Posted: 2/15/2015 4:27:18 PM EDT
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Hey all, new comer to the revolver scene. Just picked up a S&W 19-5 in .357 magnum. Thing is SWEET.
Anyway, I'm new to revolvers. I loaded it up with six rounds and noticed a lot of "wobble" in the cylinder. The rounds slide back and forth a little bit. I guess I just expected the rounds to fit tightly and not move at all. Is this normal? I want to put some rounds through it tomorrow and want to make sure it doesn't blow up in my face. Thanks! |
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The Model 19-5 eliminated the counterbored cylinder that had been standard in the Model 19. To compensate for the lack of counterbore the cylinder was shortened slightly to 1.62".
All this means is that you can see the sides of the rims when the rounds are chambered. Counter bored or not, there is always some room between the cartridges not aligned with the barrel and the recoil shield. The position that matters is the one that is aligned with the barrel, and the fit there should be minimal with clearance, but very little if any detectable movement. ----- There are a few things to look for in a used revolver. 1. Cylinder gap. This is the distance between the front face of the cylinder and the rear of the barrel extension. 006" to 007" is considered about the minimum, S&W allows for a gap of up to .012". It may vary .001-.002 from chambers on one side of the cylinder to the other. The cylinder gap is measured with the cylinder pressed all the way back against the recoil shield. The problem with excessive cylinder gap is the revolver will start spitting powder granules at you, and it tends to associated with increased erosion of the forcing cone. 2. End shake. This is the forward and backward movement of the cylinder when the cylinder is in the frame. In other words, this is the amount that the cylinder gap changes as you move the cylinder forward and backward. S&W's spec for end shake is .002" to .006". End shake is easily fixed with shims. 3. Timing. This is the alignment of the cylinders with the bore. It's hard to inspect for it without specialized tools as the cylinders are oversized relative to the bore on non rimfire calibers, so it has to be really bad to be visually obvious. It will however be very obvious when firing if it is poorly timed. The end result will be bullet shaving, with both poor accuracy and potentially bits of lead coming back at you. What you can test for is the proper movement of the hand, rotating the cylinder properly. Hold just a bit of drag on the side of the cylinder as you cock it for each of the six chambers and ensure that it moves smoothly and firmly with no hesitation. Some revolvers with incipient issues with the hand will function fine when clean, but with a little powder build up retarding the cylinder will start to slip. 4. Lockup. There is a bolt of sorts in the bottom of the frame that rises and locks into the slots on the side of the cylinders. When the hammer is at full cock, the cylinder should be tightly locked with minimal movement of the cylinder side to side. There will be some, but it should be slight. 5. Cylinder pin runout. With the crane open, spin the cylinder by the cylinder pin. It should spin with no wobbling. Wobbling indicates something is bent, and is not a good thing. 6. Crane alignment. The crane should be aligned with the frame, if there is an uneven or excessive gap where the front of the crane meets the frame, you may have a bent crane. This most often occurs when the shooter does a Hollywood reload and snaps the revolver out of the frame by flicking his wrist. This snaps the cylinder out and when it reaches the stop, the momentum of the cylinder and crane torques the crane and over time will bend it out of alignment. For some competitive shooters, it's the norm as they can reload a bit faster, but unless you're shooting in competition, press the cylinder out gently from the other side. Again it's fixable, but it's not desirable. 7. Hammer push off. This is mostly a problem with S&Ws that have been shot a lot. At full cock, with your finger off the trigger, press forward on the hammer. It should stay in the sear notch and not fall. If it falls, it's an unsafe condition. You'll encounter some S&Ws that have had the hammer bobbed so that it's a double action only revolver. Some people did that on pocket carry revolvers, a few departments did that to prevent officers from cocking their revolvers in a potential shooting situation, where the lighter trigger pull could case an AD, but often when you see a bobbed hammer on model where it was not standard, it's because it developed a problem with push off, and this is a quick and dirty way to avoid it being a safety issue (as you can no longer cock it to fire it single action. If it passes all of the above and does not spit stuff at you when you're shooting it, you're good to go. ---- The Model 19 was designed with Bill Jordan as a consultant and it was intended to be the perfect .357 Magnum duty revolver. The normal practice when the Model 19 was designed was to use .357 Magnum for duty use and to use .38 Special for practice, so the ratio of .357 to .38 special ammo fired in them was probably on the order of 1 .357 Mag for every 100 .38 Special. However, in the later 60's and early 70's many departments came under criticism for under training their officers by having them train with .38 Special but carry .357, so many departments switched to .357 Magnum for training as well. This resulted in Model 19s getting a steady diet of the duty ammunition. Over time, some Model 19s developed cracked forcing cones due to the steady use of .357 Magnum ammunition. You'll note that the barrel extension is flat at the 6 o'clock position due to a clearance cut for the crane. This thin spot is where cracks have been known to develop in Model 19s with high round counts of .357 Magnum ammo. It's not a common problem and many Model 19 users have shot theirs with .357 magnum loads for thousands of rounds with zero problems and a few of the Model 19 experts don't advocate limiting the number or percentage of .357 Mag rounds fired. But some of them have developed cracks, and .357 Magnum loads due place more stress on the barrel extension. A related problem is that hot .357 Magnum loads with slower burning powders tend to produce more erosion of the forcing cone, and in the Model 19, the thin section at the bottom of the forcing cone has less metal to erode away and the v shaped eroded areas inside the forcing cone will produce stress risers. The 125 gr Hollow point gets blamed in both cases, but in terms of cracked forcing cones I don't think the 125 gr load is any worse than a 110, 140 or 158 gr load - it just takes the rap as it was by far the most common law enforcement load at the point in time when departments moved to training with the 125 gr duty load. Similarly, the 125 gr load gets blamed with the theory being the shorter bearing surface allows more time for the gas to heat and erode the forcing cone. The issue however is not the time due to shorter bearing length but rather slower powders that also are still granular and abrasive when forced through the cylinder gap. Staying away from slow burning ball powders like H110 / WIn 296 will help reduce erosion. ---- The irony here is that the J Magnum frame has much thinner metal in the barrel extension and forcing cone and those revolvers in .357 Magnum do not have reports of cracked forcing cones. The difference however, is that not many shooters will put large numbers of .357 Magnum rounds through their J frame pistols as the recoil is pretty fierce. I contrast, a Model 19 with a 4" or 6" barrel is fairly pleasant to shoot even with full power .357 Magnum loads, so the round counts tend to be much, much higher. ---- In any event, I recommend shooting .38 special standard pressure, .38 Special +P, or mid range .357 Magnum loads, as your regular practice/plinking loads and reserve using full power .357 Magnum loads for those times she you need them, or for very occasional practice. |
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What length barrel?
I have a 6" model 19 that I received from when my Step Father passed away. It is really really nice. I just shot it for the first time about a month ago and it was a lot of fun and accurate. I would probably prefer a 4" barrel, only because I think it would balance a bit better when shooting one handed, but it's very nice regardless. I bet you are stoked. I was shooting .38 special PMC 132 grain FMJ in mine and it felt like .22's almost. OK, maybe .22 mags. 
all double action 
I was shooting at the berm at about 30 meters and hitting pieces of clay pigeon in double action. These things will make you feel like a good shooter they're so accurate. 
Now, I'm leading by example here. WHERE'S YOUR PICS!!!!!!!     
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Pictures are Important.
I think the 6" Model 19 with a target hammer and trigger is just about revolver perfection. My Model 19-4: 
It will stay on a 7x11" plate at 50 yards 100% of the time from a rest, or offhand with little or no wind, but when I start swaying the breeze a bit the accuracy starts to drop of to maybe 90-95%: 
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Quoted:
Thanks everyone! Sorry for not posting this earlier... <a href="http://s690.photobucket.com/user/tarheel0311/media/image.jpg4.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv270/tarheel0311/image.jpg4.jpg</a> Now I know what I need to get to keep my 10 and 36 company
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| If you are saying the rounds are a little loose in the cylinder and rattle back and forth a hair this is totally normal - the chambers have to be big enough to allow for some variance in ammo size and for dirt and fouling accumulation. If the lock up is good as the excellent posts above discuss no worries. If you field strip an auto take the barrel out and drop a round in the chamber you will likely see the same if not greater amount of wiggle room there. |