S&W Revolvers

That is the way S&W used to make the things, you know, back when quality counted for something? "Pinned" refers to the pinned barrel. If you look at an old one you will see a small pin driven thru the side of the frame where the barrel screws in. It was supposed to keep the barrel from backing out. "Recessed" refers to the cut of the cylinders. They have a recess cut out so that the whole cartridge, rim and all, is inserted into the cylinder, instead of having the rim exposed as on the new models. Kind of hard to explain the recess. Basically, the back end of the cylinder holes have enough of a lip cut out so that the rim also fits into the cylinder. Makes the whole back of the cylinder flush or flat instead of having 6 buttons/rims sticking out.
 
Rat,

S&W used to pin the barrels on all of its guns, but only recessed the cylinders on the magnums and on .22 rimfires. The .22s continue to be recessed today.

That stopped around the end of 1982.
 
Yeah good...I have a model 617 with the recessed aluminum 10 round cylinder. My model 14-7 full lug of course has neither. Tree Rat.
 
the recessed chambers were originally a safety feature due to the concern that there would be a rupture of the ballonhead cases in high presure loadings.
 
Interesting, I have seen a fair number of ruptured balloon head cases but never one that failed so close to the rim that a recessed chamber would make a safety difference. Used to be that balloon head cases were treasured because they would hold a significantly larger charge of powder. Hence the ability to get what would now be considered Magnum results from "special" guns and cartridges. Some used their balloon head cases for two or three cycles with over max charges then retired them to be used with "within specs" loads for many more cycles.

If not for some of the crazy old coots of yore, we would not have the high pressure cartridges and guns of today.

Sam....I know where I am, but not where anyting else is.
 
With the .22's it was a safety feature since once in a while a .22 will blow at the rim, and this was more frequent in the old days. With the .357, I think it was just PR hype.

Jim
 
9mm,

To the best of my knowledge, the Hand Ejector .44 Specials & .45 Colt/ACPs were not recessed, either.

It was started with the .357 Mag.

Many of the early .22s weren't recessed, either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top