Developed a little snag in my Colt Official Police action today. Please advise

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Doug.38PR

Moderator
I just got back from the shooting line this evening after putting about 150 rounds through my Official Police. Worked beautifully. Got REAL hot with all those rounds through it. However, now that I got it back to the room, I am cleaning it sliding the bore snake through it and the firing chambers. Spraying lubricant down into the frame. Cleaning the ratchet with a toothbrush. Scrubbed off the inside back of the frame where the cylinder rotates on with a toothbrush. But the gun seems to be having a little difficulty turning at some points while in action. It's not the internal workings of the frame, because I lowered the cylinder on the crane and went through the guns action and it was smooth as anything. It's when the cylinder is rotating that it sometimes gets snagged or rough in rotation. It's not the bolt. The Bolt is perfectly clear at all the right points and snaps back into place when it needs to. When the cylinder rotates about 2 out of 5 times (not always on the same spots) it will get a little rough in action and sometimes hang a little causing me to have to apply a little extra pressure to keep it moving. It almost sounds like the spring inside the center of the cylinder or something else in the cylinder that is tangling or something. When I hold it up to my ear while squeezing the gun action through I sometimes hear a little scraping or something. I can't see anything on the outside inhibiting the turn of the cylinder, but it is there nevertheless. I've scrubbed, the ratchet, I've scrubbed the frame, I've scrubbed the edges of the paw or arm that turn the ratchet all with a toothbrush. I've tried everything I know to do.

It seems to come and go. My finger is about to turn blue from squeezing off the trigger (at least I'm getting a good workout for my hand out of this ;) ). I can get 12 smooth squeezes off and then suddenly the roughness/snag will grab hold of one or two rounds. It seems to be doing it less and less. a few minutes ago it was doing it about once or twice every 6 times in a different spot. Now it seems to be doing it around once out of every 15 times.

What's the problem? How do I fix it?

Thank you,

Doug
 
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Sounds like some grit or burned powder particles underneath the ejector.

Revolvers are bad about getting some dirt under the ejector, which causes the cylinder to bind.
What's happening is, the grit prevents the ejector from bottoming out against the cylinder, and makes the cylinder bind.

Give BOTH the front face of the ejector and it's seat in the rear of the cylinder a GOOD scrubbing with a tooth brush.

In particular watch for tiny bits stuck in place. Often a quick brushing won't dislodge it, and things will still bind.

As much as possible, keep excess lube off the the rear of the cylinder and the ejector, since this causes fouling to stick worse.
 
There are several possible causes, and for some an attempted cure could be worse than the problem. An improperly installed extractor spring is one possibility. Another is a hitch where the second ledge of the pawl picks up the ratchet. The former would involve disassembling the cylinder; the latter would involve filing on the pawl (hand). Neither is recommended unless you know what you are doing.

In all honesty, if you are not familiar with the way those Colts are made and work, trying to fix it could get you into real trouble. Try a call to Colt and see what they say.

Jim
 
Hmmm. It stopped doing it for the most part after I worked the action a couple of dozen times. But every time I mess around under the ratchet to clear out dirt with the toothbrush, it goes back to snaging a little and works it's way back to normal or almost normal. Could I just be moving microsopic dirt particles around? I don't notice the ratchet elevated any away from the cylinder, so I don't think there is any dirt or grunk under it. I keep scrubbing under it. What could it be. Just yesterday it was working just fine. It feels like something that could be easily corrected if I could just determine what it is. :(


I edit this post now to say that it seems to be working as smooth as a Python now.......*sigh*....go figure! :rolleyes: I'd still like to know what it was. I'll keep this threat posted if it continues. A gun shouldn't be doing this thing of it's own internal workings I wouldn't think so soon after getting it a thorough looking over and fixing by factory quailty gunsmiths. It's got to be something external like dirt or something.
 
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Thoughts...

1. Dirt/grit/etc in the action - clean with brake cleaner or other aerosol solvent after removing the grips. Be sure to re-lubricate afterwards! Repeat with the extractor & shaft too.

2. If it happens again, check the flash gap to ensure that there isn't any build-up on the cylinder face or misalignment (this would happen on the same point every time).

3. Cylinder hand is misaligned or bent.

4. Loose or fractured pin in the internal workings causing misalignment.

#3 & #4 may exhibit the binding behavior only under the load of turning the cylinder.
 
I don't think it has anything to do with the action inside the gun. The action works fine without the cylinder. And it works fine with even with the cylinder in place for the most part until it snags every now and then. If it was the arm bent or out of allignment then the cylinder would be acting up on all 6 turns I would think. Plus, like I said, I just got the gun back from a thorough checkup, fixed where needed to factory quality standards. When I handled the gun last last night after poping the ejector rod back and forth and scrubbing underneath over and over and over :D the snagging seemed to stop. Last time I handled it last night before loading it and putting in my bedside table drawer it was as smooth as a python....come to think of it, the very last thing I did before loading it was spraying lubricant all over the gun to protect it from rust....maybe it lubrication just fell into the right place. :)

With that in mind, is it possible after having fired 156 rounds through the gun at one time with the gun sizzling hot to dry out certain crucial areas of the gun that needed to be lubricated?
 
Unlikely.

Again, the "usual" when encountering this problem is burned powder particles, or a tiny bit of grit under the ejector.

This DOESN'T have to be a huge particle either.
Often a piece of dirt so small as to be completely unnoticed is enough to cause major cylinder binding.

Whenever this happens, use a clean toothbrush to really SCRUB both the cylinder's ejector seat and the underside of the ejector.
Just because you don't see something is no sign there's nothing there.

These hard bit of grit and powder particles will actually embed into the metal enough to make removal difficult without scrubbing.

Also, try to keep this area as free of lube as possible to reduce the tendency for things to stick.
The lube will allow grit to stick in place, then when the gun is fired, recoil embeds the grit into the metal.

Some guns seem to be more prone to doing this, so on those, I recommend giving the area a brushing with a DRY toothbrush before going to the range to remove all the lube.
Lube tends to "creep" out of the cylinder onto the area over time, so the brushing will remove the excess.
 
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