Customer Reviews for Cimarron 1860 Richards-Mason Type II 5.5" 38 Special Revolver

I love the feel of the revolver and it scratches my history buff itch. I’ve shot black powder revolvers and muzzle loaders all my life. This is a great little pistol and a lot easier to clean. I have too get used too the sites, it’s a very cool gun and fun to shoot.

I was impressed with the accuracy out of the box. I had low expectations based on the rear sight on the hammer, but it locks up really nice and gives good groups. The rear sight on the hammer is also very narrow and shallow, so I had to hit that with a triangle jewelers file to open it up for my bad eyes. Mine hits about 4 inches high at 7-10 yards, I'm not consistent enough with it at 15-20 yards yet to say what the deflection is at that range and I need more practice before I file more from my hammer. I did have to take the ejector rod housing off and give it a significant sanding inside to get a smooth action from the ejector rod. Seems this part was completely ignored and very rough inside. While it was off, I reshaped the ejector rod end to more of a rounded shape. The factory ejector rod shape is more like a domed pot lid and catches on the cylinder when it's not precisely aligned. Removing the ejector rod was easy once i figured out it was just screwed into the ejector rod handle. The cylinder was pretty tight, so I polished the inside with a soft bore brush and some metal polish. The only thing that I don't like about this pistol is that when you eject the spent shells, the ejector rod handle has to travel at 45 degree angle for 1/2 inch before it aligns with the guide slot and can be pushed the rest of the way. I haven't smoothed out this area, so it requires some memory muscle and extra hand twisting ejecting each shell. Also since the cylinder does not have the flutes, its harder to quickly align the ejector rod with the cylinder to release the shells. I have to grip the smooth cylinder pretty good to rotate to eject each shell (because it doesn't have flutes) and after about 5 or 6 loads it can get pretty hot and uncomfortable. Great little pistol and the hit of the range with my group of friends. People turned down offers to shoot the Kimber and Glock customs, but no one turned down an offer to shoot this girl! I would have given it a perfect score, but I felt like I HAD to make some changes to the ejector rod and housing.

Very accurate and single action. Nice for a collector of revolvers as it is very unique in appearance and historically interesting. Only downside is the ejector rod does not line up perfectly with the cylinder chambers, requires effort to line it up properly and eject fired cases. However, given price and its role as a fun novelty/training tool I would highly recommend adding one to your collection.