Saturday, July 5, 2008

Bobbing a Crosman 357 Hammer

I bought a damaged Crosman 357 pistol a while back at the pawn shop for $10.00. The damage was to the hammer spur, which had broken off.

The hammer.

Besides being broken off, the pin was bent.

So I ground it down on the belt grinder, and deburred. I should probably have blued it or polished the whole hammer, but I just didn't feel like it.

I found a replacement pin in my collection of dowel pins.

Now this is where I humble myself. When I started this project, moths ago, I started to take apart the pistol. I had pulled the trigger a few times to make sure the CO2 cartridge was out of gas but I did not remove the CO2 cartridge...
Sure enough the safety was on, blocking the hammer, so when I started to take the pistol apart, WHOOSH! The whole thing exploded apart in a cloud of CO2. I spent hours finding all the parts (or most of the parts) and humbled, put all the parts in a box and tried to put it out of my mind for a while.
So the lesson is to always remove the CO2 cartrdge, even if you think it's empty...and always wear safety glasses...
Since I didn't have any pictures of the pistol assemby, I was a bit worried I'd have trouble putting it back together. I downloaded the exploded diagram (irony there...) as well as finding a good article on resealing it in Airgun Hobby magazine, Vol 4, No. 3.
It's worth noting that Airgun Hobby sells all their back issues, when I decided that I would pursue this hobby with vigor, I bought a complete set and subscribed.

The hammer back in place.

I was missing one of the two bushings that hold the tube seals in place (seen sitting on the corner of the tool post).

Drilling...

Parting it off.

So now I can reassemble it...

Surprisingly, I got it all back together with no problems.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is exactly why I don't want to work on "bulked" guns.

And dang it, Nick. Now I want a bobbed hammer .357 snub nose.

Derrick

Anonymous said...

Dear Contributors,

I am from India and having interest in shooting and playing with instruments. I am damn impressed by the job you do and patience you have to post all of them.

I don't miss any of your post!!

Thanks lot and keep going.

Best Regards,

Tirtha

Nick Carter said...

Thanks Tirtha!
Send me an email sometime about Indian airguns.

remote said...

I've got a 357 that's a great shooter, and the tang on the hammer is broken just like the one in this article. I was always discouraged about it and always wanted to fix it...I didn't know about "bobbed hammers". Now that I've seen this, I'm going to clean up the bobbed hammer a little and get happy about it :-)
Thanks! Excellent blog - I'm going to spend a lot of time here ;-)

Manish R. Karnik said...

I am unable to put back a 1st generation Crosman 357 I bought recently. I have both the EVP diagrams available on the net.

This

http://www.shans2003.ru/images/Crosman357.jpg

and the one at Crosman site.

Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Manish
India

Anonymous said...

Nick,

I need to re-assemble a Crosman 357, fisrt generation. I hav ethe EVP's can't seem to get it right. Can you help me with it or share info from Airgun Hobby magazine, Vol 4, No. 3.

Thanks

Manish
Mumbai, India

Felice Luftschein said...

I didn't take any detailed notes, but you can ask on the Crosman forum, someone there might have assembly instructions:
http://www.network54.com/Index/12861

Unknown said...

the Crosman forum link. I searched for Crosman 357 assembly and got this link

http://www.network54.com/Forum/275684/thread/1175905640/Help+reassembling+my+crosman+357+plleeeeaassee!

The photos from biohazardman there helped completely.

I am posting a link of my 357's internals assembled here.

[URL=http://s576.photobucket.com/albums/ss209/point177/Crosman%20357/?action=view&current=assembled-back.jpg][IMG]http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss209/point177/Crosman%20357/th_assembled-back.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Many thanks for your help again. Please do continue your good work.

Manish
Mubai, India.

Zero said...

how does the trigger spring sit inside the airgun cant seem to figure it out , thanks

Music said...

Can you help me put back a 1997 crosman 357
I put it back together but the trigger won`t retract back and the clip won`t rotate
I lost the front spring part number 037 on crosman`s manual
What can i do

contact me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQskyOBbB1k

Unknown said...

Many thanks for the informative info. I have a Crosman 357 that is missing Part 357-052. Any idea where I can spot a spare? I have looked at JG Airguns but John doesn't have it listed. Any help would be welcome. Could you build one? Thanks again, Nikos

Nick Carter said...

Contact Crosman and see if they have the part?

Unknown said...

I just received an email from JG Airguns, LLC, which stated that the reason I couldn't locate the 052 part was that it has now been replaced by a better quality index finger (code CRS357A052 priced at $1.30), probably because was so prone to breakage. Problem solved, it seems. Many thanks Nick and I will let you know how the rebuilt went (I am changing 11 parts in it!), at the end.

Anonymous said...

how can i get valve because my part leaking