Problem with mod 28

irish52084

New member
A few months back, I bought a used S&W model 28. It's a great shooter and I used the guidelines from the revolver checkout to make sure it was good to go when I bought it. I've put about 500 rounds through it and at the end of my last range session I noticed the trigger would become much heavier about 2/3 of the way through the pull. It doesn't do this every time I pull the trigger, but maybe every 5-10 trigger pulls it does this.

I just read through the revolver checkout again and didn't really get any clues as to what the issue might be. When the trigger gets heavy, if I rotate the cylinder a little bit the trigger seems to get lighter again. I'm thinking this might be some sort of timing issue.

I took the side plate off and cleaned everything I could get to. It was pretty clean internally, I just gave it a light cleaning to see if it would help and it didn't.

Any ideas as to what is causing this problem? I hope it's nothing too serious, as I've really become a fan of revolver because of this gun.
 
The first thing I'd do is clean the gun. Take it down and when you put it back together make sure every thing is snug.
A loose ejector rod might be the problem.

Check the fired shells to see if a primer has backed out.
 
Check closely under the ejector star , this is an achillies heel of all revolvers ,it`ll cause the ejector to bind on the recoil shield.

S&Ws ,as stated check the ejector rod first ..
 
Another thing you might try is cleaning the forcing cone and the front of the cylinder. It sounds to me like there is a bit of crud in that area which is causing the front of the cylinder to rub against the forcing cone.
 
As soon as I get the chance, I'll check out the rod and re-clean the whole gun. I'm generally really good about cleaning everything with my guns, but maybe I got in a hurry and didn't do as good of a job as I should have.
 
clean it

Be sure and remove the cylinder (get the right screwdriver) and clean the shaft (?) and within the cylinder tube (?). I saw a 686 that had not been so cleaned, and a grownn man could barley get a shot off.
 
Also, if the strain screw towards the bottom leading edge of the grip is too loose, it will cause what feels like a terrible stack up of a coil spring. The mainspring is a flat spring, but a overly loosened strain screw will cause it to feel like it's stacking or binding.

Might not be as common as the ejector rod backing out, but still possible. Another possibility... You havent let anyone flip the cylinder closed have you? It looks good in Hollywood (to the Hollywood types) but it's murder on the crane and just about everything associated with it.
 
A lot of good advice above. I keep a bronze (toothbrush shape) brush in my range bag and the first thing I do when I note the binding you describe is to brush under the extractor star and the rear fact of the cylinder with the extractor raised. Next is to check to make sure the extractor rod hasn't become loose. then I use that same bronze brush to clean off the rear face of the barrel extension and the front of the cylinder face.
 
Other possibilities are a bent ejector rod, a bad point on the ratchet that is binding on the hand, or a bent crane arbor or a badly made cylinder that causes the cylinder to bind on the forcing cone at one point.

Jim
 
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