I have a new S&W Model 63 that I purchased last July and took it to the range for the first time yesterday. I'm using Federal champion 22 LR 36 gn fmj, load #745. As I began firing I noticed that the trigger sometimes became stiffer than other times and sometime actually required 2 fingers on the trigger to fire a round. After taking a closer look I think that the cylinder is binding up. After returning home I thoroughly cleaned the gun and inserted an unfired round in the cylinder and closed the cylinder with the round in the 12 oclock firing position. I then opened the cylinder and removed the round. I repeated this with another round a few more times and noticed that some of the rounds came out with scuff marks on the bottom of the casing, probably from brushing against the firing pin bushing. This to me appears like a tolerence stack up between the ammo and the gun. I want to avoid trying different ammo because this same ammo from this same box worked in a S&W 34 and a Ruger LCR without a single problem (about 400 rds between those two guns). A S&W 63 should be able to fire any 22 LR ammo that's on the market.
I'm leaning towards sending this gun back to S&W but before doing so I'm wondering if anyone else has had the same problem with this model revolver and how they dealt with it. I'll be grateful for all responses.

Have you cleaned thoroughly under the ejector? This is a relatively common problem with .22's as they are not clean shooting rounds. That said, if it is a new gun and the problem appeared before you had put many rounds through it, call S&W for a shipping tag and let them get it right.

ETA one more thing, check your ejector rod to make sure it's tight. A loose rod can bind up the cylinder, too. LH threads.

Oh, and Welcome to the Forum!

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Thank you for your reply. Yes it started right out of the box and yes the ejector rod is tight. As I stated in the post, some of the casings show scuff marks probably from the firing pin bushing. Is that normal? Thanks again.

FP bushing should be flush with the recoil shield. If not, I'd say send it back. Warranty work is free, as is shipping on it.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

The FP bushing is slightly convex so it's hard to tell. I put a straight edge across it at the highest point (at the fp hole) and it appears to be about .003/.004 higher than the recoil shield. However, it appears to be the same on a 617 and 317 that I have. I measured the depth that the back of a cartridge sticks out at the back of the cylinder of the 617 and it appears sticks out about .002/.003 less than it sticks out of the 63. I don't have the right measuring equipment to tell for sure. I haven't fired the 617 and 317 yet either. I'm hoping to go to the range with the 617 next Saturday and hopefully that one is ok. Like I said in the post, it may be a tolerance issue. Thanks for your input.

If it were a Taurus....in the days when I tried those, just about every one dragged in the recoil shield....no matter what caliber. A little home-smithing was in order to polish off the burrs, remove the tool-marks and square-up the recoil shield. Most 22 chambers had to be well-polished as well.

The one you have should get S&W factory smiting....it's free. Call them, get a label and send it home. Unfortunately, this is getting to be the case more and more with newer guns.

I hope the supply of older NL guns never dries up!

sdk. Do you have any problems passing a 22 caliber cleaning tool through the bore with the cylinder open? The cleaning rod end will not pass through mine even with the cylinder rolled out.

I ran a 22 caliber bore brush through it without a problem. It was tight but it went through the same as with the other 22 caliber revolvers that I have.

Sdk. Found out mine was severely fouled with lead from shooting Remington Thunderbolt ammo. Ty.

Got my model 63 back from S&W yesterday. I received it back 2 weeks and 1 day after shipping it. That's good service. However, it took 3 weeks to get the return shipping label after requesting it. I took it to the range today and fired 200+ Federal bulk (the same ammo as before) and 48 rounds of Mini Mags. The gun fired smooth as silk without a single bind. I guess it's fixed. The paperwork that came back with the gun didn't state what was done to the gun and although there were boxes that could be checked off, they were all blank. The only thing that was stated on the paper was "can't use mini mags or hv ammo. Cyl will bind". That why the gun was returned in the first place. However, this is what I've noticed about the returned gun so maybe someone will have some ideas. The front of the cylinder was factory clean. When I sent it it was clean to the touch but darkened from use. I thought that perhaps the cylinder was replaced but there are the usual turn lines on it. The only way I know to get the cylinder face that clean would be to use a brass brush or lead away cloths but I don't know if they would have bothered to do that. When I sent the gun, the small brown envelope containing the spent test fire casing was with it and sealed. Someone unsealed it then resealed it with transparent tape. Why? next week I'm going to phone S&W c.s. to see if I can find out what the problem was and what was done. Meanwhile, maybe someone may have some insight into how they work and can expain this. I'll be grateful for any responses. Thank you.

I phoned S&W this morning and after a long wait on the phone I spoke to a c.s. person. After explaining that one of the documents that was returned with the gun stated "your firearm does not require any service for the reason(s) indicated below" and the hand written reason at the bottom of the document states "Can't use mini-mags or HV ammo - cyl. will bind". His reply was that they don't recommend the use of hv ammo in the model 63 because of tolerances. I responded that I've never seen it stated anywhere that this revolver is restricted to standard velocity or target loads. Does anybody know of any ammo restrictions or recommendations pertaining to the model 63?

Sounds like a "boat-load" to me. I do not have a 63 and never have owned one, but I do have some 22 revolvers, mostly Smith's. I know others that have and shoot the 63 and have no issues. IMHO...I think any gun should chamber-fire-extract any ammo that it was chambered for that meets SAAMI specs. If it doesn't...I don't own it for very long.

In particular on another brand, I have taken a 25-caliber bore brush and put it on a drill motor.....polished the chambers and most of this stuff vanishes. In one case, I had to square-up the recoil shield and remove gouges and tool-marks, but that's on a $250 gun....not a $600 plus gun.

Thanks for replying. Unless I'm missing something I think that is nonsense. If you will read the entire thread you'll see that it appears that something was done to the revolver to correct it but not communicated.

I just put a couple hundred rounds of Winchester bulk (333) 1280 fps through my 63 teaching some teenage girls to shoot. Nary a hitch and shoots to POA in nice tight groups. 22's are finicky with ammo, and it will pay you benefits t test various ammo and stick with the one that shoots best from your 63. Stay away from Thunderbolt, it is so dirty it will gunk up anything. Most important is keep the underside of the extractor star clean, and when ejecting the empties, hold the gun muzzle straight up.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

The Smith 22 revolvers are made to pretty tight tolerances,that's what makes them accurate.Some of them will run with anything (loose tolerances)Some of them can be finicky.Buy some of the target grade stuff and see how it does.

RE #13. My bad....the point I missed was that the gun is apparently fixed, which is a good thing. I now understand the gun works fine and you're trying to find out what they did to it, or if indeed anyone else knows of any published ammo restrictions.

As far as the nonsense goes....if you've ever tried to make a new Taurus revolver work, the nonsense is sending it back-n-forth to Miami and trying to deal with those folks. The easiest and most nonsensical thing you can do is fix it yourself or throw it away.

Thanks for you input. I think that tightly held tolerances should make the gun able to use a wider range of ammo because it would minimumize tolerance stack up between the tolerances of the gun and the tolerances of the ammo. This would help insure that even ammo that is at the highest end of it's allowable tolerance it will still work in a gun that is at the smallest end of it's allowable tolerance. I think that problems like mine can occurr when guns are shipped with components(s) that are outside of their allowable tolerances. I don't know if that was the case with my model 63 and as I said earlier, it seems to be working ok now. I would just like to know what was the cause and what was the corrective action. Thanks again. S.K.

I just got back from the shooting range where I fired another 250+ rounds of the same Federal Champion 1260 fps ammo without a single cylinder bind. This makes a total of over 450 rounds without a bind since getting it back from S&W last Friday. It's kind of a neat Xmas present knowing that I have a good shooting model 63 thanks to the fine folks at Smith & Wesson. Now if only I could find out exactly what the problem was and what was done to correct it. What I do know is prior to sending the gun to S&W, opening and closing the cylinder would result in a scuff mark on some of the cartridges that were in the firing position opposite the firing pin. Now there are no scuff marks and I estimate that there is .004/.005 clearance between the cartridge and the firing pin area of the recoil shield. That clearance didn't get there by itself. However, I have an e mail in at S&W and hopefully this will be explained. I'm not optimistic. I will update this thread once I hear back. Until then Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All.

Please open attachment for copy of service report that I mentioned earlier in the thread. I don't buy it. It's utter nonsense like I said before.

Attached Files

img004.pdf (489.0 KB, 89 views)

I think that is the CYA box.

My guess is they did nothing but clean it. If you ever have the opportunity to inspect and measure various different 22 RF ammo you will see quite a difference. In target shooting, one accuracy factor is the consistency of the rim thickness. There are various tools out there for measuring it. to get the ultimate, rim thickness needs to be held to + or - .001". In the manufacturing process, when brass is being stamped out by the millions, it is nearly impossible to keep this tight a tolerance unless the machinery is re-calibrated on a tight schedule. This reduces the production and increases the quality but also increases the cost. We used to buy standard velocity ammo and sort it by rim thickness. It did pay off when shooting 100 yard match's.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I've received a reply to the e mail that I sent to S&W asking for a more detailed explaination of what was done to this gun while it was at S&W. I also questioned the comment "Can't use mini-mags or HV ammo - cyl. will bind" that was written on the service report that was sent back with the returned gun. I've again attached a copy of that service report to this post.
According to the reply there was indeed a repair done to the frame to increase the cylinder gaps front and rear, and the reason for the hv ammo comment is that the cases tend to swell and result in extraction problems. For me, extraction of the Federal Champion 36 gn hv ammo has never been a problem including in the model 63. Yes, extraction can be a little stiff at times, but still very managable and not enough to make me avoid using the ammo.
This information should have been communicated to begin with, but I'm still satisified now that everything has been clarified. Below I will include part of the e mail that I received today. Thanks again to all who have followed this post.
S.K.

Reference number: LTK11177050XXXX Please use this ticket number in any correspondence with us.
Subject: Model 63 serial #CUDXXXX

Dear Customer,
According to the repair screens they made repairs to the frame. The repairs done were to correct the gapping on the cylinder front and rear to eliminate the bind.
Hi velocity .22LR ammunition is best suited for semi-automatic pistols, when used in revolvers it will cause the cylinder to bind upon extraction. This is due to the cases swelling due to the higher pressure of the round.
If further assistance is required please reply accordingly.
Sincerely,
XXXX

Attached Files

img004.pdf (489.0 KB, 22 views)