S&W 500 New purchase, possible problems?

Looks like a used gun to me. You should have checked the guns condition better before buying it. Sorry.

Clean the rust off. Oil coating then to protect it. And go shoot your 500.

I first focused on the rod and it does look warped to some degree. I then focused on the cylinder and I didn't see any movement there that suggest warpage so I think it's just the rod itself. If you check the cylinder as it's spinning up on the left hand side it runs really true, as least to my eyes.

Sometimes the extractor rod will start to unscrew on a Smith revolver, folks will take it apart and slather it with loctite in big globs and screw it together crooked because of the gobs of loctite and the fine threads. It may be that it is not bent at all. but tightened up crooked.
If you are not familiar with S&W cylinder disassembly it is better to send it in to S&W and have it checked out.

Its also possible that the previous owner abused it and bent the center pin and the extractor rod.

You can see the ejector rod is bent where it enters the crane. Watch the gap between the rod and crane hole. It gets bigger and smaller as you turn it.

BigBlue 94 said:

You can see the ejector rod is bent where it enters the crane. Watch the gap between the rod and crane hole. It gets bigger and smaller as you turn it.

Click to expand...

Does this look like a situation wherein someone spun the cylinder and slammed it shut?

That's a big, heavy cylinder.

Assuming it's a used gun (and the finish condition alone suggests to me that it is), if those are the worst issues you can find, I'd say you're doing alright.

The rust can be dealt with or managed depending on how aggressive you want to get. The ejector rod really isn't bad from what I saw in the video, and certain not a functional problem.

Just my two cents of course.

If I thought I was buying a new gun I would be upset. Otherwise, not a big deal. The rust or discoloration is cosmetic, and on a stainless gun, not difficult to remove. The ejector rod is probably bent - though @Master Blaster gives very good advice re. checking whether it has unscrewed. If it is bent, any decent revolversmith can straighten it for a small fee. (Of course, S&W themselves can do the same work, though I no longer place full faith in any of the manufacturer's repair departments.)

Beyond that, the OP has himself an entertaining firearm and I expect it will do exactly what it was intended to.

No one straightens extractor rods, a new one costs $10. I had a used revolver recently with the exact issue the OP has, I knew it when I bought the gun and negotiated a much lower price. I bought an extractor rod and a center pin, and when I disassembled the cylinder I found the loctite glob and the crooked screw job, The extractor rod was straight. I cleaned and reassembled it with a tiny bit of loctite and my extractor rod wrench.

BTW my wobble was much worse than your video, the 625 PC I bought locks up on the extractor rod end, not with a ball lock on the crane like your 500. If your gun times up and cycles smoothly the tiny wobble is a non issue.

Extractor rod and wrench.

Master Blaster said:

Extractor rod and wrench.

View attachment 1075457

Click to expand...

Now I'm confused. I thought the rod that was pushed towards the cylinder was called an "ejector" rod. Mainly because it's being pushed, to push casings out.

Have I just been wrong all these years, and it's actually an "extractor" rod? Or is the terminology depended on the manufacturer?

Master Blaster said:

No one straightens extractor rods

Click to expand...

Strange, then, that I've had it done several times by several gunsmiths, each using a tool made and sold for the purpose.

@WrongHanded I've always used the terms interchangeably and have never been corrected.

Nice 500 and it's pretty clean. Some good solvent and as wire brush will get rid of it.

Yes your rod is bent and no there is no problem with replacing it. Just remember its cross threaded so screw it backwards. I've bent a few rods over the years even when taking real good care of my guns.

My former gunsmith would just straighten them out but I don't feel comfortable doing is so I replace them. I do take my cylinder apart about every 5000 rounds for cleaning. With the 500 that will cost you a pretty penny.

Good luck and good shooting.

In S&W parlance, it's the extractor rod. Probably because the rod pushes the ratchet which extracts the cases out of the cylinder, and then gravity causes the cases to fall off of the ratchet. They're re not actually ejected with a spring or other force...at least not by design. Jerry Miculek may disagree with me.

WrongHanded said:

Now I'm confused. I thought the rod that was pushed towards the cylinder was called an "ejector" rod. Mainly because it's being pushed, to push casings out.

Have I just been wrong all these years, and it's actually an "extractor" rod? Or is the terminology depended on the manufacturer?

Click to expand...

I agree with this.

CoalCrackerAl said:

Clean the rust off. Oil coating then to protect it. And go shoot your 500.

Click to expand...

WrongHanded said:

The rust can be dealt with or managed depending on how aggressive you want to get. The ejector rod really isn't bad from what I saw in the video, and certain not a functional problem.

Click to expand...

Master Blaster said:

If your gun times up and cycles smoothly the tiny wobble is a non issue.

Click to expand...

A new one for $8 the rod end is a separate piece.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1004470140?pid=495552

I Love mine enjoy yours mate

thewelshm

The cycling issue probably means the center pin is bent, this does affect the function of the gun and is a sign of abuse by the previous owner.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/100440703?pid=138392

JB111 said:

it hit a very hard spot when cocking.

Click to expand...

Check tbe cylinder, barrel gap. Should be .004" minimum to .009" maximum.

Nice job on the clean up.

If it hasn't been removed yet, I'd suggest you take out that God-Awful internal lock. My 500 locked up several times under recoil and gave me fits before I figured out what was happening. It's not too difficult to remove and there are some videos on YT to show you how. I went a step farther and machined a plug to replace the key portion of the lock so it cleaned up the frame nicely.

Master Blaster said:

The cycling issue probably means the center pin is bent, this does affect the function of the gun and is a sign of abuse by the previous owner.

Click to expand...

A former co-worker that knew little about guns, particularly revolvers, purchased a Super Redhawk in .454 Casull for deer hunting. Using factory ammo, he reported that empties were next to impossible to extract, to the point of "really having to pound on the pushrod." I had seen the revolver prior to his experience and to Ruger's credit, the chambers were chrome-like. I understood that keeping them very clean was important to avoid extraction issues?

thirty-eight said:

A former co-worker that knew little about guns, particularly revolvers, purchased a Super Redhawk in .454 Casull for deer hunting. Using factory ammo, he reported that empties were next to impossible to extract, to the point of "really having to pound on the pushrod." I had seen the revolver prior to his experience and to Ruger's credit, the chambers were chrome-like. I understood that keeping them very clean was important to avoid extraction issues?

Click to expand...

454s can be tough to extract, especially 6 empty cases fired at 60k+ psi. The brass is all over the place in hardness with soft federal cases that actually last a long time and random starline cases that are so hard they need considerable force to size new and will split reliably after 1-5 loadings. Those extract hard too. I keep super clean chambers in my FA revolver but my super redhawk lives a pretty dirty life. But I use it a lot and I like to shoot a wide variety of ammo through it. No problem. If you push a fired 454 case into each chamber , any crud or whatever should fall away.

My FA is less tolerant of crud, she doesn't like being dirty , reminds me of someone I know ...


Hard extraction is common and somewhat expected in 454 casull. There were some ruger specific metalurgy issues at some point that had to do with hard extraction but it's either hit or miss or has been resolved because mine is predictable based on ammo. 454 case with trailboss and a 250 grain cast bullet , cases will fall out assuming chambers are clean. 360 grain bullet sitting on a case full of h110, it's probably gonna have stiff extraction.

Op-
Sweet 500. Get that thing fixed up and let her rip. I don't want a 500 mag, I'll continue telling myself that until I find one I can't resist. Hope S&W treat you well and fix it up free. It's hard to say a 500 mag has been "abused", it abuses it's self violently every time you shoot it. Nice revolver.

JB111, I posted the Casull "story" only as a possible cause for the issues with your revolver's extractor rod.