Smith & Wesson M1917 Firing Issue

W

whitie_bear

Inactive
Guys,

Hopefully some of the gurus here can help me out. I have a old refinished smith and wesson M1917 revolver - love it! but i have a problem when firing using the trigger (DA) method. If i pull the trigger to cock and fire the next round 4/6 times the firing pin will strike off mark and actually hit the bullet casing - when I inspect the rear face of the bullet, i notice a small dimple to the left or right of the primer, not touching the primer at all! like it is mis-aligned, the same happens to my snap caps, it hits the aluminum body and not the silicone/rubber primer area

When I cock the hammer with my thumb then pull the trigger it always works and hits where it should, so it has to be something with the movement of the cylinder, or the trigger not pulling the cylinder enough?

I know how to tear down the gun (youtube) but was wondering if anyone has experienced this and knows where i should look first - and please keep the take it to the gunsmith comments down, that is my backup but I quite knowledgeable with rifles and pistols just never worked on a revolver before and it would be something I want to learn more about

Thanks for any help you can provide
 
Without having it in my own hands, it certainly sounds like the timing is quite a bit off and your stating that it works fine in single action mode but not so great in double action mode backs up that theory.

When you cock a revolver in single action by thumbing back the hammer, you impart energy on the rotating cylinder with a LOT of leverage and it gives that big and heavy cylinder momentum and that momentum allows the cylinder to "carry up" and take itself all the way through it's path of travel to lock up nicely for the shot. Basically, energy and momentum are masking the failure of the hand which actually does the advancing of the cylinder.

When you shoot the revolver in double action, the hand is given it's energy through the trigger where you have far less leverage and you are giving it, and the cylinder, less energy to complete it's full travel distance.

When the revolver is working properly, a slow and measured double action pull on the trigger will rotate the cylinder to exactly where it needs to go to lock up for the shot.

Your revolver has timing issues. This is not easy for a novice to correct. You may even notice that the cylinder timing is different for all six chambers, if you unload the revolver and do a lot of dry-firing in double action, slowly, while watching the cylinder closely, you may find that the problem only happens on some and not all of the chambers.

A secondary issue to this condition is that when the cylinder is not locked fully in to place but YET the firing pin is able to hit the primer and discharge the round, the bullet is now entering the forcing cone off-center. The result can be lead being shaved and spit -- this is an obvious hazard and certainly not good for the revolver and not a good scenario for anyone near the revolver.

Your next step should be obvious -- but you asked that nobody say that, so I'll wait to hear how you rectified the problem. Fixing cylinder timing on a Smith & Wesson revolver is not something that I would do, though I'm sure many are qualified to do it.
 
On second thought...

If you take the cylinder out of the revolver, remove the cylinder from the ejector and clean clean clean to ensure that the cylinder spins just as freely as it possibly can, this may improve your situation -IF- a binding cylinder is more the problem than an issue with the hand that rotates the cylinder. That is something you can address without professional help that is very low-risk. (which is to say that attempting to alter or modify the hand carries a far greater risk of screwing something up that you cannot fix)
 
The problem might be in the double action sear, sometimes called the hammer strut. In DA firing, the hammer is started back by the trigger pressing up on the DA sear, then partway through the pull the second cam on the trigger will pick up the hammer, the DA sear will be free, and the trigger will move the hammer back the rest of the way. If anything goes wrong in that cycle, the hammer will fall before the hand completes indexing the cylinder.

You can easily observe the sequence with the sideplate removed, but make sure to loosen the mainspring strain screw before removing the sideplate and remove the mainspring before working on the lockwork.

Jim
 
much appreciated guys, if its something extremely complicated ill get a smith to look at it; but if someone else has had an issue and it was fairly simple i would think i could handle it.

Anyways thanks for giving me a place to look and i appreciate the replies
 
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