Cylinder binding...

[JERRY]

So there I am shooting my 681... I cut my teeth with this gun way back and it has been knock down reliable ever since. We'll imagine my surprise when the cylinder would occasionally bind up upon a trigger pull; causing the very smooth trigger pull to be very hard to pull... I dumped out the spent brass and I looked at the gun and chalked it up to it's been sitting for a while and maybe it's just gummy inside.

Well I break out my 640 that I carried as a backup when I carried the 681 and shooting the same ammo resulted in the same dilemma.

Switching back to the 681 when it did it again I examined the round next up and found that the bullets were pulling from the brass. I was using Remington .357mag 125 grain semi jacketed hollow point from the white and green box. None of the ammo had a crimp or role mark on it so chalk it up to buying bargain ammo even from the big companies.

 

[deadeye dick]

Yup. A light crimp is a must. Also, if you reload make sure the primer is seated all the way

 

[Tall]

Have these revolvers been modified by S&W? I am not familiar with the numbers but I am assuming they are L Frames?

From Smith & Wesson: " S&W put out a product warning and authorized a no-charge upgrade to make modifications to the revolver. All recalled and reworked guns were stamped with an M marking, signifying that they had been recalled and fixed; thus it is known as the M modification for all 686, 686–1, 586–1, and 586-2 revolvers."

 

[JERRY]

Have these revolvers been modified by S&W? I am not familiar with the numbers but I am assuming they are L Frames?

From Smith & Wesson: " S&W put out a product warning and authorized a no-charge upgrade to make modifications to the revolver. All recalled and reworked guns were stamped with an M marking, signifying that they had been recalled and fixed; thus it is known as the M modification for all 686, 686–1, 586–1, and 586-2 revolvers."

Yes, my 681 was M modified years ago. The 640 is a j frame magnum.

 

[LV Gun]

Have these revolvers been modified by S&W? I am not familiar with the numbers but I am assuming they are L Frames?

From Smith & Wesson: " S&W put out a product warning and authorized a no-charge upgrade to make modifications to the revolver. All recalled and reworked guns were stamped with an M marking, signifying that they had been recalled and fixed; thus it is known as the M modification for all 686, 686–1, 586–1, and 586-2 revolvers."

I have a 586 -1 with the M mark bought it used 20 years ago for $275.00 I am going to have to contact S&W mine is doing it again to see if they will fix it.

 

[JERRY]

I have a 586 -1 with the M mark bought it used 20 years ago for $275.00 I am going to have to contact S&W mine is doing it again to see if they will fix it.

What's wrong with it?

 

[LV Gun]

What's wrong with it?

Cylinder binds on the yoke but I shot it today and it was fine but I did give the inside of the cylinder where the yoke shaft goes through a very thorough cleaning I think I may have had some lead get in it .

 

[trackskippy]

The fact that it was occurring with two different guns should have been a hint it was likely ammo related. The fact it was Remington would have made me look at that more closely too. Ive had number of issues with their stuff the past decade or so now, so that's not real awe-inspiring either.

Crimp is important with things like 357mag and bullets jumping the crimp can lead to one of the nastier revolver stoppages. Ive also run into squibs which Im assuming were due to to light of a crimp not allowing the powder charge to fully ignite yet the primer drives it and the bullet into the forcing cone/barrel. Once I started taper crimping instead of roll crimping my 357's, that issue seems to have gone away.

Something else Ive run into with R-P brass is, the rims on the cases were not to spec. My dad bought a bunch of 45 Colt off of Sportsmans Guide before he died and I started to shoot it up a few years later. When I was shooting it in my Ruger Blackhawk, the cylinder was binding pretty much every time I loaded it, and to the point it would lock up and I had to take the cylinder out of the gun to unload it. The rounds checked for OAL, but when I miked the rims, some were a lot thicker than the others.

I spent an evening loading those rounds into the cylinder and cycling them around and segregating those that bound up the gun. That turned out to be about a quarter of them. Those rounds worked OK in my Winchester Trapper, but were useless in the revolvers and I ended up scrapping those cases.

One other thing with the DA revolvers you need to watch and keep up on is, keeping the area under the extractor star clean, and when you reload, you need to dump the empties "muzzle up". If the muzzle isn't up when you dump the cases, any crap, burnt/unburnt powder in the cases can and will fall onto the cylinder under the ejector star as you extract them, and that will keep it from seating properly and returning to its proper place, causing the next rounds to bind on the recoil shield. And you'd be amazed at how little it takes to tie the gun up.

Revolvers have their own set of rules/things that you need to understand and take care of. People like to think that they are more reliable than the autos, and in some cases they can be, but in other cases, they can get REAL ugly, if you don't pay attention and understand them.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

Clearly it was ammo related. The OP said both guns had bullet pull.