617-1 firing pin occasionally fails to operate

[sdk]

Hello,
This is a 617-1 that has never had a misfire problem. However, during the last few trips to the range it has failed to fire one or two times for every 100 rounds. The difference here is that when it misfires there is no strike mark at all on the unfired casing while the other casings have normal strike marks. The tip of the firing pin in perfectly normal. It seems like when this misfire occurs, the hammer is failing to engage the firing pin. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Thanks in advance.
S.K.

[OKFC05]

Might try cleaning and inspecting the firing pin and the hammer block

[Protocall_Design]

It may be skipping chambers and striking between. Check for firing pin dings between chambers. This is most likely to occur when firing fast DA.

[sdk]

The firing pin looks fine and hammer looks fine (from what I can see). There are no dings around the chambers. My guess is the hammer is stopping before it gets to the firing pin and if so, why? Thanks for replying.
S.K.

[OKFC05]

Originally Posted by sdk

The firing pin looks fine and hammer looks fine (from what I can see). There are no dings around the chambers. My guess is the hammer is stopping before it gets to the firing pin and if so, why? Thanks for replying.
S.K.

Maybe I should have explicitly suggested removing and inspecting the firing pin assembly including spring. I found one clogged with old oil and crud. If you don't feel comfortable removing the side plate and suspect parts, a qualified revolver smith can help.

[sdk]

Originally Posted by OKFC05

Maybe I should have explicitly suggested removing and inspecting the firing pin assembly including spring. I found one clogged with old oil and crud. If you don't feel comfortable removing the side plate and suspect parts, a qualified revolver smith can help.

Yes, if it continues and there aren't any simpler solutions I will probably send it back to S&W because I'm concerned that removing the side plate may be tricky, even though I'm fairly proficient with mechanical stuff (tools & machinery). I think that I may be over oiling it so I'm going to stop doing that and see what happens. Thank you for your suggestion.

[Protocall_Design]

Too much oil does nothing more than make a mess, as the excess will run down the trigger. You may have a broken firing pin.Some of these things would be easy to see with gun in hand, but hard to know long distance.

[one eye joe]

Originally Posted by Toolguy

It may be skipping chambers and striking between. Check for firing pin dings between chambers. This is most likely to occur when firing fast DA.

I AGREE WITH TOOL GUY. I WOULD BLAST THE FIRING PIN AREA WELL, WITH A GOOD AEROSOL, GUN CLEANING PRODUCT, THEN TRY TO REPLICATE THE PROBLEM, AT SLOW FIRE AND RAPID FIRE SPEEDS......

FOR DIAGNOSTIC PURPOSES, TRY TO NARROW DOWN THE CONDITIONS, AT WHICH THE PROBLEM OCCURS......

[sdk]

What would cause the firing pin to break all of a sudden? If the firing pin were broken wouldn't it not work at all? This only occurs 1 or 2 times out of 100 rounds. Should the next step be to blast out the firing pin area with an aerosol or compressed air as suggested by one eye joe? Thanks.
S.K.

[Protocall_Design]

You can blast the firing pin area with Brake Parts cleaner and compressed air if you want. Can't hurt, might help. The parts are fitted closely, if there is dirt or debris in there, it may not be able to get out.

[sdk]

I owe everyone who replied to this thread an apology, especially Toolguy.
I reexamined the cylinder, this time in better light and with much needed eye glasses and indeed there are firing pin dings between 2 chambers. There are a total of 2 dings that partially overlap each other. However, this failure to fire has occurred about 6 times, which tells me that each of the 2 dings was hit more than once, so it's always occurring between the same 2 chambers. I did not attempt to rapid fire in DA mode so what could be causing this? About 1 week ago I gave the chambers a thorough cleaning with a brass brush because some rounds were stiff during insertion and ejection. To do this I removed the yoke and cylinder from the frame, which is a straight forward task that I've done lots of times. After reassembling the yoke and cylinder to the frame I went to the range and it was during this range visit that this situation occurred for the first time. I'm wondering if it's possible this condition somehow could be the result of removing and replacing the yoke and cylinder or if it's just coincidence. Thanks and once again, apologies for the mislead.
S.K.

[Protocall_Design]

This is not due to removing and replacing the cylinder. It has to do with the cylinder stop not stopping the rotation of the cylinder for some reason, or the hand not indexing it all the way. This is the type of thing a good revo smith could fix in 10 minutes. If you were near here I would be happy to look at it for you.

[sdk]

Originally Posted by Toolguy

This is not due to removing and replacing the cylinder. It has to do with the cylinder stop not stopping the rotation of the cylinder for some reason, or the hand not indexing it all the way. This is the type of thing a good revo smith could fix in 10 minutes. If you were near here I would be happy to look at it for you.

I'm in SC but thank you for that reply. I'll probably send it back to S&W. I'm also glad that I took another look at the cylinder because I was about to take it to the range again this afternoon and as we all know, this is not a gun that should be fired in this condition. Thanks again.
S.K.