Hey guys, I have a question. I have my OHP grandfather's service weapon (28-2, I've posted it before) and I've never shot it much. I recently did and it seems to have an intermittent problem where the trigger will hit a hard stop with the hammer about 85% of the way back. I made sure I wasn't short stroking the trigger and it still happens intermittently. I'd like to get this sorted out, is there a common cause for this or should I just consider sending it to a good smith and have it looked over?

Make sure strain screw ( on front bottom of grip frame ( may need to remove grips to see it) is screwed down tight and that ejector rod ( which has a reverse thread is tight). And area under extractor star is clean. These details usually solve most smith revolver problems

The advice above is excellent. I was just wondering how long it has been since it had a really good clean and lube. Especially under the side plate. I like to take the grips off my revolvers and dunk them overnight in a bucket of Ed's Red solvent/lube. Then blow them out with my air compressor.

Make sure you clean under the extractor too.

While possible that crud or dried grease inside the action could be part of the problem, this is not all that common. I have revolvers I bought used and have shot tens of thousands of rounds out of them without ever taking the side plate off. If you do decide to crack her open, make sure you do not pry the side plate off! You remove the screws ( keeping track of which hole they come out of as they are all different) then tap on the frame with a plastic screw driver handle or block of wood to pop it off

I know how to remove the sideplate, I'm just afraid of what else I might remove.

Never opened up a S&W.

Ejector rod is very snug.
Extractor star bottom and underneath was toothbrushed out.
Strain screw was tight.

Same issues.

As the informed advice stated..............remove the grips.   remove the side panel screws keeping in mind which went where........tap the frame with a soft object--screw driver handle and the side panel will move enough to take it off.   the internal parts will not move unless something is broken.    The gun left the factory with grease to lube the workings, but, as previously stated........it could have hardened over the years if not cleaned occasionally.  

seriously would be a good thing to remove side panel, flush with cleaner then put lite lube in.............once a year would be a very good up keep  and preventive maintenance schedule.

The SnW was well made with quality products and should last your lifetime and be passed onto your children.   Congratulations.

No real reason to go shopping for gun smiths .

If you can't find the cause customer service at S&W is who you should be looking at. Turnaround might be a little more but stuff will get done right the first time and they will likely work cheaper than any local smith will. They also have all the parts.

Nice old gun like that (with emotional value to boot) deserves the best.

Unless you have a smith you know and trust highly I would only point you towards Springfield.

Alrighty guys, I'll get a good set of screwdrivers to not mess up the screw heads and I'll see what's under the sideplate. None of mine fit just right and I don't want to booger it up just being impatient. Any recommendations there?

Look for hollow ground gunsmith screwdrivers. I got a Wheeler Engineering set. Not cheap but well worth the money.

A good source for information and trouble-shooting S&W revolvers is the Kuhnhausen S&W Shop Manual

Does it do it on every cylinder or just one specifically?  

If it is only one then double check the barrel cylinder gap.   It isnt always possible to get a perfectly square surface on the face of the cylinder when it was made and 2 of the chambers on the cylinder may close the gap enough to drag.   Compound leverage is a real bitch when there is force/friction.

If the barrel cylinder gap is under .003 inch it is a possible culprit.

Pull the cylinder back towards the recoil plate to see if the barrel cylinder gap spreads much.

I have an old 38/44 Outdoorsman with god only knows how many rounds through it.  Thousands by me alone since I got it from my grandfather in the 90s.   The barrel of the yoke that the cylinder spins on had worn over the years along with the yoke galling where the screw holds it to the frame, this allowed the barrel/cylinder gap to shrink.

Instead of losing the numbers matching bits of the Pre-model gun by sending to S&W for a rebuild I just used a cylinder shim.   A small .002 shim on the top of the yoke barrel helped bring it all together.

Gun is now shot sparringly.

Just checked, it only does it on one cylinder. I can still see light through the entire cylinder gap when the trigger is bound up. The cylinder appears to be locked up correctly and rotating it by hand reveals no noticeable play when it's locked up, cylinder won't move front to back much either. Releasing the trigger and pulling again rotates the cylinder around and it works fine until that cylinder comes around again and it may or may not hang again. It's not 100% of the time but it seems to occur 40%-70% (it's very inconsistent, it may do it 2-3 times in a row then not do it 8-10 times, then on/off a few times) or so and it's only the one cylinder.

ETA: Same cylinder did it twice when thumb cocking the hammer. I've never shot it SA so I didn't even notice that.

Call S&W up and tell them about it. They will issue a call tag so you can ship it back on their dime and it will be fixed right by the right people.

Has anyone been slamming the cylinder shut, one-handed, like you see in old movies? It might be a sprung crane.

From the Kuhnhausen manual p.63:

Cylinder hand  binds at top on one chamber only - fit ratchet.

S&W should be able to fix that quickly and for free. I would rather do that myself than entrusting my gun to somebody who calls himself a gunsmith even though I like to keep business local.

Not that I'm aware of. My grandfather died of a burst appendix in the early 70s IIRC and his brother put it away for safekeeping. I didn't even know it was still around until 10 years ago or so when my uncle came down to a family reunion and gave it to me since he thought I should have it.



I'm going to ask S&W about it and have them check it out. I might try and get it lettered too, it seems that would be kinda neat.