1861 Crosman Shiloh Six-Gun

[jhealey1955]

Greetings Crosman pistol enthusiasts. I am new to your hobby, and am excited to have stumbled upon a wealth of information about these guns on your forums. I hope I am not introducing myself here by asking an inane question, though I have tried to do my due diligence by searching the forums first for relevant information regarding this gun, but have come up more or less empty handed. It seems I have a fairly uncommon old Crosman pistol. So, onto my question...

I recently acquired a beautiful early 1980's "1861 Shiloh" .177 six-gun, in the original box and with all paperwork. It had been stored away, unused, for many years (in fact, it doesn't look like it was used much at all, if ever). There was a nearly full 12 gram CO2 Powerlet cartridge loaded in the pistol when I acquired it, which had been sitting in there for as many years as the pistol had been stored away. I was able to fire five full cylinders (6 rounds each) of Crosman Copperhead BB's through the gun on that old cartridge (the owner's manual says one can expect 42 rounds per Powerlet, hence my estimate that the old cartridge was nearly full). Upon removing the spent cartridge and loading in a new one (Crosman brand), I found that entire contents of the cartridge would evacuate itself in 2-3 seconds.

Am I correct in assuming that this indicates the seal around the piercing valve is shot? I know very little about air pistols, however I was told that putting some Pellgunoil around the piercing valve seal might help soften up the o-ring and make it pliable enough to seal a new CO2 cartridge. I have had no luck with this, however. Possibly the old seal was simply deformed by having a cartridge pressed up against it for so long? I have found a seller online that stocks a complete rebuild kit for this gun, although I am wondering if it is possible to simply replace this one seal. Since the gun functioned flawlessly with the 30 rounds I was able to put through it on the old CO2 cartridge, and since the other seals in the gun have seemingly managed to hold while the gun was stored away for so many years, would it be imprudent to simply replace the seal around the piercing valve? And can that be done with relative ease--without disassembling the internals of the gun in its entirety? Also, is the CO2 cartridge/Powerlet o-ring seal fairly generic, or would I still need to order the entire rebuild kit specific to this gun?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and advice!

[Crosshairs]

  Sonuds like you got ot right. Call crosman and order the end seal part number 38-128 very easy to replace.
                                       Mike