A couple of questions about a S&W 27-3

P

Popsicle

New member
I was looking at my newly acquired model 27-3 and seen a couple of things you guys might be able to enlighten me about, as I haven't owned a revolver in years. First off, the area that the rear of the cylinder locks into, under the firing pin bushing and beside the hand, is slightly rainbow colored, as if it is a hardened area. Is this normal? also, I noticed some flame cutting in the topstrap above the forcing cone. I know it is normal to see it, but does it get progressively worse, or reach a point where it stops. Last question, I shot 1 box of 125 grain UMC magnum loads through the gun thursday and noticed three of the spent casings had very small holes in the primers. The only reason I noticed was the dent in the primer was black on those three casings, whereas the rest of the casings were perfectly normal. Is this a problem? All the empties extracted easily, and there were no flattenned primers. Should I be concerned? Thanks again!

Pat Brophy
 
Something wrong, and the pierced primers may be related to the discoloration.
Check the nose of the firing pin for symetry and smoothness. It may be chipped, causing the piercing.

Top strap cutting is usually self limiting.....unless a lot of ungodly hot loads are used.

Give her a good checkout, using Jim Marches excellant thread...
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57816

Pay particular attention to barrel/cylinder gap, end shake and headspace.

Hope it's minor. Tis indeed a nice gun.

Sam
 
The firing pin nose is round and smooth, it was the first thing I checked. Also, wouldn't the firing pin bushing area directly behing the case head show discoloration rather than the lockup area? The firing pin itself should look burned, but it doesn't. I just don't see how the area that is slightly discolored could be related to the pierced primers, it seems too low to be blasted with hot gas. By the way, the revolver has no perceptible endshake, very slight rotational play, and a seemingly very tight barrel cylinder gap... you have to hold the gun up to a strong light to even see the gap. I hope there is nothing wrong with this gun, I think I will shoot it in a couple days with different ammo to see if that is the culprit. Couldn't I have possibly got some ammo with a bad batch of primers? maybe too soft? I dunno.

Pat Brophy
 
The rainbow coloration is probably just a legacy of whatever heat treating the frame undergoes.

The pierced primers are another matter.

You should have a gunsmith check the firing pin protrusion. It sounds like it could be a bit much.

That said, UMC isn't the greatest ammo in the world...
 
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