what to you mean it locked up?

J

Jkwas

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what do you mean it locked up?

Alot of people talk about their revolver "locking up". I don't know if I've experienced this or not. A couple of times, I've shot my revolver and it would not move to the next chamber. I opened the cylinder, and closed it. Afterwards, everything was fine. I assumed this was powder deposits or a piece of shell casing etc. Is this normal, or should I be worried? I have about 500 rounds thru the gun, and this has happened less than five times.
Jkwas :confused:
 
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It is a taurus, but could it be the ammo? It's a 357, but the only time it's done it is when shooting 38spl wwb. Is it possible for build up between the cone and cylinder to cause this? It's like a jam in an auto. Once you clear it, it's fine. You ask if it was a taurus. have you heard of any other types doing this?
 
nope just mine, never had a prob with any of my colts or rugers. i hate to say it but i think its just crummy taurus action
 
Ejector rod backing out?
Bullet jumping crimp or a squib stuck in the forcing cone?
Bent moonclip?
Powder under the star?

Revolvers can get tied in knots, too. :o
 
My SP101, when I am shooting hot rounds, will actually bind up from being hot. It takes about 20 rounds of consistant shooting, then I let it cool down and then it fine again. The wheel actually gets tight and has trouble moving. It never really totally locks up, but it is tough to get it to move.
 
When I take it to the range, I shoot a lot of rounds out of it. Usually 100 or so, and it gets pretty hot. Also, my wife had the problem I think like twice, and I had it once, when I first started shooting. I clean it pretty thoroughly, but I will check under the star and make sure I get any excess oil off. I'll have to pay more attention to resetting the trigger, and mention it to my wife as well. Technique could be a part of it. Statistically, less than 5 times in 500 rounds is less than 1%, which for a mechanical device is probably pretty good.
I've shot autos with more jams. I think if it was a fundamental problem with the action of the gun, it would happen more often, and wouldn't be so easy to clear. I'll have to shoot some more to see! :D
 
My SP101, when I am shooting hot rounds, will actually bind up from being hot. It takes about 20 rounds of consistant shooting, then I let it cool down and then it fine again. The wheel actually gets tight and has trouble moving. It never really totally locks up, but it is tough to get it to move.
Click to expand...

That shouldn't happen!

Maybe your B/C gap is too tight? So then the parts expand with heat and actually start to bind. Try measuring the B/C gap with a feeler gauge. Something like .006" would be right. You don't want something so big that it spits out of the side but anything less than than is just asking for trouble with burnt powder, etc.

Gregg
 
Have you cleaned the face of the cylinder?? build up of lead and fouling can cause the face of the cylinder to drag on the barrel forcing cone when the cylinder heats up. Lead away cloths will remove the fouling and lead. also hoppes or another good cleaner like blue wonder and a brass brush applied to the face of the cylinder will remove the build up which has closed the BC gap.

JMHO YMMV
 
Greg,

Thanks for the reply. I will look into it. I may take it to New Freedom Armory with me this week and see if the smithy will look at it for me. I NEVER mess with revolvers. I am too afraid to screw them up.
 
If it's the Taurus .357 with the covered hammer (hammerless?) then number 3 here. I sold it the first day that I shot it. Not only due to the binding but also because I hated the trigger. It would pull back quick, "pause", and then fire. There was no crisp clean pull :(.

Wayne
 
a paragraph from the taurus operating manual

I found this in the manual:
6. SAFETY FIRST: While shooting any revolver, a cartridge case may
occasionally become jammed against the breech face, impairing the ability of
the cylinder to turn freely. Clear the jam as follows, WHILE KEEPING THE
MUZZLE POINTED IN A SAFE DIRECTION AND THE FINGERS WELL
CLEAR OF THE TRIGGER: push the cylinder release and attempt to open
the cylinder. If the cylinder swings open, eject all cartridges and spent cases.
Inspect the cartridges and the breech before resuming shooting. Inspect the
cylinder and breech face before resuming shooting. DO NOT REUSE THE
EJECTED CARTRIDGES.
13
ALWAYS KEEP THE MUZZLE POINTED IN A SAFE DIRECTION.

Sort of sounds like my situation ! :rolleyes:
 
Sort of sounds like my situation !
Click to expand...

That CAN happen but it _shouldn't_. A bottle-neck cartridge in a revolver can "set-back" and lock up a cylinder. That led to the demise of the S&W M53 in .22 Jet. A straight sides revolver cartridge like a .357 shouldn't do that. I would only expect it to happen if the ammo was VERY excessive in pressure or if the chambers in the cylinder were very rough and poorly machined. Such a situation could be made worse by fouling and heat so then it could happen after a long string of fire. But that's the case with a fouled barrel/cylinder gap as well.

Like I said before, that just shouldn't happen with a properly made gun and proper ammuntion. I shoot a bunch of different S&W and Ruger revolvers and something like that has never happened to me. Not one time. And that's over about 30 years of shooting them! Something isn't right!

Gregg
 
Greg,
Intermittent problems are the hardest problems to find. Ask any auto mechanic. If it is a serious problem, I will no doubt have to wait until it fails completely, or consistantly, and then send it back. I doubt the people at taurus will fire it 150 times to get it to malfunction. ;)
 
I forgot one critical question: has it happened with different brands of ammunition? It's always possible that your gun just doesn't like "Brand X" and would be fine if you fed it something else.

Gregg
 
Greg,
After I thought long and hard, there were two types of ammo that I had problems with. The first was a batch of .357 reloads where 2 out of 5 wouldn't work, and some had swollen cases at the base. I actually had to force a few out after firing! Didn't shoot the rest. The guy who gave them to me said they shot fine out of his ruger gp100. Aside from that, I shoot mostly wwb 130 gn 38spl. I've shot magtech, corbon, and umc. I've only had the problem with winchester white box. I read in a different post about someone having problems with out of spec casings whereby the cylinder hung up at the breach a couple of times, but only with a particular ammo. (which is more problematic? post#29). I'm thinking it's more of an ammo issue then one with the revolver. The 605 is excellent in fit and finish, shoots dead accurate at 40ft, has a super smooth trigger, and for the money, it's what I could afford at the time. Is it the best revolver ever made? maybe yes, maybe no, but I feel it is a workable alternative, and even at 1% malfunction rate, it's probably more reliable than most semi-autos. :)
 
There are a lot of potential causes for a revolver locking up, in my case I had a new S&W model 66 that would lock up, it was a timing problem, the cylinder would try to turn before the cylinder lock had released.

This was a duty weapon and was unacceptible!!!!! I sent it to an authorized S&W repair station 3 times, they never did fix it, and the 3rd time they sent it back it came COD, I was hopping mad! I proceded to pull the trigger and it locked up tight about the 4th or 5th pull...so I got madder! I called S&W told them the story and sent them the pistol, they fixed it right and got the repair station to return my money, S&W made it right! That was 20 years ago and I still have that pistol, it served me well and gave me no further problems at all.
 
post script

Went to the range today with my father in law. He has a german revolver I never heard of. It said "HRW" made in germany on the side, and also said "cocoa beach fla" on the other. His revolver sieized up after about 50 rounds of shooting. The Taurus kept on going with no problems what so ever. Put about 70-80 rounds thru it all together. I think it may have been a bad batch of ammo after all. :D
 
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