These revolvers always intrigued me because of their history.
First swing out cylinder, Spanish-American War, US Army issue,
etc. Their structure is basically solid when used with the proper ammo.
However, it was almost impossible to find parts and someone to work on them back in the 1970's. Add 50 yrs to the time frame, and I imagine its much worse. Modern gunsmiths don't want to invest their time in repairing relics, that require considerable skills. They can possibly do 10 repairs in the time it would take to restore one of these to operating condition, and where do you find one? And at what cost?
At a time when Colt had local warranty centers, I had to beg the master gunsmith to repair one. He virtually had to recreate the springs and handfit it to time correctly. It was a labor of love paid for by a young kid. He also told me to never bring him one again
just wanted to pass on my experience to the OP.
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