Cleaning a S&W wheelgun

[herkyguy]

Hello all,

I’m a lifelong shooter of Ruger revolvers. SP101, GP100, and a super single six. I’d argue my GP100 has gotten its own trigger job by way of the thousands of rounds of .38 over the years. But today I picked up a S&W 63 on a whim since my LGS had sold the SP101 in .22 that I went in intending to buy.

Question is this: The S&W a totally different beast mechanically. With my Rugers, I strip them down (removing cylinder, firing spring, hammer, trigger assembly), every third shooting or so. What’s the consensus on a Smith? Seems more complicated and more prone to random bits and pieces getting lost.

Gave mine a good scrub today. But wondering how far to take the cleaning after a few hundred rounds?

Oh, and yeah... the trigger seems pretty sweet.

Thanks.

 

[beag_nut]

In my humble opinion, owning several Rugers similar to yours, you don't have to strip down so often as you are doing. Unless you are shooting at least ten times as much as I do (100-200 per range trip, about ten trips before deep cleaning). The Rugers seem to be designed to be less exposed to firing by-products.
I don't know about S+W, not having any in-house. But friends who do own them seem to go quite a while between deep cleanings, with no complaints.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

As you have realized Rugers, particularly double action Rugers, have very different mechanisms than S&W revolvers.

I strongly suggest you do not remove the side plate to clean a S&W.

Just scrub everything real well with bore brushes, bronze brushes and your favorite Smokeless powder solvent.

If you insist, after first making sure it is unloaded, remove the grips, then remove the cylinder by removing the side plate screw directly above the trigger guard. You will have to orient the flutes to pass by the swell of the frame. Then remove the rest of the side plate screws, there will be a total of three of them on a modern S&W.

DO NOT PRY THE SIDE PLATE OFF!!!!

The way I always remove the side plate is to strike the grip frame with a hard object like the hardwood handle of a hammer. Use the handle, not the head. Hold the gun with the side plate facing up. As you strike the grip frame a few times the side plate will begin to rise up. Keep a thumb on it so it does not jump off and fall to the ground.

This is what the inside of a modern K frame S&W looks like. Your J frame will probably have a coil hammer spring instead of the leaf spring of this Model 14.

Sure you want to go any further?






I'm not going to go further into disassembly, if you really want to take it apart completely, buy this book:

http://www.gunbooks.com/sw.html


Really, I suggest you just clean everything real well and leave it at that.

 

[dfariswheel]

Traditionally, Colt's and S&W's were cleaned by simply opening the cylinder and cleaning the bore and chambers.

Unless you drop it in a mud puddle or use it under extremely harsh conditions like dust storms, or in salt water they usually don't need more.
If you are concerned about it, you can do a full disassembly once a year and give it a full deep clean.

Before doing that I strongly recommend buying the Jerry Kuhnhausen Shop manual on your specific brand and buy some Brownell's Magna-Tip screwdriver bits to avoid dinking up the screws.
"Usually" the following bits will fit almost all Colt and S&W revolvers.........

.150-3
.180-3
.210-3.

The Shop Manuals were written to be used as training aids for new gunsmithing students. These cover all disassembly adjustments, and repairs to FACTORY standards.
BEWARE of disassembly videos on Youtube. Some of those are by butchers who have no idea of the proper way to disassemble and reassemble without damaging the gun.

https://www.brownells.com/search/index.htm?k=shop+manual&ksubmit=y

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-...-bits/magna-tip-super-set-bits-prod41568.aspx

I also recommend a Brownell's "law enforcement" size handle. Standard size handles are too big. A "LE" handle puts you closer to the screw for better control.....

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-...ip-super-set-screwdriver-handles-prod400.aspx

If you're going to be working with guns much, buy a magnetic and a clip-tip handle, you'll have need of both.

 

[Pat Riot]

Congrats on your new revolver.

I clean my S&W’s fully assembled after each range session or firing.
Two or three times a year I fully disassemble the cylinder assembly, clean and lube it.
Once a year I remove the side plate and use Hornady One Shot to clean and lubricate the internal components.

S&W revolvers are not like Rugers. That is for sure. I do not disassemble my Smiths unless something is broken.

Some folks never disassemble the cylinder assemblies nor do they remove side plates.

Rugers are a bit simpler to disassemble and reassemble.

EDIT: Buy the book Driftwood mentioned. I did and I have learned a lot from it. I learned to leave well enough alone, in some cases.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I rarely clean them. When I do, I dont take them apart.

 

[mcb]

I did not find it all that hard but there are some stiff springs to deal with during the work. There are plenty of good disassemble guides out there on how to do it.

That said I have several N-frames with well over 10k round through them (one north of 20K) in competition and I have not taken the side plate off any of them. The only reason I did the model 10 above was it was full of water and I guess I used it as an excuse to take it apart for fun.

 

[George P]

No need to do that after a few hundred rounds; a basic cleaning and lubing is fine - even after shoot lead bullets

 

[Riomouse911]

I took the cylinders off of my S&Ws today after shooting; two were new-to-me K-frame guns that I shot for the first time and one was my L frame that hadn’t been broken down in a while.
The two newbies needed a good going over, especially the Model 66-2. They both cleaned up nicely. My L frame has had a few hundred .38 and .357 rounds through it over the past year or two and wasn’t in bad shape at all.

As the guys said, your new Model 63 may, and that’s a may, need a full internal once-over with the one-shot treatment if it looks like the previous owner shot it and forgot it a lot. But other than that, I’d just do an initial cylinder-removal clean up and lube then blast away .

Stay safe.

 

[UncleEd]

MCB mentions having a couple of N-frames with 10K or more
rounds through them and never taking the side plates off. This
is what I advise if the gun is working to your satisfaction.

Usually cylinder chambers and the barrel are all that need
any real attention with brushings.

Might need to squirt a bit of Rem Oil down around the hammer
on rare occasions but don't use any heavy oils/lubes.

And if you feel it's getting a bit gunked up inside, take off the
stocks and liberally squirt in Gun Scrubber and then let dry.
Then again a bit of Rem Oil.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

BEWARE of disassembly videos on Youtube. Some of those are by butchers who have no idea of the proper way to disassemble and reassemble without damaging the gun.

Absolutely.

Lot's of bad videos out there. Both poorly done and just plain bad.

Buy the book and read it. Kuhnhausen writes the best books on the market. All of them.

 

[George P]

Larry Potterfield from Midway has an excellent video for the first timer

 

[JohnKSa]

With my Rugers, I strip them down (removing cylinder, firing spring, hammer, trigger assembly), every third shooting or so.

On the Ruger, this level of disassembly is simple and is within the realm of what the manufacturer recommends for maintenance. I would argue that you don't need to be doing this level of disassembly very often--even if it is easy and not violating any manufacturer recommendations. But that's a different discussion.

You certainly don't need to be opening up a S&W revolver anywhere near that often. In fact, unless there's some kind of mishap, you don't really ever need to take the sideplate off.

 

[herkyguy]

Copy all, and thank you. Will hold off on further disassembly until there’s a real need for it with the 63.

regarding my Rugers, the GP100 in particular, the disassembly was often after carrying that gun on my land and it being drenched in sweat, dust, dirt, etc. I’d reckon 20% of the blueing is gone from holster wear alone and I’ve had to remove bits of rust around the grip where i assume sweat would sit and dry up. Absolutely love the robust feel of a Ruger, it’s been used and abused and never let me down.

And excited to compare that to a Smith.

 

[Ks5shooter]

Basic cleaning until 500 rounds or so,then tear them apart.

 

[film495]

On a model 10, some years the threads for the cylinder are backwards threaded, some are not, so you have to be careful taking the cylinders off. If it doesn't unscrew reasonably, putting empty brass in the chambers supports the ejector star, which I guess can get bungled if too much force is applied trying to spin the cylinder off.

I don't take my model 10 apart, it doesn't look that hard from what I've seen, but there is no need to. You can clean out 99% of the internals by just removing the side cover and using patches and toothpicks.

 

[JJFitch]

Basic cleaning until 500 rounds or so,then tear them apart.

As a PPC shooter shooting 8k-10k rounds of 38 Spl. a year taught me that complete disassembly is rarely required!
I cleaned the inside of the cylinder with an aggressive medical grade stiff fiber brush after 150-300 rounds. The cylinder face and barrel were cleaned at around 600 rounds. The lockwork was sprayed with light oil between matches.

Never a failure or damage due to "cleaning"!

Smiles,

 

[wiscoaster]

Having completely disassembled & reassembled my two S&W revolvers (the 66-1 once and the 10-5 twice) my advice is: YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THAT JUST TO CLEAN IT, and furthermore, you shouldn't want to, if the gun is working just fine!! But then, I'm a glutton for disassembly / reassembly punishment, and believe me, I got thoroughly spanked. But I did get both guns back together without losing or breaking anything, and working perfectly. It just didn't need to be done, that's all, and unless you enjoy being psychologically traumatized, I suggest you not do it, either, if your only reason for doing it is cleaning.

 

[AustinTX]

Basic cleaning until 500 rounds or so,then tear them apart.

As everyone else has already explained, that’s completely unnecessary.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

On a model 10, some years the threads for the cylinder are backwards threaded, some are not, so you have to be careful taking the cylinders off. If it doesn't unscrew reasonably, putting empty brass in the chambers supports the ejector star, which I guess can get bungled if too much force is applied trying to spin the cylinder off.

Howdy Again

Smith and Wesson went from standard threads to left handed threads on all models around 1961 and 1962. The actual date varied a little bit for various models. With the Model 10 it was 10-2 in 1961 for the standard barrels and 10-3, also 1961 for the heavy barrels. The reason for the change is the rotation of the cylinder could tend to unscrew the extractor rod slightly. If the rod was not screwed in tightly, it could tend to unscrew slightly as the cylinder turned. This caused the rod to unwind forward a tiny amount, which made it impossible to open the gun. The thumbpiece could not push the extractor rod far enough forward for it to disengage from the spring plunger under the barrel. Simple enough to screw it back in enough to get the gun to open, you had to be able to reach up and grab the front of the extractor rod with a thumb and forefinger to screw the rod back in a quarter of a turn or so. A pliers could be used, but there was a risk of buggering up the rod with a pliers. I never had to resort to a pliers, was always able to wind the rod back in the necessary amount with a thumb and forefinger. Then once I had the cylinder swung open I would screw the rod back in as hard as I could with my fingers. The thread was changed to a left handed thread so the rotation of the cylinder would tend to tighten the rod, rather than loosen it. This entire scenario was easy enough to avoid with the 'older' Smiths by being sure the rod was screwed in tight enough to begin with. Again, real strong finger tight is all that was necessary.

My favorite gunsmith, long retired, had the patience to show me how to disassemble a Smith and Wesson a long time ago. I seldom completely take one apart these days unless it really needs it. Some of the old Smiths have so much hardened oil inside that a complete disassembly and degreasing with a strong solvent is necessary.

By the way, I never disassemble a cylinder. Too much risk of over torquing the actual extractor, which is brazed to the rod. Yes, I am fully aware of the old trick of putting 3 empty pieces of brass into the cylinder to support it, I just choose not to. I can clean a cylinder assembly just fine with solvent, a brush, q-tips, and canned air.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Larry Potterfield from Midway has an excellent video for the first timer

I just watched it. It is pretty good, but he left out a lot of the subtleties that will confuse the guy who is taking one apart for the first time.

Again, buy the book:

http://www.gunbooks.com/sw.html

It is also available from other vendors, including amazon, but I like to buy direct from Kuhnhasen and avoid the middle man.

His book on the Colt Single Action Army is the best on the market.

I have his Ruger Single Actions book too.

 

[George P]

Jerry's book is a great reference; I would also suggest to buy the proper tool for the rebound slide; it just works right

 

[Sovblocgunfan]

Mine came to me in pieces and I had to put it all back together anyway. But it really hasn’t been apart since then (about two years now).

 

[bdickens]

Overkill.

 

[ms6852]

Never disassemble mine to clean other than just removing the cylinder. The one time I had to remove the side plate was when I dropped the gun at the beach accidentally while moving my tackle box. But was pretty simple just rinsed it with fresh water spayed wd 40 to disperse the water dried it in the sun and than added some oil. But all my wheel guns are Smiths and Wessons an am familiar with their design.