Need mainspring for James River Armory Richmond Carbine

[bobanderson]

Anyway more than you probably wanted to know about heat treatment but there it is.

Steve

I appreciate the knowledge, but my problem is retaining it for later use. The real question in my mind is can that or any other heavy spring be lightened in such a way as to reduce the force it takes to flex it without stressing it to the point of failure? Does that take grinding or heating or several steps of each?

I have a Remington Rolling Block with an extremely heavy main spring that needs some magic.

[Kevin Tinny]

Hello, Bob:

There are some pretty skilled guys on the Shiloh Sharps Forum that shoot Rolling Blocks in long range black powder cartridge events.

My limited experience with having replacement springs made for Hepburns indicates that flat/v-leaf springs are peculiar to their geometry. Those were made for me by now deceased gunsmiths that would have one of four fail during drawing. A Beretta gunsmith (Valentine) that was responsible for the "SO" top grade competition over-unders told me in the 1980's that he hated v-leaf springs because of their unpredictability. One that was fully tested and used for a couple thousand shots broke during an Olympic event and cost an Italian shooter an Olympic gold medal.

Perhaps one of the active Shiloh Forum followers, including John Bly could help.

Regards,
Kevin

[Maillemaker]

I appreciate the knowledge, but my problem is retaining it for later use. The real question in my mind is can that or any other heavy spring be lightened in such a way as to reduce the force it takes to flex it without stressing it to the point of failure? Does that take grinding or heating or several steps of each?

I have a Remington Rolling Block with an extremely heavy main spring that needs some magic.

No experience with that gun but of course if you take any object and remove material from it it becomes necessarily weaker. My guess would be that removing material from any leaf spring will weaken it and it is an unforgiving balancing act to get a final result that works. Like Kevin said you'd probably want an expert in RRBs to chime in.

I fooled around thinning the mainspring on a Pietta Spiller and Burr revolver. It did make the hammer pull lighter, and it has not broken...yet.

Steve

[Maillemaker]

So, can an M1855 mainspring be fitted to work in a Richmond?

Steve

[MR. GADGET]

Depends on how hard the spring is.
If you use a file or stone to do the work and not a grinder there should be no change in the spring other than that of removing the metal would do.
Some will say you thin the thickness of the spring from the flat.
Others say thin the width of the spring to decrease the pressure.
The only way I have seen it done and work was to thin the width of the spring and not the thickness for repop springs where they may not have had the best heat and temper job.

As a side note... Leaf springs in old trucks I worked on were about the same leaf pack. The width would change from 2.5 to 3 or 3.5 per load carry of the truck. They did not take the main spring and thin it.
Should work the same for any leaf spring I would guess.

Our problems are most the repop parts tend to be junk.
Had several springs and parts fail on new guns when I first started. A sear from euro broke on first time shooting it. Just bad metal, did not make 10 rounds.

[Maillemaker]

For future gentle readers following along at home, indeed, a reproduction M1855 mainspring from S&S firearms can be made to fit, but it is much much much stronger than stock.

An Armisport Richmond mainspring from Taylors is not only cheaper, but is a much better hammer pull. In fact it felt somewhat light, but maybe I was biased having just removed the 1855 spring. The Armisport Richmond mainspring fires caps just fine though in testing.

Steve

[Bruce Cobb 1723V]

So how close is it to a real everyday 1861 spring or is it much shorter like a real original 1855 spring?? Thanks

[Maillemaker]

I don't have an 1861 so I cannot comment.

The Armisport Richmond Carbine spring fit much better than the 1855 spring. I had to do some serious rework to the hook end of the 1855 spring to make it work with the stirrup.

But, the lockplate peg is not quite in the right place on the Armisport spring, so the bend point of the mainspring basically touches the front lock plate screw. But, it did go together and it does function.

Steve