Mike,
Do you chew your nails? If not, all you gotta do is squeeze the spring hook down and push to get the wedge out.
The hook ain't really supposed to go out the other side, by some sites, IS supposed to hook to the off side of the frame, on others.
WE ain't gonna whack the wedge with the reload to get it out. If you had a hundred Injuns attacking you, you would whack it with anything you had, no plastics or rubber hammers to not mar the frame. Or plastic drift punch, that you have to grind to fit.
My '60, you wanna pull the wedge, smack the muzzle with the palm of your hand, breaks it loose enough to thumb it out. That hurts too much, take a rawhide mallet.
You ain't supposed to hammer the wedge in. If the arbor is bottomed out properly, you can't draw the barrel back any further. You just deform the slot in either the arbor or the barrel extension, or the wedge itself.
I don't know, is there any of you who are driving the wedge in with a hammer?
STOP RIGHT NOW!!!When it stops moving, slip the wedge in, the best check is if the mating parts, frame extension and barrel extension, where the locating pins are , are kissing, the wedge is home. AND, everything is in line. Smack 'er harder, with arbor clearance, shoot high. Loose, pressure from the charge will push the barrel downwards, shoot low. Got to lock everything up mechanically to shoot straight.
If you have a deep hole under the arbor, and you hammer the wedge in, you just made a Howitzer of your .36, at least until you jack the barrel high enough to bind the cylinder. You will NEVER hit at POA, unless you aim a foot low, or more.
Ah, well, I forget what the hell the topic was. Does this help?
Cheers,
George