I recently bought a Model 15-3. Took it to the range today and had three Failure to fires out of a box of factory reloads. I plan to keep this gun in my car for self defense. When I got home I fired 25 Federal rounds and six rounds each of three different Remington's, Speer Gold Dots, Sig Sauer, Hornady, and Winchester. I had no failures with any of them. All shots were double action. Would you feel safe using this gun for self defense?

I Factory reloads? Pray tell, what factory?

Continue testing with new ammo until you don't have any doubts.

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Honoring the little pin

I agree with tacotime. Sounds like the ammo.

It was Ultramax ammo that I had problems with. Thank you for your reply.

Is the strain screw tight?

There can be many factors in play here so it does pay to do some checking.

First potential cause, especially with reloads, is primers that aren't fully seated. The check is to strike that round a second time using Double Action. If that round then fires it's fairly likely the primer wasn't fully seated and the first strike acted to seat the primer completely. BTW the reason you test for this using Double Action is the shorter hammer fall transfers LESS energy to the primer.

The second most likely cause is a strain screw that has worn "shorter" or or been shortened to lighten the DA trigger weight. Test for this is to measure the weight of the DA trigger. On revolvers of the vintage of your 15-3 the factory had a target weight for the DA trigger of 9.0 lbs. +/- 1/2 lbs. If you find the DA trigger weight is under 8 1/2 lbs. then I would suggest replacing the strain screw with one of the correct length for your vintage revolver. BTW, Round or Square butt are different lengths and early 70's Round butt are a different length than those for the current round butt K and L frames. (found that out with my 19-3, a spare from my stock of part for modern K and L frames wasn't close to being long enough).

The third most likely potential cause is a mainspring that was re-profiled to lighten the DA trigger pull or is worn out. Test for this is to check the DA trigger weight with a NEW and CORRECT strain screw installed. If the weight is still lighter than the target then a new mainspring is the solution. BTW, I've never compared early 70's mainsprings to late model ones but everything I've seen on the Net and in catalogs indicates they are the same.

Fifth most likely cause is a lockwork that is really gummed up. Back in the 70's a common method for cleaning and lubing the lockwork on a S&W revolver was to hose it out with WD-40. A rust preventative oil that takes on some characteristics similar to glue after 15 or 20 years. The solution is a complete removal of all the internal parts and a long soak in mineral spirits, a good scrubbing, a rinse in alcohol, and then re-assembly with the judicious applications of tiny drops of Mobile One motor oil at the pivot pins, rebound slide, and cylinder stop.

Sixth potential cause is a "short" hammer nose or a damaged tip on the hammer nose. BTW, the Hammer Nose is the part on the hammer that most would call the firing pin. Test is to open the cylinder, pull the cylinder release button to the rear and cycling the action to bring the hammer to full Fall with the trigger held to the rear to keep it all the way forward. Then lay a dime next to the tip of the hammer nose and look to see if the tip is even or slightly extended past that Dime. If it's short the solution is the installation of a new Hammer Nose. BTW, the Power Custom Extended Hammer Nose available at Brownells is well made with superb installation and fitting instructions and it WILL fit a 15-3. Know that because I had this particular issue with a 1972 vintage 19-3 that shipped with a short hammer nose and was nearly unfired when I found it at a gun show a couple of years back. That 19-3 had a nose so short that it wouldn't ignite a Magnum primer even in single action and failed to fire about 20% of the time with a non Magnum primer in single action. It only came to about 1/2 the thickness of a dime.

This is always my first thought when I hear about failure to fire with a Smith revolver.

Either backed out, or ground down to lighten the pull.

Either is a bad idea.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

All three fired on the second try. Thank you very much for your info.

Classic symptom of a primer not fully seated, the first blow fully seated the primer and the second strike fired it . Reloads are reloads and not as reliable as brand new factory ammo.
Just keep the "factory" reloads for practice and you will be fine .
Gary

Thank you all very much!

Congrats on the 15! Also welcome to the FORUM! I bought 2 K frames at different times that had shortened strain screws. Both were Model 10's. Take a good look to be sure. Bob

Classic case of Bubba backing out or shortening the strain screw - keep it tight and see how it works. If you still get FTF take it out and see if it has been filed down - replace with new if needed

Thank You Sir. I will check.

When I was working with teaching "Combat Pistol" in the Corps and assisting some police agencies in CA. Those Departments would not let an Officer take a gun on the street until it had 250 rounds through it with out a malfunction of any sort.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

An "old school" quick fix for a too short screw was to place a fired small primer over the screw's end and tighten it down. Sometimes it was just enough and wouldn't slip off.
Gary

Check that factory reloads with a different pistol. If they fire then avoid them in your gun and use factory new. I reload all my ammo but my self defense is factory. Find some you like and that function and use it.

Just my opinion but factory reloads are for the range not self defence

This is what I did to fix my Model 15 while I ordered a new mainspring, but that was probably 10 years ago and I've never gotten around to it.