Revolver barrels turning loose?

R

Ruben Nasser

New member
Have any of you experienced this problem (barrels turning loose in a revolver), and how do you solve it? It has never happened to me, but a couple of friends have had this problem in new ruger 44mag redhawks. Is is a fluke, a reloading problem, or are there some models/makes more prone to this problem? All the new revolvers I know come without the locking pin.
 
An associate of mine had the same problem in a new Redhawk a couple of weeks ago. It has been sent back to the factory... no verdict yet. An employee of the gun shop speculated that the bbl threads may have been cut too deep, for whatever that’s worth.

I'm no gunsmith (not even in the loosest definition of the word) but it would seem to me that in a properly designed firearm, the spin of the bullet should work towards tightening the bbl, not loosening it. I will keep you posted if/when we learn something.
 
Rifling twist and direction are often chosen for reasons having nothing to do with the possibility of the barrel unscrewing. That was often cited as the reason Colt used a left hand twist, but does not explain why they began using left-hand back in the 1851 Navy days when the barrel certainly did not unscrew.

S&W uses right hand twist, and pinned their barrels for extra insurance against a barrel coming loose. They have fairly recently dropped the barrel pin and used a more precise crush fit; they seem not to be concerned about the new arrangement.

Other makers use RH twist and seem to have no problems. The torque from bullet movement is not insignificant, but should not be enough to unscrew a properly set up barrel.

Jim
 
Never had a problem with Colts or Smiths (I have only owned pinned Smiths) or Rugers. I did have the barrel on a Rossi I was testing start to unscrew itself on the fourth shot out of the cylinder...you could finish unscrewing the barrel with finger pressure. The problem with the Redhawk sounds like a bad run of barrel shanks. It's not typical of the dozens of Rugers I have handled, worked on, and shot over the last couple of decades.

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If they take our guns, I intend to let my hair grow long and acquire the jawbone of an ass.
 
It's happened to me twice, both times with ruger .44mags. One stainless Super Blackhawk, and one blued Redhawk. Both guns were originally purchased by me, and neither had any over the top loads fired in them.

In each case, the barrel cracked. In each case Ruger replaced the barrels promptly, and at no charge.
 
About 15 years ago I bought a brand new S&W Model 629 whose barrel was evidently not quite tight when it left the factory. It tightened itself at the range. After about 20 rounds, the barrel had rotated far enough with respect to the frame that the locking bolt no longer lined up with the extractor rod, and the front sight was canted to one side. It was odd to have two of the major parts of this gun moving in opposite relative directions.

I took this gun back and got a refund, But in retrospect I'm sure S&W could have repaired it, had I shipped it to the service department.
 
Sounds like a quality control problem to me. But I am used to smiths with the pinned barrel and no sin with them. :)
 
This is a problem Ruger has had for years. Rumor is the Super Blackhawk "Hunter" was retired from production because of so many problems with the barrels unscrewing (though mine never has). The problem is made worse when a scope is mounted on the barrel, like on the SBH "Hunter" and Redhawk. This is because the mass of the scope and rings is above the line of the bore, creating a lever arm (torque) that unscrews the barrel. Not a problem on a Super Redhawk because the scope is attached to the frame. Ruger will fix the problem for free, but it's still a pain and shipping handguns aint cheap any more. -- Kernel
 
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