I'm not much of revolver shooter, I have a few that I shoot occasionally, and I was shooting my Dan Wesson .44 this morning and had several trigger pulls where it didn't go bang. I was shooting single action, and figured out that sometimes the cylinder wasn't locking into place making it so that the chambers weren't lining up with the firing pin. I took it to a local store and showed the guy the problem, he said that the timing is off on the piece that sticks up thru the bottom of the frame and locks into the slots on the outside of the cylinder (pardon for not knowing the proper names of these parts, like I said, I'm not much of a revolver guy).
I bought this gun used from a friend who had bought it used, I suspect it's about 20 to 30 years old. Is this a common problem with older revolvers and what causes it? How much should i expect to be charged by a gunsmith to fix it?
I am very surprised because I always thought that revolvers were the most reliable of all handgun types, but apparently even they can malfunction.
**UPDATE**
So I took this gun by Hatfield Gunsmiffin' in Manassas, VA this past weekend, Sam was very friendly and professional, he diagnosed the problem as being worn notches on the back side of the extractor (the part that the hand contacts to rotate the cylinder), the RATCHET. There are a few worn rounded edges (very hard too see unless you look very closely) not allowing the hand to properly rotate the cylinder. He doesn't think they make these parts anymore, he is going to try and find me a used one, otherwise he said he may be able to weld a small beed to the areas that are worn.