"Change gas ring from yoke to cylinder"

S

SnubbyMan

New member
Can someone please explain to me what this means? Feel free to post pictures if it helps. It seems K-frames had this change in 1977. Is this something desirable? Or was it a cost-saving measure by S&W? Does it affect blued and stainless guns equally?
 
Cost saving measure, largely, by allowing the gas ring to be more easily cut during production.

The dates for engineering changes can vary a little bit from model to model, even in the same frame size, depending on how much old stock the company was using up at the time.
 
Massad Ayoob said the change was to prevent the gas ring from expanding during extended firing of K-frame .357's. That tied up the gun.

Based on experience I've had with older and newer M19's and my present M-66 (made 1989), I'm inclined to believe him. The older guns sometimes got balky after firing just a few cylinderfuls of magnum ammo.

Lone Star
 
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