Hi all:

This is a virtually unfired 29-4 with scratches on the face of the cylinder but ONLY between the charge holes. Its almost like it happened opening and closing the cylinder if it rubbed on the forcing cone. There are no scratches except on the outer edge of teh cylinder.someone suggested that since the revolver is opened and closed many times during the fitting process that it happened at the factory.Your opinions are appreciated imemnsely. Thank you

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Gun Control= Using Both Hands

Looks to me like someone used steel wool or something similar to try to clean the cylinder face. The area at about 4 o'clock in the pic looks really bad.

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Frosty
S&WCA # 2816

Plus it's been shot a bit

As everyone has mentioned the scratches are from someone's very aggressive cleaning job. If you go put 100 rounds through it you won't even notice they're there.

I think someone hit it with a dremel tool. That is one terrible gun cleaning job I think.

Looks more like someone checked cylinder gap with a rough set of feeler gauges..

and that's had lot's of rounds through it...

"I wish I had a nickel" for every revolver ruined by someone who just cannot manage to use an ordinary cleaning rod, an ordinary brush, and an ordinary solvent, to clean a revolver in an ordinary way.

I still dont understand why the scratches are only on the outer edge of the cylinder.and betwen and above the charge holes. why not across the whole cylinder face??

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Gun Control= Using Both Hands

Perhaps the scratching is quite old and was across the full face at some stage but the wear (?? for want of a better word - or is it perhaps better called something like recoil impact) from the forcing cone around the charge holes has simply worn it away.
Though in your OP you say that it's a virtually unfired revolver??

Please read my previous response.

In your picture each scratch was put there when the charge hole was in line with the barrel. Bubba slipped a ratty feeler gauge in to check end gap. Nice and tight..SCRATCH!!!!!

If you zoom in and look closely at the 10 o'clock area you can see that the scratches do indeed go all the way across but have been slightly erased in the forcing cone area. Likewise at 1200 but not quite so obvious

I'd say a "Butcher" has cleaned off the Cylinder's Carbon & Lead Rings - but looks like he used a hammer and chisel......

That gun may look virtually unfired everywhere else, but to me the cylinder face tells a different story.
I agree with the others on a botched cleaning job. A feeler gauge wouldn't leave scratches like that, either.

That gun is not "virtually unfired"
IMO the scratches were put there when the seller tried to make the gun look "virtually unfired" with a bad cleaning job and probably some touch up blue in places we cant see in the pics.
My suggestion is to shoot and enjoy your firearm and forget about the scratches.

There is nothing "unfired" about that 29 and whoever wanted to make it look so does not know how to clean a gun.

Couple of years ago, I bought a Ruger Security Six (blued) that had those same kind of marks on the cylinder face. Looked like someone had run a steel wire brush over it or something. Looked awful.

My be "unfired" but its sure not "uncleaned". I think the previous owner used a dental pick to scrape off the lead and lube, thus creating these scratches. It is clear to me this is caused by aggressive cleaning with something as hard as a steel dental pick.

Looks like there was buildup and removed with a pocket knife. Not knowing what to do until the damage was done. Someone probably had to tell him he screwed up.

OUCH ! That falls into the category of "stupid scratch" As other posts have recommended, it can be fixed

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John

Over zealous cleaning by someone devoid of the knowledge to do so.

Makes me think of the 1911 'idiot mark'.

Use it to lower the price AFTER checking to make sure the cylinder to forcing cone relationship is good and the forcing cone is good, then alcohol the **** out of the cylinder face and cold blue.

Shoot, repeat as necessary.

Thats from someone jamming a feeler guage in there to measure the b to c gap.

Lets only hope the previous owner didn't try to adjust the BC gap with a file because it leaded up.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Certainly not unique :|
This gun also has similar scratches at the back end of some of the chambers.
Luckily none of this has affected the excellent shootability of this 696.

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Nemo

Attached Images

696CylinderScratch.jpg (272.9 KB, 126 views)

That's great to hear Nemo. I can't tell if that last photo is a more recent one after a bit of polishing or not, but I'd imagine most of the scratches wouldn't be too hard to polish out with a fine metal polish without doing any further damage to it.

We're spending WAY too much time here trying to surmise how some idiot carelessly re-surfaced the face of the cylinder. Who cares at this point (sorry Hillary)? Fire the gun 100+ times and they'll magically disappear. Other than the scratches, how does she handle/shoot?

I prefer not to do ANY polishing with the possible exception of sliding surfaces of internal parts.
So my photo is as it came to me and the way it will stay.
The gun now has character and removing metal is not going to make it function any better.

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Nemo

Close examination in person by another forum member revealed something very interesting: When you close the cylinder the outer parts rub against the outside of the forcing cone. When you close it
fully the part in the shroud that goes into the ejector rod pushes it away from the forcing cone.
So, the forcing cone is not true and one little part of it needs to be squared off. I knew from examination that it couldnt have come from cleaning. My original contention still stands ...if someone did it from using abrasive stuff , it wouldnt be isolated just to the outer
edge of the cylinder.

Thanks all,

Haris1

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Gun Control= Using Both Hands

More pics ! We like 29s.

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No gold. Only lead. Bobby

Somebody messed it up but it shouldn't affect the shootability one bit. The only thing I wouldn't use it for is a showpiece.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

"So, the forcing cone is not true and one little part of it needs to be squared off. I knew from examination that it couldnt have come from cleaning. My original contention still stands ...if someone did it from using abrasive stuff , it wouldnt be isolated just to the outer
edge of the cylinder."

Mine kinda looks like that too, so I can believe it was fixed at some point for a cone rub.
What I can't figure out is how similar marks ended up inside some of the chambers at the back end.

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Nemo

If the scratches were cause by "the forcing cone" they would all be running in a pattern , similar to machine tool marks. In some areas they appear to cross them self's.

Well there would be scratches from rotating the cylinder when it was closed and other ones from opening and closing it.
Not necessarily all parallel.
Maybe?

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Nemo

???? - Take a closer look. The photo shows that it is not isolated top the outer edge. It also looks like some scratches are more recent than others.