Tuning a Hahn .45 for Fast Draw
Tuning a Hahn .45 for Fast Draw
by Dee Woolem
Guns Magazine, December 1959
Excerpt from the article Tune-Up Tips for Fast Draw
Reprinted with the permission of Tom Blasgen
from his book “Fast Draw… Yesterday, Today”
It is foolish to think you can take any single action gun, regardless of make, in its production-line condition, and attain any kind of real speed, or without getting a torn thumb from its sharp edges. Do you think any of the top target shooters in the U. S. are using production line guns? Well, possibly a few, but if so it is only because the manufacturers of target guns have recognized the needs of competitive target shooting. Has any company done like-wise for the Fast Draw boys? We must have special guns, finely tuned for our sport. Crosman Arms Company has done a lot in this direction with their low-cost Hahn 45 and their CO2 Single Action Six. So has Ruger, with the positive action of their Single-Six. But even these fine guns can be improved for fast draw speed and fast draw safety. And for this improvement, each fast draw sportsman must be his own gunsmith. He must sweat it out over the work bench.
S-o-o, Cowpokes, hand and rattle. Here’s a few timely tips on “Tuning for Time.”
Let’s start with the Hahn 45. Strange as it seems, this low-cost gun requires only a little effort to make it a real rootin’-tootin’, fast, rugged piece of equipment.
Don’t get nervous; this is easy. Grab the Hahn 45 in your grubby little mitt and hold it up to the light. Cock the hammer a few times and release it slowly. What do you see just back of the cylinder? You see a little round bearing ball jumping in and out of a hole like a “Jack-in-the-Box.” There’s your gremlin, my fast draw friend. Back of that ball bearing is a coil spring. When the hammer is cocked the ball bearing has to compress this spring to ride from one cylinder positioning hole to another. The hard spot in the action occurs when the ball bearing starts to ride out of the positioning hole.
Now we are ready to dismantle. And here’s a tip: make sure all the gas is expelled from the powerlet by depressing the trigger and pushing forward on the hammer with the ball of the thumb. If this isn’t done, the powerlet will take off like a Nike. It doesn’t even need a launching pad.
First remove the grips. Now, what’s the handiest thing on the workbench? An ashtray? Right! Lay the Hahn across the ashtray so that the cylinder of the gun is suspended. Remove the screw just above and in front of the trigger guard. Next, remove the hammer screw. Take the screw removed first, and insert it in the back side of the frame where the hammer screw was removed. This keeps the hammer in place when the gun is disassembled. Remove the other two screws and lift off the top half of the frame.
Whoops! We’ve lost the main spring. Nope, here it is, in the part we just lifted off. Pick it up and take a look. You will notice at one end of the spring a shiny spot where the hammer has been riding. Look at the bottom of your hammer. There you’ll find a flat spot. Did you ever teeter-totter with a 12 inch plank across a railroad tie? It’s a rough ride. So take the pliers and kink the main spring just enough on the end so that you have a curved surface riding against the hammer. That’s part of your trouble cured already.
Next, you must take care of the little gremlin we mentioned before – the coil spring, which holds the ball bearing against the cylinder. With a wire cutter, remove one to one and a half coils from the back end of the spring. What’s next? Nothing. Put ‘er back together, friend. Now you’ve got an action that’s finer’n silk and just as smooth.
Smooth? Wait! There is something we’ve overlooked. What are we going to do about sharp edges on the hammer spur that keep chewing up your thumb? They need some smoothing! So – take a piece of medium one inch emery cloth. Cock the Hahn. Hold the barrel between your knees, and make like the Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy on that hammer spur. Problem solved. No muss, no fuss. And watch your fast draw time improve!