Cimaron Eliminator 8s Personalizations

[Juan Solo]

As someone who can't leave well enough alone, after I got my Eliminator 8's and decided that I probably will never part with them I decided it was time to personalize it a bit.

 

First up was some internal work.  I ended up having to stretch the hand a bit with a drill bit and judicious use of a hammer to get one to go in to perfect time as it was just a touch late. Next, I fixed the hammer over travel stops to actually stop the over travel. Then, I used a drill and a belt sander to chock up my pin and put a nice rounded conical profile on the back of each while shaving off the safety portion so that I can use both notches as insurance in case the pin jumps I still have the 2nd notch to catch it.

 

Second on the list were some nice wood grips...unfortunately for 1860 army grips you might as well not bother unless you are going full custom and paying an arm and a leg. So, after little consideration, I thought how hard could it be to do it myself? Turns out, its pretty hard, but after a lot of hours, some new tools, and a surprising amount of sand paper and belts, turns out that it's pretty fun to make your own grips. I ended up using birdseye maple for my right hand, and marble wood for my left. The right hand works better with a slightly thicker grip so its a little less thin than the left, but they both feel perfect as long as they are in the correct hands.

 

Next, I've always loved a nice dark rich nitre blue on small parts, and thought hey, that doesnt seem too difficult. So much like the grips, a new lead pot to melt the salts, 8 pounds of nitre salts, more sand paper, polishing compound, and elboy grease, and I was able to put a nice deep nitre blue on the screws, trigger, and the ejectors.

 

Finally, I finished up by painting the sights gold until I can get them gold plated, fluffed and buffed the insides, de-burred some smaller parts, and tuned some wolf springs to just barely work with CCI primers so that its not primer sensitive, but still lighter than stock.

Bonus: I also decided to make myself a cowboy knife out of a blade that had good steel but lousy grips. Lesson I learned was camphor wood looks pretty, smells like dog piss if you sand it.

 

[Warden Callaway]

 

The action on my Eliminator 8 was a mess.  The latest thing I did was adjust the cylinder timing by stretching the hand. 

 

I love the fleur-de-lis checkering patern on the factory grip.  I wouldn't have changed them for something slick.