[plymouthairrifle]

There is a post on this forum that has a photo showing the slots on the bushing. Look up 1862 Sharps & Hankins Navy Carbine Cartridge

[plymouthairrifle]

Firing pin and bushing1038710386 photos

[ewmail15]

Thanks. Phil at SS Firearms replied that he had no bushings, and he needed a bushing years back as well for his restoration.