The 1377 Project, A Trigger Job

As I slowly make my way from the front to the back of the 1377 Carbine conversion, the next items was to tweak the trigger/sear a bit. Out of the box it isn't bad, but a bit heavy, and there are some inefficiencies.

The slot both the sear and trigger ride in is rather wide, so they use a spring washer to keep the trigger straight.

The poor sear gets no such spring and can wobble and wiggle all it wants.

Looks simple from outside...

And it is. That round thing at the upper corner is a magnet I use to hold all the little parts to keep them from getting lost.

The trigger and sear derive their force from the same spring. It's rather hefty and the end just pushes against the edge of the sear.

I turned down some delrin to make a spring guide/bearing for the sear.

Parted it off.

I chamfered the edge and then filed it to a gentle radius.

I installed a shorter, somewhat lighter spring from my cache of random springs.

To solve the wobble of the sear and trigger I used thin washers on either side to take up any play. I was going to make some but found perfect stock ones in my drawer of tiny washers.

I found the end of the guide inside the spring dragged a little, so it got a quick chamfer as well.

Finally I replaced the undersized and soft Crosman pins (R) with dowel pins (L). I lubed everything and put it back together. The trigger is now somewhat lighter and less "clicky" if that makes sense. I cocked the gun and did the standard drop/hit/wiggle/smack test to make sure the sear still would stay engaged. It did. So one more step on the road is finished.

A Longer Barrel for the Crosman 357

Since I had the 357 apart for the hammer repair, I decided to turn down the spare 1377 barrel I had on hand to fit the revolver.

The 1377 barrel above the stock one.

I gained a lot of respect for Crosman that day, as the steel they use for the 1377 barrels is some sort of profoundly hard and wear resistant alloy. Even with carbide tools I couldn't take a heavy cut.

So I just took pass after pass to get it down to the major OD of the 357 barrel.

It's a lathe, it's a gun, it's a lathe gun! That is, I tested for fit.

I turned down the minor diameter and filed it a bit. I got a terrible surface finish. I would probably have benefitted from using a follow rest, alas I don't have one. I cut off the bit left in the chuck as it had a perpendicular hole for the 1377 transfer port.

Using a 60 deg. center drill to make the lead in for the pellet.

All done.

I installed the new barrel in the revolver and somehow it looked a little skimpy...

So I took a length of black acetal (Delrin) and drilled it to be a push fit on the barrel OD.

Is it cool, or lame? I don't know, what do you want for a $10.00 gun?

I chronied it using Crosman Premier Lights (7.9 gr.) and it got between 394 and 320 fps. over a course of 40 shots from a fresh CO2 cartridge, with the majority being in the 340-360 range. So did it improve the pistol at all? Probably not that much...

I much prefer the 38T's I own.

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.

Stock Screw Cups.

So, having figured out how to take the stock off of the Original model 45, I worked on making some screw cups for the front stock screws.

As you can see, the screw isn't centered in the hole.

The screw had a nasty bur around the edge, and the only washer was a star washer. Thus when the screw is tightened, the star washer wallows the hole out a little more...not so good.

Pressing the rear pin out which retains the stock.

The pin and one of the bushings that retain it came out together.

The bushing is plastic as far as I can tell. It's .359" long overall in three sections, .470" dia x .06" length for the major diameter, .387" dia. x .190" on the straight knurled section (major OD) and .352 dia. x .059" for the minor diameter. The hole is .197" diameter, .301" deep with a .140" dia x .048" deep section at the surface.

The trigger springs slightly back to interfere with the through hole.

So you have to push it forward to allow the pin to pass through.

The front screws go into that block which is held in a slot with peened over tabs.

I realized that the stock was springing the action out of alignment with the hole. Pushing down on the action lines up the holes. So the action wasn't fully bedded against the stock before.

Turning down some steel to the smallest diameter (.464") of the oblong hole worn in the stock.

Drilling clearance for the screw (#9 drill).

Boring the cup .397" dia x .125" deep.

Parting off .179" long.

One of two cups I made.

I pushed it into the stock. I was a little worried it would split the stock, but it doesn't seem to have put any more stress than the poorly aligned screws did. It should prevent the holes from wallowing out further and eventually causing the action to become loose (if it wasn't already...)

The rifle.