I have had a S&W 629 (first year) that has been sitting in my safe. It's had very few rounds shot through it.

I had it at the range today because my stepson said that I should get rid of it and I wanted to shoot it first again before I made that decision.

The problem:

There has always been a problem with the trigger being hard to pull on 2 of the 6 cylinders. A friend of mine was shooting with us who is a retired LEO and he looked at the revolver. He said that the face of the cylinder was rubbing on the back and top of the barrel. After firing it, he showed me the 'rub mark' on the front of the cylinder.

He also said the cylinder/bore axis looked to possibly be mis-aligned.... Is this something that can be easily fixed or should I send the revolver back to S&W to see if it could be corrected (and if they agree with my friend's assessment)?

Thanks for your help.

I have a Mod.27 with the exact same problem. I am going to send it back to S&W after the new year and get it fixed. I bet they have to take the barrel off and cut it back a few thousands. I would wait till after the new year because they take a pretty long break around this time and it will just be sitting there.

You can do this yourself. Brownells sells a tool designed to this, I can't recall what it is called right now, but it is easy to do (also easy to take off too much), If you don't want to send it back and incur the shipping you may have luck finding a competent gunsmith who can do it and has the tool. Anytime you change a barrel this has too be done so most 'smiths that have a good shop should have this tool.
RD

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Got a Phd from Hard Knocks U

Another possibility is you may have gotten some powder residue or other crud in the yoke.

If you had taken the gun apart recently to clean it something may have entered the cylinder where the yoke slides in preventing it from functioning properly.

If you haven't removed the yoke before shooting the gun it's possible residue was left in the cylinder prior to being shipped. I'd certainly check with a good gunsmith before shipping it to the repair center or doing something more drastic...

You may also want to place thiws post in the "S&W-Smithing" section of this website.... good info there!!

I have a 64-3 that does this, the b/c gap is barely .002 and when it gets hot it will rub just enough to not bind up, but will rub enough to put "buffing" on the cylinder face. The burn rings on the cylinder face show scraping from where the top part of the forcing cone rub. My fix, I just keep shooting it...I figure eventually it will break in......it's a security trade-in and it will go 50-100 rounds, depending on how fast I shoot, before it starts rubbing and the cosmetic damage is already done anyway. The upside, it's very accurate and probably squeezes an extra 50 fps. due to the tight gap I don't have the desire or the nerves to go taking a file to one of my S&W's so if it works, it works. I have dozens more that are flawless so a $300 shooter grade 64 with a little rubbing doesn't bother me all that much.

I have a Taurus 83 that does this BAD, after 12 rounds it will "gag" up and the forcing cone has cut deep lines in the cylinder face from when the past owner probably just kept forcing the trigger back and finally got it to where enough metal wore off to get it working. I cleaned up the forcing cone with a fine file to get it working, of course, I do things to a Taurus I would never do to a S&W.

The cylinder rubbing the barrel can easily be fixed using the tool from Brownell's. I've done it many times, but the tool is not inexpensive. It consists of a rod with a t-handle, a brass busing to align the cutter in the bore and a flat faced cutter that treads onto the end of the rod. You simply put the tool into the barrel, pull the cutter against the breech of the barrel and turn it slowly. The cutter trims the rear of the barrel. Likely the barrel is not exactly flat on the breech end. This was not an uncommon problem with S&W revolvers of that age. You do need to be careful not to take too much off. Automotive feeler gauges will work nicely for measuring the barrel/cylinder gap.
There is also a tool called a range rod that can tell you if the cylinder and bore are misaligned. However, this problem is not easily fixable by the amateur. There could be a couple of reasons for this and it is best to have it done by a good gunsmith or by sending the gun back to Smith & Wesson.
If I had this problem and didn't have local access to a certified S&W armorer, I probably would send it to the factory for repair.

- - - Buckspen

You're sure the cylinder doesn't have excessive fore/aft movement (end shake)? If so it'll eventually get to where it touches the barrel. This can be fixed much more easily and doesn't require altering your barrel.

I doubt that S&W made a gun with a misaligned bore. There's something else going on.

Welcome to the forum.

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Lynnie, Professional Pest

I had the same problem with a 1954 vintage pre 27.Cylinder would begin to rub barrel after 18-24 rounds fired.I gave it a good cleaning,made sure no crud under extractor star and the problem persisted.After reading posts in smithing section here I got a pack of cylinder endshake bearings from Brownells and a extractor rod removal tool.The bearings come in two thicknesses,.002 and .004 and are $18.00 for a pack of 10.The extractor rod tool is $22.00.Installed a bearing and the rub persisted.I put another one in and problem solved.Have fired about 300 rounds and still no rub.I also did this to a mod 17-1 that had many failures to fire and solved that problem also.Hope this info helps.

I would try this first, as your gun exhibits symptoms of a bent extractor rod. Remove the extractor rod. Read the sticky's or the Kuhnhausen shop manual on how to do this properly. Carefully(not too tight as to damage the threaded end), chuck up the rod in a hand drill and spin it. Any noticable wobble will be apparent. If the wobble is present, simply buy a new rod. This is a $7 part from Brownells. Some people try and straighten the rod, but 99% of the time the bend is right at the threaded portion. These rods are easily bent if the cylinder is not closed carefully. You also need to keep the front locking bolt oiled, so that it moves smoothly as the end of the extractor rod engages it.

Once you replace a bent rod, check your cylinder face/barrel clearance. With the gun UNLOADED, insert the widest feeler gauge that will slip into that barrel/cylinder gap. Pull the trigger slowly on every chamber. If the cylinder face and barrel are still not square, you will feel a bind as the cylinder comes up, and that "high spot" begins to tighten up on the feeler gauge. Hopefully, with the new rod installed, you will feel uniform resistance on all chambers, as the cylinder rotates past the feeler gauge.

If you still have that bind, then it's time to follow other folks suggestions on checking for a bent yoke and/or excessive endshake.

Never remove metal from the barrel until you have checked everything else that could be wrong, most likely is endshake, yoke and cylinder, bent extractor rod, yoke alignment, etc. Make sure that the gun is in perfect specifications before removing metal from enaywhere. Always work on the cheapest part first. If the gun has enshake and removing metal from the barrel will only increase the B/C gap when the gun is fixed correctly. Many years ago I made this mistake and "fixed" a model 27 that the cyolinder was rubbing the back of the barrel, when the real culprit was endshake! I have found that some cylinders are out of square on the front side a little and will sometimes drag when the B/C gap is too small. When set up with a .004-.006 gap, it does not affect the function of the gun. If you do not have the tools and knowledge to fix the gun, I would suggest a trip back to the factory.

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Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

If it's not easy to spot, send it back!

Remember that there was a lot of demand on Smith & Wesson to build that revolver before the redhawk launch. My 8 3/8 had to be sent back, because the cylinder stop had a burr.

A factory repair will retain your revolvers value as well!

Good Luck, Notime2

The same Problem on my 27-2, I fixed it with a 0.002 shim from S&W K L N Shim Kit
they have the shims from 0,002-0,005.

There are several possible causes of the problem none of which are easily fixed without proper tools and know how.

The Barrel/Cylinder gap is one possibility. I have a Ruger that measured .003" for one side of the barrel and.001" from the other! It was a quick 10minute fix for a gunsmith with the right tool. While he was at it I had him recut the forcing cone.

Other possibilities include bent ejector rod. A rare problem I have only seen once is the face of the cylinder may not have been machined evenly. The only fix is to be it on a lathe and remill it or replace the cylinder.

I have a Model 10-6 that developed the problem as yours. I sent it back to S&W for repair. When I got the gun back the repair ticket said "Repair ammo binding."

ZOMBIE THREAD!!!