Need Gunsmiths Opinion on Trooper MKIII

[jondar]

I was reading the thread under Revolvers about the S&W with locks failing and locking up the action. I discovered that my Trooper MKIII will lock up under one circumstance. If you advance the cylinder about 1/8" at a time, by pulling the trigger a slight amount, releasing the trigger, repeating the process, that at a certain point in the rotation it locks up and you can no longer pull the trigger. You can then manually rotate the cylinder into index and everything is normal. I realize that this is an unusual way to index the cylinder, and under normal use (full pulls on the trigger double action) it never happens, but is this something I should have fixed? Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[dfariswheel]

What you're experiencing is momentary interference between the hand and the ejector ratchet.
Most DA revolvers can do this if manipulated so as to make it happen.

No revolver is intended to be operated this way.
Most Mark III Colt's and other revolvers will have a very slight "catch" if operated like this, but most will "bump over" and go ahead and rotate to full lock up.

What's happening is, the cylinder is rotated to a certain point where the hand that advances the cylinder is getting fouled on the ejector ratchet.
This doesn't happen when operated properly, it's only by allowing the hand to drop down then up again, that it gets in a position not normal.

Yours may just be one in which the hand gets "trapped" against the ejector ratchets more easily.
Unless it does this when operated properly, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[jondar]

Thanks. I figured it was the hand but didn't know if it could cause later complications. As you say, they aren't supposed to be operated in this fashion.