Revolver Tying Up has Me Puzzled

If he could force the trigger through the problem, it might be the ammo dragging. Hight primer, or maybe the bullet creeping out and bearing against the forcing cone?

Or it might be a bit of debris that only occasionally finds it way into a sensitive spot. Remove the grips and hose it out, it might help.

I was also going to say high primer but more likely a bit of bullet jump under recoil dragging against forcing cone.

So the trigger pulled fine but the hammer didn’t travel back?

High primer or perhaps a flake of powder under the extractor star. I've had both happen to me.

My 686 2.5 barrel developed hard trigger pull and jam after 50 rounds Winchester WB and 25 rounds 125 gr +p. RO fired the round and squirted a little oil under the extractor star, didn't have anymore problems. Going to shoot it again sometime this week, will save the casings if it happens again

This happened to me on a 640 pro series. It would happen intermittently but would persist for multiple trigger pulls until it cleared itself up, only to crop up again after a bit. The trigger was nearly impossible to pull when it would happen. I wish I could tell you what the cause was, but I boxed it up and sent it back to Smith and Wesson as the gun was only a few weeks old. They replaced pretty much everything inside and then it worked fine.

If the case has backed out, this area has to push it back, as the cylinder rotates. The rim can cause drag. Enought to slow rotation of the cylinder. Not a common problem.

Low pressure rounds will leave the primer backed out and tie up the cylinder in a heartbeat.
Try a cylinder-full with empty cases/just primers and see what happens

Does this revolver have any sort of trigger overtravel stop? Like a pin protruding from the rear of the trigger or a short pin inside the rebound slide? Is this a newer gun? If it is a new gun you could remove the sideplate, flush with solvent, blow out with compressed air and relube and try it. New guns sometimes have small burrs and metal chips floating around in the action. The next thing to look at is the interaction of the DA sear with the trigger. There could also be a burr on the breechface dragging on some cases and not on others. The primers may not be seated fully below flush with the case head.

Is there excessive end shake?

I've had a few older S&Ws with end shake issues that behaved somewhat similarly. I had a pre-27 and a .44 3rd Model Hand Ejector that must have had slightly bent yokes and a little bit of end shake. You could see that the cylinder gap was inconsistent between chambers and that a chamber or two would rub against the forcing cone. This would make for a rough trigger pull on the afflicted chambers. It only happened when the revolvers were loaded.

I agree, it has to do ether with cases backing out(have this happen with my .460 and starline cases) and being difficult to push back in or primers backing out. Since it only does it with certain ammo it would seem to be a ammo issue and not a gun malfunction.

9mmepiphany said:

2. The ammo is commercially loaded
3. The cases are new Starline

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9mmepiphany said:

this has never happened with his reloaded match ammo

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On the first firing, new brass will expand near the web area. But not fully. One side more then the other. Think oval.
If the case needs to be pushed back into the chamber, as the cylinder rotates, this may cause drag.

Take fired brass and place back into the chamber. Some will require some effert to rechamber fully.

Oval chamber? Check with pin gauges?

I had a more extreme case with a well used Model 10-6 Police Department trade-in. The gun would tie up like what you are describing after only three rounds.

I chased all of the usual discussion forum advice; disassembled the gun, cleaned the guts, checked b/c gap, etc. I even replaced the ejector rod. I ended up sending back to the mothership where they "corrected ammo binding" for $100.00. From what little I have been able to determine by looking and shooting the gun is they replaced all of the internal parts. Sadly the action feels like a brand new gun meaning the smooth action from years of shooting is gone. It may be that the armorer at S&W found it easier and cheaper just to replace all of the internal parts rather than detail troubleshooting it.

I know this is not any help in the middle of the shooting season. The solution may be having a local gunsmith replace the guts. It will not identify the cause of the problem immediately. The only way he will know if he found the cause is if the gun functions fine the rest of the season.

I am not familiar with ICORE matches. Is his ammo relatively low powered using lead bullets?

9mmepiphany said:

I thought about a high primer, but wouldn't that have dragged all the way around...this was his 4th round after a reload?

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No. Primers won’t necessarily drag all the way around. Your recoil shield and recoil plate are not perfectly planar, the rounds have more room to slide back when NOT on the recoil plate.

A revolver intermittently locking up is almost always one of 3 things:

1) Debris under the extractor
2) Unseated primers
3) Crimp jump and bullet impinging upon barrel tenon

#1 is super simple to fix and self explanatory

#2 is caused by low power ammo, equally simple to fix and diagnose

#3 is ridiculously obvious, and in an ICORE revolver, dollars to doughnuts, this ain’t it.