I can't answer the question on returning it without a receipt - but - I had an 1860 Army quite a few years ago that I purchased from Dixie that I had the same problem as you are experiencing. I kept carefully increasing the size of the mallet but to no avail and was about ready to try rigging something up on an arobr press to see if I could push it out - either that or drive over it with a tractor! As a last resort, I very carefully warmed the wedge and area with a propane torch (carefully so as not to overheat) and while it was still warm, shot the penetrating oil to it. I really can't say if it was the warming up of the wedge and wedge area or the penetrating oil but when I whacked the wedge with a piece of hardwood (white oak - I prefer to use a hard wood such as that so I don't leave marks or peen the wedge) amd a heavy wood mallet, the wedge loosened and then I was able to remove it. When I looked at the cylinder pin wedge slot under a magnifying glass, I could see some burring that had been caused by the wedge. Examining the wedge under a magnifying glass, I could see a burr on one corner edge that corresponded with the burring on the wedge slot. I removed the wedge spring and gently honed the wedge on a fine oilstone to remove the burr, reblued the area on the wedge where I had honed it with some cold blue and then cleaned up the wedge slot in the cylinder pin. After that, I never had a problem with getting the wedge out to disassemble the pistol for cleaning. I can't say for sure, but sometimes I think that the person who assembles at the factory gets a little "heavy handed" which doesn't help if there are machining burrs present. As frustrating as it is, I guess that a person has to remember that to them, it's just a job and they need to get it together and out the door. Whatever you do, don't get too frustrated and do something silly like hit the wedge directly with a steel hammer, etc. I've seen a number of pistols that have been treated this way and a buggered up wedge will really detract from an otherwise nice pistol. Good luck and I hope you can get it broken loose without too much trouble. If you think it might be too great a problem with the pistol that you have, you might try taking it back to Cabelas, even if you don't have the sales slip, and see what they say. They would be more likely to take back or exchange one that looks like it came out of the box than to do anything with one that has obviously had the wedge wailed on and buggered up. Hope it works out for you!
