Pietta SAA "Ejector" Fail

[Dark Skies]

I bought my Pietta 1873 SAA new a little over a year ago - long enough to just be out of warranty.
I use a light charge of black powder pushing store bought lead balls.
The faux ejector mount fell off today. It looks like there's a threaded insert silver soldered or pressed into the barrel for the retaining screw. Some of the insert was still attached to the screw.
Has anyone else had this happen to them? I was a tad surprised as I know Pietta sell this gun in the USA with the cylinder machined for .45 Colt, so it ought to be able to take the recoil without issues.

I will most likely plug the hole and make good the bluing, as the ejector is just a cosmetic feature.

[Graham M]

Will it not carefully drill out for rethreading.

[Dark Skies]

Will it not carefully drill out for rethreading.

I'm wary of drilling into the barrel, as the scope for Mr Cockup paying a visit is an unnecessary risk for a cosmetic foible that has no function.
I thought I might apply heat and see if anything falls out of its own accord. If not, I'm toying with the idea of silver soldering on some kind of silver embellishment. Either that or a metal tack that can be blended in and blued. Drilling, as well as an opportunity to screw up, might require re-proofing. That sort of territory requires a gunsmith - we don't have those down here - or if we do, they are many months booked up.

[bradaz11]

i had an armi san marco 1873 that had an oddball ejector housing and screw that was missing, so I did as you say, plug and blue. I think they look better without the rod anyway.
not had what you describe happen, but had it fall off plenty of times. but all my 73's I have atm are Ubertis. there isn't exactly a lot of meat to fix into, so my ejector rod retaining screws do come loose around every 30 or so rounds. one trick i've seen is to do them up, then drill through the screw, inside the end of the tube, parallel to the barrel. then insert a roll/spring pin into hole to stop it turning and loosening.
the other thing that helps is to take the spring and ejector rod out of the housing, so when the spring does loosen, as there is no tension, it will rattle to tell you it's loose, and if you don't notice and it does fall off, it all lands at your feet, not propelling itself 5yrds away.

[Dark Skies]

That's the route I've taken. Silver soldered the hole and tidied up. Prepped and blued the entire barrel. Plugged the frame where the ejector rod passes through using a suitably sized piece of bar steel utilizing bearing retaining fluid and an interference fit. Then blued it. Looks rather nice. Reminds me of one of the early Police .38s

[Dark Skies]

Forgot the pics. It didn't happen if there aren't pics!

[Dark Skies]

BTW. I was going to put the head of a steel tack in the hole and solder in place, so it could be blued. This was annoyingly fiddly. I gave up and filled it with solder. I blended in the silver solder to the Perma Blued barrel using something called Liver of sulphur. Sometimes I make jewellery and I use this to blacken silver for contrast. It's not perfect, but it's acceptable.

[bradaz11]

great job, oh and I know of a gunsmith who tried to drill the hole deeper and did go through the barrel, he just loctited the screw. it's only under pressure for such a fraction of a time.

[Dark Skies]

great job, oh and I know of a gunsmith who tried to drill the hole deeper and did go through the barrel, he just loctited the screw. it's only under pressure for such a fraction of a time.

Cheers.

And true, but it'd require proofing if the owner wanted to sell it. That said, who would actually know?
Anyhow, I knew, it being me, that if that happened I'd be wrestling with the notion of it being a bodge, trying to reconcile it with logic ... then cutting down the barrel to make it righteous anyway.
I try to walk the path least stressful. :)

[bradaz11]

And true, but it'd require proofing if the owner wanted to sell it. That said, who would actually know?

and that is the key question. we all go on about proof etc, but who would know, and more to the point, who would care?

I'm sure if I rang up the police to report a 'crime' of selling a gun out of proof, despite all the laws in place etc, they wouldn't care. even if i went to my FEO i'm not sure they'd care, especially if seller was not in their area. If in their area I suppose it may go towards character etc, and if an RFD lead to a chat, but I doubt more than that, and I doubt with any urgency.

a lot of shooters live in fear of the dreaded 'in proof' but we are probably the only ones to care.