Also known as a puzzlement.....

I have written on the Forum before about my friend's Model 28. Gold lettering, lazy ampersand, a 1970s revolver. She got it when she thought she was going to be a police officer. That didn't work out but she kept the gun.

So, here's the puzzle - see if you can guess what's wrong - because nobody else has yet......

She was at the range shooting commercial .38 Special ammunition. The hammer jammed back. She cannot make it go forward and cannot (obviously) open the cylinder.

When told about it I presumed a jammed ejector rod, typically easy to fix. After seeing the gun I am not sure. She had the hammer rubber banded back so it cannot drop by accident. Clearly, I was not going to get the cylinder to open if though I could make the plunger (locking bolt? I am bad at parts names) go back by using a tiny headed screwdriver.

There are some rounds in the chambers. But is there a bullet stuck in the barrel? Could that lock the gun up?

All speculation or knowledgeable explanations are welcome.

A very qualified gunsmith could not, at first glance, make any parts move. So I left the gun with him.

Broken stud inside the body will do some odd things. If they can safely remove the side plate that would be a start.

They can block the hammer with a big zip tie to prevent it from contacting the primer should it decide to move during the process.

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On the Oak Savannah

I was shooting ammo from a small manufacturer, whom I will not name, and one round had no powder. The primer alone was sufficient to push the bullet partially into the forcing cone locking the cylinder completely. Fortunately a wooden range rod driven thru the barrel with light taps pushed the 240 gr. lead bullet far enough to allow the cylinder to open.
Lucky fix on that one!

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Tim
SWCA #2697

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In the above scenario, the gun is bound up so the hammer can not be cocked, op's gun has the hammer cocked back..,

Render the hammer inoperable. Jam a wooden wedge between the hammer and frame. Remove grips and remove strain screw. Hammer is now harmless. Pop the side plate and ascertain the problem. That is my only suggestion.

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Mike 2796
SoFo Bunch member

A buddy had a Colt .22 target revolver that he has had for many years, One night while we were shooting the hammer cocked back and froze there. After much speculation several drops of lubricant in the action solved the problem. The action was so dry the raw metal jammed against the other moving parts and locked it up. Don't know if this is your problem, but worth a few drops of lubricant in various locations of the action. But first check if a squib is blocking the BC gap.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I have had a squib cause the cylinder to lock up- bullet halfway in cylinder halfway in barrel. Also to check for, which happened to me- a primer on a fairly old casing backed out and got wedged between cylinder and recoil sheild. Once I figured out what had locked me up I was able to fenagle the primer out of there and all was fine.

If you are comfortable fixing revolvers, I say do as post #5, If not take it to a qualified professional after wedging, zip tie and duct taping the hammer back. A loaded hammer cocked revolver is a bad place to learn gun smithing on.

Without having the gun in hand, its pretty hard to do anything but speculate on the cause. There is not much that can cause the hammer to bind back in cocked mode. One suspect would be a strain screw that is backed out, causing the main spring to lengthen enough to put pressure on the hammer in cocked mode. Another culprit could be a pair of Pachmeyer grips that has the screw in such a location as to bind the mainspring on some guns.

I am curious, so would be interested in what the gunsmith finds.

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Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

OP, I'd be interested in finding out the remedy for this.
Please let us know.
Thanks, Mike

Stay tuned. A top notch gunsmith has the gun. I was done with it the moment I realized that there was nothing I could do.