CDC S&W Model 10-10

[krinko]

So here's one of the M10s from the California Department of Corrections---

It doesn't seem to have been used much; there's no primer burn ring on the recoil shield, for instance.
However, inspecting the cylinder locking bolt cuts with a loupe, shows very slight dinging on either side of these cuts, left and right.
Now, with the hammer down and trigger in the "pulled" position, I get a dead tight lock-up for five out of six chambers---and the one that does move, doesn't move much. In fact this old girl locks up tighter than my 686.
I guess the question I have is whether this dinging of the cuts is a normal thing, or the result of say, +P shooting in a non-rated gun? (Some of the CDC 10-10s were marked +P.)

-----krinko

 

[jad0110]

Nice gun - carried a lot and shot little.

But from what you describe of the cylinder notches, it sounds like the gaurds were "bogarting" the cylinder - spinning the cylinder with it open, and then slamming it shut with a rightward flick of the wrist with the cylinder still spinning. If done hard enough, it could peen both sides of the locking notch on the cylinder when the cylinder comes to a sudden stop against the locking bolt, it could bounce and spin in the opposite direction thus dinging the other side of the cylinder notch.

How does the locking bolt look?

On the bad chamber, so long as the chamber mouth doesn't overlap with the striking cone, you should be fine. With the gun unloaded (extremely important, as this inspection violates multiple safety rules), wiggle with cylinder back and forth while peering down the bore with a flashlight shined into the recoil shield area to provide a good backlight, to see if there is any overlap.

None of my S&W K Frame .38s are marked +P, but so far as I am aware, all post war model 10s should be fine with +P.

 

[krinko]

I had not thought of the flick of the wrist thing, so thanks for that...it makes sense. Damn movies.
The locking bolt is alright, no distortion I can see.
The "bad" chamber doesn't move far enough to shave lead and when I am through planishing, it won't move at all.
Thanks.
-----krinko

 

[fireman 9731]

Peened bolt notches are not uncommon. Its likely due to either spinning and flicking the cylinder shut as others have said, or fast double action firing and staging the trigger. A fast initial pull of the trigger gets the cylinder moving fast and then not completing the follow through to stage the trigger for a single action-like pull at the end can cause peening. Its more common on the heavier cylindered N-Frames due to more mass rotating around then suddenly getting stopped by the bolt in the notch. Normal, smooth double action staging is perfectly harmless. Fast, jerky staging can cause peening. +P ammo will not cause peening of the cylinder notches- unless there is some other timing issue going on.

I would say your gun is perfectly fine. In the rare event that it gets signifigantly worse, you can easily install an over size cylider stop to correct the issue. But, from your description, its no where near needing that.