Anyone with a Tanaka Cassiopeia Revolver?

[renegadecow]

Though the guns were banned, I still see stocks of the shells around; thought it would be promising for a project. Been looking around reviews for a while and I've not come across any information that I need. Basically, I need to know exactly what part of the shell is the valve button and how much displacement/movement it takes to open it. Also, a general description of how much tension the hammer has, if possible in poundage. I'm looking into using the shells to make either a Remington rolling block rifle or a Sharps carbine.

 

edit:

I'm assuming the system on the SAA and S&W .500 are the same with only shell size being different. The .500 shells would pass off for a .45-70 is what I'm thinking.

[Romulus]

I have a Casi SAA and have owned a Casi M500. The valve for the shell is a plastic ring around the the sleeve at the front of the shell that holds the BB.

 

I don't have an actual measurement of how far the ring must be pushed in to discharge the shell since it's small enough that I couldn't really push it in with a finger (and didn't really want to try).

 

The hammer springs of both models are adjustable with a screw in the grip. For the sake of preserving the guns I kept mine on a very low setting. However, if you want it is possible to aggressively increase the hammer tension. I don't have poundage figures but it is a bit academic since there isn't one specific setting.

 

It should be noted that Casi guns are terrible shooters. If you do a project based on the shells it is unlikely that you would be able to produce a skirmishable gun. They are tons of fun though and the SAA is one of my favorite guns in my collection.

[renegadecow]

Thanks! That's plenty enough of what I need to know. I had my suspicions about the valve when I saw a short vid (SAA) showing that the hammers firing pin doesn't actually come into contact with the shell. For valve movement, I assume then that the small gap of the hammer at rest is what it takes to open the valve? Did read about low fps on the SAA, maybe from the leaf spring being set low. But I also did read that the M500 does a decent 350fps on green gas and with a 16"~18" barrel from a carbine I'm expecting closer to 400. As far as a shell extracting, breech loading, hundred-fifty year old buffalo gun is unskirmishable, won't argue with you there. But it sure as hell will be fun to shoot.