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Gunsmithing Advanced S&W Revolver question

turbo54

Mr. 7mm
Full Member
Minuteman
Dec 10, 2010
4,995
30
43
Michigan
I've been learning (by doing) to tune up/work smith actions. I've been having success, and have been doing more and more. This time I may have goofed.

I'm working on a 617, 10 shot 22 with lock. I stoned (only a little) to smooth it out) the tiny lever on the front of the trigger that engages the cylinder stop stud and causes it to be held down long enough for the hand to begin advancing tge cylinder to the next chamber. Now, on only ONE chamber, the cylinder stop re-engages the cylinder notch *just* before the hand is able to rotate/advance the cylinder - resulting in a locked up action.

I swapped in a different cylinder stop and the situation improved, but it still locks up occasionally, probably 1/5 the time.

It does this regardless of whether there are spent cases in the chambers or not. I can not cause this to happen in single action - only in DA.

I suspect I (slightly) decreased the duration of the cylinder stop being held down, and it was just enough, when coupled with perhaps a slightly undersized ratchet lug on the extractor star for that one chamber, to cause the lock up issue I'm having.

Any ideas or recommendations?
 
Re: Advanced S&W Revolver question

You may need to replace the trigger as that is the part you stoned if I read your post correctly. There is not much lee way in the 10 shot smithe. Trying to tune them has only led to misfires on most of them. There is just too much that has to happen in a shorter amount of time compared to a 6 shot S&W. Remove too much metal and it's time to replace the part. I've worked on S&W actions for 25 years and will only use a Rubby stone on the 10 shot revolvers. If you remover the machine marks, you went too far.
 
Re: Advanced S&W Revolver question

Thanks for the reply.

This is the 2nd 10 shot model I've worked on.

I got it working today, heres what it took:

1. I closely examined the "nub" on the tip of the lever (part of the trigger) that I had smoothed out and compared it to an unmodified one. I noticed I had created a radius allowing the cylinder stop to ride down the nub a smidge too early. I resharpened it and created a new corner, rather than a radius.

This got me 95% the way there.

2. I noticed the action worked 100% if the trigger was held against the frame side. If I allowed the trigger to slide a bit closer to the sideplate, the problem would manifest itself. I used some .010" bass shim stock to make a little washer/shim to stop the trigger from getting close enough to the sideplate to cause problems. This actually needed .015" of shim to allow the sideplate to fit right without binding the trigger.

I just got back from the range, and the problem is fixed. By polishing the crap out of the rebound slide and portion of the frame it slides on, as well as the ramp that resets the hammer, retouching/polishing the DA sear surfaces, knocking a burr off the hammer that was grooving the inside of the sideplate, cutting the rebound spring down as much as I could and still get good trigger reset, and tweaking the mainspring, I have achieved a 7.5lb DA pull and a 2.5lb SA release.

My test session included 50 rounds federal value pack, 50 rounds Remington thunderbolt, 50 rounds remmy subsonic, 25 rounds Wolf match, 25 Aguilla super colibri, and 25 CCI stingers.

I had one remington thunderbolt require a second strike.

I'm pretty happy with this. I've personally found remington 22 ammo to be the hardest to ignite in the past.

You are 100% right the 10 shots are more touchy than the rest. The timing is VERY finicky! I am lucky to have gotten this working right without having to fit a new trigger...which would have required refitting the hand as well. As it is, I already have 15+ hours invested in this thing. That said however, it feels GREAT, especially for a 22 revolver.

Thanks again for the response. I posted on the smith forum as well and got NO replies!
 
Re: Advanced S&W Revolver question

It's always good to see someone figure out a solution to their problem, thanks for taking the time to post the solution back to your thread. Believe it or not, someone else will find this thread someday with the exact problem and it will be very helpful!
 
Re: Advanced S&W Revolver question

I usually find that if I stop and really look at every thing in detail the solution will show its self.