First outing with my recently purchased K22 (circa 1952). She's in great shape or so I thought. After a couple of cylinder fulls she started giving me problems, In both SA and DA the hammer would not come back fully. I had to wiggle the cylinder to get it to come to full cock.

This seemed to happen more and more from once in maybe 12 shots to perhaps every third or fourth round until I put her away.

Planning on pulling the side plate and taking a look. Didn't notice anything when I initally cleaned it which included removing the side plate and applying a little grease in the contact points, inside of the side plate, etc.

What might I be looking for? TIA

Make sure the main spring tension screw (at the lower front of the grip) is fully tightened. If it backs off a couple turns, the hammer strut will bind, causing hard cocking.

The screw is tight. Stripped her down, cleaned and lubed but the problem persists. The hand and rebound slide have been highly polished.

I'm thinking they might have removed too much metal. I tried the action with the sideplate off. When it would bind I put downward pressure on the hand and it seemed to go back to normal function. With the sideplate on and snugged down tight it still doesn't work right all the time.

Does it sound plausible that the polishing has left too much slop and the hand is lifting up and away causing the problem?

If your hand was worn or overly polished, the gun would show timing issues, not binding.

Try cocking the action with the cylinder open. Hold thumbpiece back and cock hammer. You can see the hand movement in the window and detect any binding there.

If the action is tight with cylinder closed, but not with cylinder open, the problem is likely your hand/ratchet interface. Look for burrs on ratchet and hand.

If extractor rod is bent, it will bind during cylinder rotation.

Be systematic in your diagnosis. Try to eliminate possibilities one at a time.

Let us know what you find.

Make sure you check out the simple things first. Are the chambers clean and is there anything under the extractor that would keep the cartridges from seating completely in the chamber so they don't drag on the recoil sheild? Does it act the same if the cylinder is open while holding the thumbpiece back?
Make certain that the cylinder face is not dragging on the barrel. I just repaired one that had excesive endshake that did a similar thing.
If the gun functions with the cylinder open, you could also have a bent centerpin or extractor.
Good luck and hope you solve the problem. These are great shooting guns.

Don

Thanks all. I'll check some more this weekend. It is the same whether the cylinder is loaded or empty.

If necessary can I send this back to S&W for repair? By that I mean will they work on one this old, 1952? Thought there was a cutoff date or something but can't recall for sure.

OK, here's what is happening. Open the cylinder and hold the latch back. Hammer comes back just enough for the cylinder stop to retract almost flush into it's hole then everything stops. Don't see the hand coming out of the window at all. Same thing happens with the cylinder shut as far as everything binding up.

Also if I keep trying it will seem to start working again. If I cock it, pull the trigger and lower the hammer and repeat after 3-4 times the hammer still comes to full cock but the cylinder doesn't rotate at all.

So basically the revolver work fine part of the time, cocks but doesn't rotate the cyliner part of the time and won't cock at all the rest of the time.

Will S&W repair this old of a firearm or is this something a novice can attempt to repair?

OK, did some further looking on the web and I'm pretty sure I did not install the reinstall the hand properly as the info talks about it being under spring tension. I recall it seemed like it was under some tention when I remove it but I know it wasn't when I put it back. Not sure how to tenstion it?

Richard Here's a Pic from 500 Magnum Nut's Post from Pg. #4 of the FAQs, Also here's the Link
You'll have it fixed in no time..
If this had been a later made MIM gun the spring would propobly be gone as it's not captive like the ealier ones were, Good For You..
Good Luck!!
Gary/Hk
FAQs Pg #4

Thank you. It'll be a few days but I'll give that a try.

Where are you in VA? I could probably fix it easier than telling you how to do it!

I'm in Roanoke