So I got a bent center pin, you can see when you put the gun on the side and spin the cylinder tha the front end sways side to side...

I'm pretty sure what I need to do in order to fix it, and thats buy a new one and just replace it. But I'm wondering what are the usual ways that a center pin can get bent like this? Is there some things you shouldn't do with the S&W?

I have never been dumb enough to flick my gun shut, but I've had two people do it to mine (christ what is wrong with people?).

The gun is a new 629-5 thats been customised by a company in Germany so it has not been shot a lot, yet it already has a bent center pin. This is hardly encouraging.

I always hold the cylinder or crane and gently open and close it, the only thing I can think of is when I disassemble the cylinder itself, I've sometimes had the center pin and ejector rod on while they where no longer supported by the crane, and no dummy rounds in the chamber to support the ejector star/etc. Could that have done it?

And what about heavy recoil? I fired some rounds through this gun that put a 267gr slug up to speeds of 1476FPS, I noticed sticky ejection very soon and when I got home and took it apart I noticed peening on the front of the center pin, so it stuck against the ejector rod when I wanted to release the cylinder. I don't see how heavy recoil could've bent the pin myself but it's worth mentioning I figure.

90+% of bent center pins are due to the "Hollywood/Sgt Friday" flip. In this day of plastic semi-auto pistols, I assume that any shooter I show a gun to is likely to use the flip to close a revolver, unless I already know that they are experienced revolver owners. Brownells and Numrich both sell center pins. If you search Youtube for MidwayUSA tech videos there is one on straightening the S&W center pin.

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Revolver luvin' Mountaineer

HDS.
That rod can be made straight. By you if you know what you are doing, or a good gunsmith.
If by you, use a rubber or leather mallet. Un-bend it, carefully.
Bill@Yuma

I don't think I could unbend this, it's so slight that you cannot see it unless you let the cylinder spin and watch the end of the ejector rod move back and forth slightly.

BTW, I suppose it can be the ejector rod that is bent also, and not the center pin. I just assumed the center pin is the one most likely at fault for some reason. I do not know how to tell which is responsible

Weird, I removed the peening and put the gun back together and that seems to have taken care of most of the wobbling I got. It's much reduced if not entierly gone.

This is why I wish I had some real tools that can measure these things, because sometimes I am not sure I am going crazy or not.

Many years ago when I dabbled in such, Brownell's offered a crane alignment tool as I recall for addressing these problems. Not really worth it unless you do a fair amount of gunsmith work, and you'd just about have to find a 'smith that did or used to do work on a lot of PPC guns to find one who had a tool like that already.

I've 'educated' several uninitiated enthusiasts about snapping a cylinder closed like that. People who have never been taught correctly see that on TV or in a movie and think it's "cool". After they do it in front of me I'd wager most don't make the mistake a second time.

My dear old dad-gone now- 80 years old thought that was the way to close a revolver also. I had a son to father meeting with him. He didn,t do it again!!!Still makes me laugh at the look on his face. I must have been intense.

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T. Johnson