TUCOtheratt's Secrets: Members Only Exclusive Videos

I want to take a minute to say Thank You to all my website members. The website has only been up a couple of months now and I am still learning how to operate it. My hope is to continue to provide my best and totally EXCLUSIVE content to this website and not to YouTube. YouTube has been helpful in getting my brand off the ground and I do believe they pay me as much as they can afford to, but YouTube is very limited as a long term platform to make a living on doing what I love to do which is build and shoot race revolvers at the highest level, make short western movies and help other people enjoy this cool hobby as much as I do. I want to take this idea as far as I can and I hope to expand this website as money will allow to bring you cool stuff you can get no where else.

Please use common sense when posting here. Keep it legal and professional. I'm not going to make any hard and fast rules here yet because I am still figuring this out and I want to allow as much freedom of speech as I can. However every word we type is being monitored I assure you so keep politics at a minimum and civil in this uncivil world we are now in. This sight is to have fun with cowboy guns, western movies, and so on.

The videos are interesting and enlightening. Gives me confidence to do some tuning but do believe any machine work is beyond my pay grade. I just can't seem to get enough of single actions. I only own 6 but feel I need more..

Thanks for the complement. Machine work is difficult to access and intimidating even if you can. However, the "heart of a race gun is the bolt" (Bob Munden) and you can do that with needle files and make a bolt that doesn't damage the notches and locks much easier and quicker.

I'm enjoying these videos and finding them truly insightful as I delve into this world of six gun shooting. thank you for making them. I look forward to more.

Hey tuco, 1. I would like to say I love your videos. 2. I have just a question. My gun has a little bit of cylinder slop and I want to make my gun into a race gun and I’m watching your videos on how to do that. However, before I go through with it, I want you to answer some questions about my gun. My bolt has what looks to be a wear line where it looks like the bolt slips into the notches. I don’t know if this is bad but I would like to know before I do stuff with the bolt. Also, if I were to buy a new bolt, where would I find one for a good price? Uberti sells these kits that had a new bolt, trigger, springs, and hand and what not. However it seems to be discontinued. I really just need the bolt however. Where would you suggest I go looking for a new bolt that isn’t outrageously expensive.

Thanks for the nice comment about my videos. I assume you have a 1873 model Uberti of some kind? A little bit of cylinder slop might not be a bad thing. If you watch the videos in order you get to where I explain how to measure the bolt width and the notch gap with a dial caliper. The notch should ideally be 1/1000 bigger than the bolt width but I have seen 3/1000th bigger and the gun functioned fine and was accurate. So I would measure it first. The wear line on the bolt sounds odd. Usually there is a wear line on the cylinder from the bolt.
This brings up another point. Uberti parts are not properly hardened in my experience. I have seen bolts wear down from normal use friction. This isn't the case with Pietta parts. Pietta internal parts are properly hardened. Pietta bolts and other internal parts don't wear down from normal use or hard use in my case. And the parts are available and affordable at the EMF Pietta website. If I put a link in this comment it won't show but search EMF Pietta. The cylinder bolt for a GW2 is only $23, is available and they are very well made and fit the Pietta GW2. I have used a Pietta bolt to replace Uberti but that doesn't mean it will work on any Uberti. Uberti manufacturing is very sub par. Pietta's is very standardized and their parts always fit their guns. The main point I'm try to make is that Ubertis are trouble so I would sell that Uberti and by a Pietta Great Western 2 for $550 (base model) They are all the same on the inside and all parts are available at EMF Pietta website. It will save you tons of aggravation.

Hey Tuco, I just finished filing the bolt and I need you to check something. Is there a way I can send you a picture/video of what I did? I cut the bolt just like how the video says and the cylinder seems to have more slop than before. I don't know if I want to fire it without you checking to see if this is an issue. Thanks

-Jack

You must not narrow the bolt at all where it contacts the deep part of the notch. You only put a shallow grove so that the weakest part of the notch doesn't make contact with the bolt.

Jack, be sure to watch all the videos, in there entirety and in order. There's a lot of information there and it's easy to miss something important. Thanks

I love your videos. They have inspired me to shoot my single actions more. I have also developed an interest in working on my guns. I have a background in gunsmithing, but it has been mostly limited to modern firearms. Thank you for your video series on building a single action race gun. It has proven invaluable and is very difficult to find anywhere else.

say Tuco, just a quick question. I am watching your videos carefully and i cut the groove down the bolt where it is supposed to go. however, I was just wondering about the extended leads and the groove in the SIDE of the bolt. i don't have the type of machine to cut the leads further back and I'm wondering if that is a super necessary part. my question is is it worth the money to send it to a gunsmith for extra money for him to cut the leads? is it vital to the race gun or does it just make the drag lines go away? because if the answer is the latter then i don't mind drag lines. also, for the notch in the side of the bolt, is it worth doing? I'm on my 3rd bolt because i keep messing it up and the cylinder wobbles much more than needed. and if the whole side of the bolt is coming into contact with the side of the cylinder, i don't see how the side would wear if all the energy gets absorbed by the whole side. anyway, this video i found shows that if i cut a groove in the bolt, the cylinder would defiantly wear because the side of the bolt that is not cut is focusing all its kinetic energy into one little part of the weak part of the notch. take a look at 1:09...

The extended lead is mostly for slow cocking. If you don't extend the leads the cylinder will show a drag mark from the bolt falling early, not a big deal. You might feel a bit more friction slow cocking. The extended leads don't get touched with hard fanning because the bolt is dropping just before the notch if it's set up right.
Now about the side groove. What is shown in the video at 1:09 would be a very poorly fitted bolt and the side groove would be doing no good. When the bolt is fit correctly the side groove (void) falls right where the surface side (top corner edge) of the notch is so it doesn't make contact with it and all the heavy forced contact is made deep in the notch where the notch is the strongest. You should not remove any material at all from the area above the side groove. (the part that falls into the notch) This thin area should be thinner than the depth of the notch. So if the notch is .050 deep on the deep side(that's max) the thin area above the groove should be about .030. That's very thin. The groove doesn't have to be very deep, just deep enough so that it doesn't make contact. It's hard to get it right because the work area is so small. Use jewelers googles and clamp the bolt in a bench vise like I show so that you can see what you're doing. Also use plenty of light. (head lamp) If you don't cut the side grove in the bolt, the notches will get opened up a bit over time from fanning. That's not going to stop it from functioning but if it opens up too much you will have excessive side to side cylinder slop when in the locked position.

New guns have a notch that is 1 one thousandth wider than the bolt. I have seen up to 3 one thousandths bigger on used guns without a problem. You have to use a dial caliper to measure notch and bolt correctly.

Great videos - I'm taking on the bolt now but the cylinder is beyond my capabilities/equipment. Any recommendation for a smith that can take me all the way home? Thanks

I don't know any smiths that will do a cylinder. Six Gun Magic certainly knows how to but says he only works on Colts and normally does a complete race job for about $1400 last time I checked. You might want to contact him and ask though. Some guys have got a machine shop to do one but it is special request and not what they normally do but they can do it after watching my videos.
Be sure to watch Single Action Revolver Race Build Episode Five to the end. I talk about how even without the cylinder done if you do the bolt right you have a light fanner and can fan it gently even do triple shots without hurting the notches.(provided you started out with a Pietta GW2 and not a Uberti)
Also my latest bolt video Ultimate SAA Race Build Episode Two shows the best bolt profile to retain strength in the bolt.