S&W Model 60 Cylinder Release Failure

R

ryan3465

New member
Hello all!

Thought some of you might find this interesting. Out at the range the other day with my S&W Model 60 (early 70's vintage I believe) I fired five shots, a reload, then five more shots. I tried opening the cylinder and I could not. Only after i disassembled the gun could I get it open and I discovered the "bolt" which releases the cylinder had sheared off and wouldn't push the center pin in to release.
I asked a revolver smith friend of mine and he said he hadn't seen one break like that before. Anyone else ever experience this?

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1392144203.566451.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1392144214.186034.jpg
 
Hi Bart! My hand is okay. Even though the cylinder would not open the gun fired all five rounds perfectly and continued to function even after I realized I couldn't open the cylinder. I was using light target loads within the specified load for HP-38 and 148 grn HBWC. Never had any problems with it before. I am thinking it may have happened when I closed the cylinder,but I have never seen one break like that
 
Did you buy the gun new? That bolt looks like it has been worked on at some point. While anything can break, I can't think of any forces that would cause the bolt to break in that manner.

Jim
 
James K said:
Did you buy the gun new? That bolt looks like it has been worked on at some point. While anything can break, I can't think of any forces that would cause the bolt to break in that manner.

Jim
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Hi Jim! I bought the gun used about 5 years ago. In that time I have put roughly 1500 rounds through it, mostly light target loads. I had never seen or fail in this manner either, and while I'm not aware of anyone working on it previously, they most definitely could have.
 
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